Hi guys, I need an advice for my broken Apple Watch. One month ago I jumped to the river for maybe about 20 seconds with my Apple Watch on the wrist (after all the test with pools, swimming in sea that I saw online) and things got ugly... First it wasn’t working at all - black screen for a few days. After drying I was able to turn them on, but the touch screen acted like crazy (like invisible finger was touching) and the heartbeat sensor was heavily humidified. However week after week it was getting better. Sensor was clear again and touchscreen worked. Only battery never “healed”. A few days ago the touchscreen completely stopper working. I don’t have AppleCare but I want to get it replaced anyway. Do you think they will open it and look for water damage sensors (are there any)? I almost got it replaced in NY because of peace of dust under the screen but waiting times for a new one back in June was crazy. Do you have any recommendations? Should I mention the dust under screen, should I say that It was heavy rain instead of river, or not mention water at all? There is no Apple Store in my country so I am going to Germany and I will propably have only one shot at Genius Bar. Thanks
I think loads of people have done this and had the same issue's. I'm pretty certain if you went to an Apple store and said you *washed your hands* with it on, they would replace or fix it! it's water resistant anyways so if it hasn't worked from *washing your hands* if you get the jist, I'm sure they would replace it.
Washed your hands or caught in the rain. I would think the issue is the HR sensor leaking. There have been posts with those just falling off. I would think of it as a defect so your Karma should still be intact. Now if you were actually swimming laps in a pool.. then that wouldn't be cool.
It's a manufacturing defect and will be replaced under the standard warranty. The AW is rated waterproof to 1 meter for 30 minutes, and yours were submerged for only 20 seconds. Some seal was compromised leading to water ingress.
If you "jumped in the river", is likely your watch went more than 1 meter into the water, right? If so, that might explain why it stopped working but seems odd as I'd think the water pressure on something tested for 1 meter for 30 minutes could take a quick dunk down a little below that. Going down 100' or something would be a different issue.
It's probably a preexisting defect. The same could have happened with a simple hand washing in which you get the watch completely wet, especially if the OP doesn't normally get it wet up to that point. We've seen manufacturing defects like the back of the case falling off, and those would surely suffer water ingress had they been subject to water.
The fact that you have dust under the screen tells me there's probably a breach somewhere, and it's defective. If dust can get in, water will certainly get in. I would tell them you were rinsing the crown or something, as per Apple's instructions, just so they don't give you a hard time, but I wouldn't feel guilty about it, because there's a problem somewhere.