Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Lawsuit Claims Swollen Apple Watch Batteries Can Lead to 'Substantial Personal Injury'

MacRumors

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
68,076
38,810


Every generation of the Apple Watch has a battery swelling defect that can cause operational failures and injuries from broken screens, states a new class action lawsuit that has been filed against Apple.

apple-watch-swollen.jpg
An Apple Watch with detached display caused by swollen battery, via Shawn Miller.​

According to the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, Apple has manufactured the watch in a way that allows the lithium cobalt oxide battery to contact the watch screen, and in situations where the battery swells, it can cause the display to pop up.

In situations where the display is damaged by the battery, "razor-sharp edges" are exposed, which can lead to injury.
Despite knowing the battery can suddenly swell, the Complaint alleges that Apple allocated insufficient room inside the Apple Watch for it to freely expand without affecting the screen face and/or failed to incorporate a protective guard to keep it from contacting the screen face.

The swelling creates considerable upward pressure on the Apple Watch face, allegedly causing detachment, shattering, and/or cracking of the screen through no fault of the wearer. When this happens, it exposes razor-sharp edges and leads to operational failure and/or injuries resulting from unintended bodily contact with the detached, shattered, or cracked screen.
Click to expand...
The lawsuit describes a situation where a man named Chris Smith had an Apple Watch Series 3 that saw the screen detach due to the battery swelling three years after the device was originally purchased. He was in a golf cart and reached down from the steering wheel to place it in motion, when the detached screen "severely sliced" the underside of his forearm, cutting a vein. The lawsuit includes images of a deep cut on Smith's arm along with descriptions of other incidents where an Apple Watch display detached from the body but did not result in injury.

All Apple Watch models minus the Apple Watch Series 7 are included in the lawsuit, and it covers Apple Watches of every size and model. The suit claims that the defect poses a "material and unreasonable safety hazard to consumers, and has caused "many purchasers" to suffer from "lacerations, cuts, abrasions, and/or other injuries."

The lawsuit also suggests that Apple is aware that its Apple Watches were defective before it began selling them, and that the company failed to disclose this defect that could lead to harm to the wearer.
Apple uniformly failed to disclose that the Watches contained the Defect that would cause them to fail and render them an unreasonable safety hazard resulting in injury to the wearer. This makes the Watches unmerchantable and unfit for the uses Apple advertised, e.g., activity oriented, fitness, athletic use, health, and safety.
Click to expand...
Plaintiffs in the case are seeking general, special, incidental, statutory, punitive, and consequential damages, as well as the costs for replacing their Apple Watches. The suit also asks that Apple "adequately disclose the defective nature of the Watch" and that attorneys fees and costs be paid.

It's worth noting that this is not the first time that Apple has faced a lawsuit over swollen Apple Watch batteries. Back in 2019, a class action lawsuit targeted the company and accused Apple of fraudulent business practices and breach of warranty, with the case using many of the same arguments in the lawsuit that was filed today.

A judge in the case dismissed several claims in that particular lawsuit, ruling that the Apple Watch defect was not caused by faulty batteries or defective internal components. The judge did allow the lawsuit to proceed based on breach of express warranty, but the plaintiff ultimately dismissed the lawsuit.

Article Link: Lawsuit Claims Swollen Apple Watch Batteries Can Lead to 'Substantial Personal Injury'
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2021/12/09/apple-watch-battery-lawsuit/
I could definitely see it being not great if this happened while wearing the face on the "inside" of your wrist next to all the veins and cords and stuff.
 
Another example of MacRumors reporting news using a formulation that seems intentionally inflammatory (to create more debate here in the forum thread, and thus more viewers of the irritating ads interspersed with our posts?):
?

Compare (as originally posted):

Every generation of the Apple Watch has a battery swelling defect that can cause operational failures and injuries from broken screens, states a new class action lawsuit that has been filed against Apple.


With (a simple switch to the sentence construction):

A new class action lawsuit that has been filed against Apple states that "every generation of the Apple Watch has a battery swelling defect that can cause operational failures and injuries from broken screens".
 
  • Like
  • Love
  • Haha
Reactions: kurai, BugeyeSTI, Gasu E. and 35 others
reminds me of the time when Fitbit came out and people were getting chemical burns from the charging port. I had it too. The company said I was allergic to nickel and put out warnings about it. I let my arm heal and I put electrical tape daily over the charging port and no problems, but the day I removed the tape bingo, issues.

I am guessing that the manufacturer of those batteries are a big part of the problem, Apple needs to change companies.
 
  • Like
Reactions: amartinez1660
Maybe they’ve gotten better with this. My wife’s Series 0 had this issue and we were able to get it replaced under warranty with a Series 1. Few years later (a few months ago) the same thing happened to that one. Considered the $80 battery replacement to get it fixed but at this point, just replaced with an SE.

But she never cut herself on it. I’d be more worried about it starting on fire than that.
 
  • Like
Reactions: arlomedia, Shirasaki, amartinez1660 and 4 others
Oh man. The screens are designed to pop open like this if the battery swells, because the alternative is, you know, the watch exploding.

There is no better solution for this. Leaving "more room" just means it happens later.

Yeah, the guy was really, really unlucky. But it's like an airbag going off in your face. There's a slim chance it makes things worse, but overall, it protects a lot of people.
 
  • Like
Reactions: CharlesJ42, rmariboe, amartinez1660 and 6 others
Not really fanboying apple here. The construction of a watch with glue to hold the screen in, it IS rather bad design not gonna lie.

The screen on my 3+ year old apple watch popped off during an exercise session. I found the screen thankfully. And was able to buy the parts to fix it (fixed the crappy battery too)

What failed was the glue. It simply just popped off.


So I guess the apple watch really isn`t a quality timepiece built to last, and I was frankly surprised that a mere 3 years in it breaks. ALSO the battery... it was loosing juice so fast it was basically useless. I looked at the battery, it wasn`t deformed or swelling so def the glue.
 
Last edited:
  • Disagree
  • Like
Reactions: lkrupp, BugeyeSTI, arlomedia and 1 other person
julesme said:
So out of a 100 million install base, 1 guy in a golf cart suffered an injury? Doesn't seem very widespread (at least the injury part).

As for the battery swelling, I don't have enough info. to make a judgment.
Click to expand...
Its only those that were involved in this lawsuit. More have had issues, but whether its widespread can't be figured out by this lawsuit, and frankly isn't the point. Its to get the person bringing the lawsuit and their lawyers a lot of money.
 
foobarbaz said:
Oh man. The screens are designed to pop open like this if the battery swells, because the alternative is, you know, the watch exploding.

There is no better solution for this. Leaving "more room" just means it happens later.

Yeah, the guy was really, really unlucky. But it's like an airbag going off in your face. There's a slim chance it makes things worse, but overall, it protects a lot of people.
Click to expand...
They weren't designed for that purpose. That's just how the screen is assembled. The inners are put in and then the screen it stuck on.
 
  • Like
  • Haha
Reactions: SFjohn, NoGood@Usernames and Robert.Walter
StuBeck said:
Its only those that were involved in this lawsuit. More have had issues, but whether its widespread can't be figured out by this lawsuit, and frankly isn't the point. Its to get the person bringing the lawsuit and their lawyers a lot of money.
Click to expand...

"Whether it's widespread can't be figured out by this lawsuit"

The attorneys are incentivized to figure out how widespread it is via the class-action lawsuit. The more widespread the issue, the more plaintiffs can be joined to the suit, and the larger the monetary judgment (for plaintiffs and attorneys).
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Captain Trips
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back