Moto 360 v1 Battery Replacement

I love my Moto 360. I don’t care that it’s several years old. I don’t care that it’s still running the REALLY ancient TI OMAP processor. I especially don’t care that it did not get upgraded to Android Wear 2.x and all the problems v2 owners reported after that change. It’s a watch, it connects to my phone, it gives me notifications at a glance without looking at my phone, it tracks my walking, and I can even use it to send texts and dial calls with my voice, if I’m so inclined.

But the battery, after a few faithful years of service, was starting to go south. I couldn’t make it through half a day, and then only if I went to the extreme measure of leaving it in theatre mode … which pretty much made it useless.

Having nothing to lose, and lacking the several hundred dollars it would cost to buy a new Android Wear watch, I went to eBay in search of a replacement battery. And I found one for $21CAD!

I took to YouTube, trying to find a teardown video. I found a couple that seemed pretty complete. The one that I followed is here. As I noted in a reply to a comment, instead of a guitar pick, I used a 0.005″ metal feeler gauge to get between the back and the case to slide out the pins. (Pictured below.) A little Tac’N Stik on my desk helped keep the pins organized while I was working too.

Beginning to end, including stopping for a few photos, I had it apart, battery changed, reassembled, and on the charger in about 35 minutes. The surgery was a success, and I’m back to getting my old average of 18-27 hours, with 10 to 30% left, depending on use.

All it really took was that feeler gauge, some tweezers, an old credit card for leverage to get parts separated (like the battery from the adhesive), and a willingness to sacrifice the watch should it go horribly wrong.

Here are some pics from the process.