Retrofitting original Apple Watch to Series 1

[dejanh]

Anyone have any thoughts around retrofitting their original Watch to Series 1? I have a black stainless steel, and I really don't have a pressing need for water proofing or GPS, but would like to have the new SOC in there. I was considering purchasing the cheapest 42mm Series 1 watch and then replacing the internals of my black stainless steel with it. Thoughts? Anyone done a repair on an Apple Watch? What am I risking?

 

[Just_Me_D]

Nah, I'm content with my current Watch and haven't even given the latest round of Watches any thoughts at all. As for replacing the internals of your current stainless steel Watch with those of the newer version, I recommend you at least view a tear down of the Watch to get an idea of whether or not it's possible.

 

[tech_fan]

I have a SS Apple Watch first version and today I got the Series 2 SS Space Black. It's nice and all but I'm not feeling the upgrade. The performance difference IMO between my old Watch and the new one is not as dramatic as I had thought.

 

[Mac Guy]

I'm looking forward to getting my S2. I'd never consider trying a DIY upgrade for a Watch and after seeing the ifixit video teardown I know I have great instincts. I don't know if the cases are the same or if it's even possible. But unless I see this thread again I'll never give a retrofit another thought. LOL

 

[dejanh]

I have a SS Apple Watch first version and today I got the Series 2 SS Space Black. It's nice and all but I'm not feeling the upgrade. The performance difference IMO between my old Watch and the new one is not as dramatic as I had thought.

Yeah, I went to the Apple store and tried the new watch (exact same as mine, just Series 2). The graphics are marginally smoother, but beyond that all of the performance improvement seems to come from Watch OS 3. I could not discern any difference between the original watch and the new one. I did not test Siri (perhaps for dictation the new CPU makes more difference). The new watch is also substantially thicker than the original, and the original already causes issues with many dress shirts since it gets caught at the cuff. The new one would be even worse. I am not sure it's as much of an upgrade as Apple is making it out to be.

I'm looking forward to getting my S2. I'd never consider trying a DIY upgrade for a Watch and after seeing the ifixit video teardown I know I have great instincts. I don't know if the cases are the same or if it's even possible. But unless I see this thread again I'll never give a retrofit another thought. LOL

I'm used to tearing phones apart and I even repaired the teeny-tiny Apple iPod Nanos in the past, but after watching iFixit teardown of the Watch the issue I see is removing the the S1 SOC sub-assembly requires solder points to be broken. I don't have precision soldering equipment or a setup so this won't work for me. Having said that, the internals of Series 1 would work with the original Watch since the base layout is the same, they just upgraded the SOC.

The upgrade is definitely doable, but I am not sure that I am up for doing it any more.