Resealing Procedure

Written By: Dominik Schnabelrauch

Comments: 6

Difficulty

Moderate

Steps

Time Required

5 - 10 minutes

Introduction

Use this guide to close and reseal your Apple Watch Series 4 after disassembly.

Tools

Step 1

Remove the blue protective film from the adhesive.
To simplify the removal you can lift and cut the blue protective film at one point. Avoid cutting the force touch gasket.

Step 2

Align the screen and press it down firmly onto the adhesive.
For best results, apply heat from your iOpener, heat gun, or hair dryer to help set the adhesive.
After the screen sits in place apply some pressure for a few hours by wrapping the watch with a couple rubber bands, or placing it under a heavy book or two.

With the removal of force touch as a feature on the Apple Watch, is the final step of this process still applicable? It would be a pity of the removal of this feature causes somebody to think that failed in their repair attempt and disposed of their otherwise functional watch.

Jim McCorison - 27/02/21

Is the adhesive strip just as good as say, B-7000 flexible glue for waterproofing?

Bryan Williams -

Is the adhesive included with the replacement battery, I can not find it in the shop. Also, the step before removing the blue protective film, there must be a step how to apply the tape on the watch, or is that self evident?

Ulfe -

I bought the iFixit batteri and also the adhesive strip, managed to get it all assembled in the end. In my opinion the hardest part of the whole process is to seat the adhesive. It’s all incredibly small, I would recommend a stationary magnifying glass with lamp. After carefully scraping off the old adhesive from the Force Touch sensor (was intact and glued to screen), I positioned the tape with tweezers onto watch body, gradually positioning it on each corner at a time. It’s not done in one go, I spent probably 15-20min to make it fit as evenly as I could. Feels like it requires the steady hands of a heart surgeon.

Hopefully it’s now watertight, Fingers crossed.

William Kempton -