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This teardown is not a repair guide. To repair your Motorola Moto 360, use our service manual.

  1. Motorola Moto 360 Teardown, Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 1, image 1 of 3 Motorola Moto 360 Teardown, Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 1, image 2 of 3 Motorola Moto 360 Teardown, Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 1, image 3 of 3
    • Please welcome the Motorola Moto 360 to the grandest teardown stage of 'em all: ours.

    • Tech specs:

    • TI OMAP 3 processor

    • 4 GB internal storage + 512 MB RAM

    • 1.56" backlit LCD display with a resolution of 320 x 290 (205 ppi)

    • Bluetooth 4.0 LE

    • Pedometer + optical heart rate monitor + ambient light sensor

    • Vibrator motor + dual microphones

  2. Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 2, image 1 of 2 Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 2, image 2 of 2
    • We at iFixit appreciate fine craftsmanship. The Moto 360 has some of the finest external craftsmanship we've ever seen on a smartwatch, featuring actual stitching and a Horween Leather wristband.

    • The backside of the Moto 360 is marked with technical specifications in fun holographic text.

    • The Moto 360 is built with corrosion-resistant Grade 316L Stainless Steel and is IP67 water resistant.

    • An IP67 rating means it is protected against immersion in up to a meter of water for 30 minutes.

  3. Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 3, image 1 of 2 Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 3, image 2 of 2
    • The Moto 360 is the first Android Wear smartwatch to ditch physical charging ports in favor of inductive charging.

    • This means that you can use any Qi charger that you might have lying around, as long as you can get the coils to line up correctly.

    • It's been reported to use the official Motorola Moto 360 wireless charger that comes inside the box for best consistency, using 3rd party chargers only in a pinch.

    • The lack of a physical port means that debugging will have to happen over Bluetooth. Thankfully, Google has provided documentation for such a feature.

    • Stay tuned, we'll be diving into the charging dock a bit later.

  4. Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 4, image 1 of 2 Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 4, image 2 of 2
    Tool used on this step:
    Tweezers
    $4.99
    Buy
    • Motorola claims that the Moto 360 should fit any standard 22 mm wristband.

    • That said, the included instructions tell us replacing the band, or adjusting a metal band requires "specialized tools" and the skills of a jeweler. We had no trouble with our trusty tweezers.

    • AnandTech reports that "New RF techniques were also used to make custom metal wristbands that don’t interfere with the antennas of the watch itself", implying that third-party metal wristbands may cause interference.

    • Looks like users hoping for a classy metal band will have to wait for the official fall release, or risk spotty connectivity.

  5. Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 5, image 1 of 3 Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 5, image 2 of 3 Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 5, image 3 of 3
    • The adhesive in the Moto 360 is proving to be a real challenge, so we heat. We heat again. And finally, we heat some more.

    • Just one more win for our champ, the iOpener.

    • The Moto 360 is living up to its IP67 standard. Even getting the plastic rear cover off is a huge pain—hopefully meaning you can rest assured that dust and water are staying out.

    • Even though we were careful when prying with an opening pick to separate the rear cover, we managed to crack the cover right down the middle. Looks like we just lost our IP67 standard.

  6. Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 6, image 1 of 2 Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 6, image 2 of 2
    • With the rear cover removed, we get our first look at the photoplethysmogram (PPG) heart rate sensor.

    • A PPG is generated by shining light onto your skin and measuring the reflected light, tracking blood flow and therefore your pulse.

    • There are several markings as well:

    • FCC ID: IHDT6QC1

    • Anatel ID: 1510-14-0711

    • Anatel is a Brazilian government telecommunications agency that approves devices for marketing and sale in Brazil.

  7. Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 7, image 1 of 3 Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 7, image 2 of 3 Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 7, image 3 of 3
    Tool used on this step:
    Jimmy
    $7.95
    Buy
    • The Moto 360's innards are sealed in tight. No easy point of entry and a rubber o-ring waterproof this oyster, but make it extra difficult to open.

    • We suspect Motorola has a special tool for this job. For the rest of us, there's the Jimmy.

    • Instead of a pearl, we find a round motherboard squeezed into the inner enclosure. A couple of data cables run to the front panel connecting the two halves.

    • Disconnecting the LCD and digitizer cables frees the halves for more exploration.

  8. Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 8, image 1 of 2 Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 8, image 2 of 2
    • Any good water resistant watch will have some fancy seals. Our Moto 360 is no different, and it keeps water away from its innards with a colorful rubber o-ring.

    • The o-ring is essentially a fancy rubber band. But for technical purposes, we will refer to it as a fancy rubber o-ring. After all, we are professionals.

  9. Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 9, image 1 of 3 Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 9, image 2 of 3 Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 9, image 3 of 3
    • A bit of prying frees the motherboard assembly from the rear housing.

    • A brassy semicircular ring surrounds the inner housing, providing a ground connection between the motherboard and outer bezel.

    • If you take a close look at the motherboard assembly, you'll notice five spring contact pads that line up with openings through the rear housing—perhaps an access point for programming, testing, or hardware hackers.

    • (Just peel up the FCC sticker under your watch band, without disassembling your Moto 360, to access these pins).

  10. Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 10, image 1 of 2 Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 10, image 2 of 2
    • Motorola has graciously included a pull tab to ease removing the Moto 360's battery. Considering the work it took to get here, it feels like a bit of a joke—sort of like handicap-accessible bathrooms on the second level of a store that has no elevator.

    • Talk around the water cooler is that the Moto 360 suffers from an abysmal battery life.

    • Let's compare its battery capacity with its competitors, the Samsung Gear Live and the LG G Watch:

    • Motorola Moto 360: 3.8 V, 300 mAh battery rated at 1.1 Wh of energy.

    • Samsung Gear Live: 3.8 V, 300 mAh battery rated at 1.14 Wh of energy.

    • LG G Watch: 3.8 V, 400 mAh battery rated at 1.5 Wh of energy.

  11. Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 11, image 1 of 1
    • There's something afoot, because Motorola has marketed the Moto 360 as having a 320 mAh capacity battery, but the battery is clearly marked as 300 mAh.

    • Update: Ars got a response from Motorola: "For Moto 360 we only had room for one figure and choose to list the minimal capacity of the battery. We see how this can be confusing and we will look into ways to add the typical capacity as well in the future."

  12. Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 12, image 1 of 2 Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 12, image 2 of 2
    • After peeling off a (seemingly nondescript) backing sticker, we find a shiny inductive charging coil.

    • The Moto 360 is the first Android Wear smartwatch to feature inductive charging. Previous Android Wear smartwatches like the Samsung Gear Live and the LG G Watch featured metal charging contacts.

    • Inductive charging works by passing an alternating current through a transmitter coil (charging dock), which creates a magnetic field. This magnetic field then induces a voltage in the receiver coil (pictured here), which charges the battery.

    • Let's play "Is it Magnetic?". The rules are pretty much self-explanatory.

    • Would you look at that, it's magnetic. We suspect that the charging coil's sticker backing works like a transformer core, made of up ferrous material that "serves to greatly reduce the magnetizing current and confine the flux to a path which closely couples the windings."

    • Tl;DR: we're thinking this sticker improves the inductive charging efficiency.

    • David clears things up for us:

    • "It is most likely a shielding for the main circuit board. When you are focusing a lot of energy through space, you cannot guarantee it will all end up on the receiver coil. Therefore you will need a shield to absorb any stray energy. Just think, if a wire just happens to be the perfect shape to receive energy, it will likely cook the circuit."

  13. Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 14, image 1 of 1
    • We finally find what's inside the Moto 360's delicious filling—lots of ICs:

    • Texas Instruments TMS320C5545 Fixed-Point Digital Signal Processor

    • Micron Technology MT46H128M32L2KQ-5 IT (labeled as 2SB28 D9QRM) 4 Gb (512 MB) Mobile LPDDR

    • Toshiba THGBMAG5A1JBAIT 4 GB e-MMC NAND Flash

    • Texas Instruments 1211A1 USB 2.0 PHY Transceiver

    • Atmel MXT112S Capacitive Touchscreen Controller

    • Texas Instruments AFE4490 Integrated Analog Front-End for Pulse Oximeters

  14. Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 15, image 1 of 1
    • Layered underneath the Micron RAM we found a Texas Instruments X3630ACBP (OMAP3630) OMAP 3 Applications Processor.

    • We were a little...unimpressed by Motorola's pick.

    • This is the same processor found in the Motorola Droid 2, and the MOTOACTV, Motorola's first smartwatch—2010 and 2011 tech.

  15. Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 16, image 1 of 2 Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 16, image 2 of 2
    • The list of ICs continues:

    • Wolfson Microelectronics WM7121 Top Port Analogue Silicon Microphone

    • Texas Instruments TPS659120 PMU for Processor Power

    • Texas Instruments BQ51051B Integrated Wireless Power Li-ion Charger Receiver

    • Texas Instruments WiLink WL1831 Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Module

    • Wolfson Microelectronics WM7132 MEMS Microphones Bottom Port Analogue Silicon Microphone

    • Solomon Systech SSD2848K1 MIPI Display Interface Controller

    • On the flipside: an InvenSense MPU-6051 Six-Axis (Gyro + Accelerometer) MEMS Motion Tracking Device

  16. Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 17, image 1 of 3 Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 17, image 2 of 3 Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 17, image 3 of 3
    • We're back to heating and prying as we work to free the LCD.

    • Just like before, it took a significant amount of heat to coax this LCD out of its ring.

    • This isn't the special round OLED display little birds were telling us about. We're guessing this difference probably has more to do with price than design. After all, round displays are not exactly dime-a-dozen.

    • All this ring-around-the-rosie reminds us of a another round gizmo.

  17. Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 18, image 1 of 2 Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 18, image 2 of 2
    • After being freed from the rest of the watch, the display assembly is laid out in all its glory.

    • We can't help but notice that it looks just like the USS Enterprise, if it were missing a nacelle that is.

    • The Moto 360 is the first Android Wear smartwatch to feature an ambient light sensor (for an auto-dimming screen). To save space, Motorola built the sensor into the display assembly, which explains the black bar found on the bottom of the display.

  18. Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 19, image 1 of 3 Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 19, image 2 of 3 Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 19, image 3 of 3
    • What secrets could the Moto 360's charging dock hold? Let's find out!

    • With Jimmy in hand, we remove the charging dock's circular, rubber foot with ease.

    • With a little help from our Pro Tech Screwdriver Set, we remove four T5 screws that stand between us and inductive charging goodness.

  19. Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 20, image 1 of 3 Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 20, image 2 of 3 Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 20, image 3 of 3
    Tool used on this step:
    Spudger
    $2.99
    Buy
    • We were surprised to find that the charging dock has a decent amount of heft to it.

    • The dock's internal assembly is secured by a single clip, which is easily dispatched with the flick of a spudger.

    • The main event is an insulated inductive charging coil soldered to the charging dock's motherboard.

    • Just like the watch's charging coil sticker, this coil's gray backplate is ferrous.

  20. Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 21, image 1 of 1
    • More ICs await us on the charging dock's motherboard:

    • Texas Instruments BQ500212A Qi Compliant 5 V Wireless Power Transmitter Manager

    • Texas Instruments CSD97376Q4M Synchronous Buck NexFET Power Stage

  21. Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 22, image 1 of 2 Motorola Moto 360 Teardown: step 22, image 2 of 2
    • Motorola Moto 360 Repairability Score: 3 out of 10 (10 is easiest to repair).

    • Watch band is a standard size and easily replaceable (with small enough tweezers).

    • Heat and careful prying is required to remove the rear panel—and then even more prying to pull out the inner housing. It is very difficult to open the device without compromising its waterproof seals.

    • The battery is trapped deep within the device, within the inner housing. Nearly complete disassembly is required to replace.

    • The display does require complete disassembly to replace, as it is removed from the back of the main bezel.

Geoff Wacker

Member since: 09/30/13

89,828 Reputation

89 Guides authored

34 Comments

Man, I was really hoping that the pics included a scale. I'm trying to track down the length of the band and the watch itself to see if i'm going to need a longer one.

Jason Stanton - Reply

If the battery were round, it could be about 1.57 times larger than the square battery in terms of area. Let's assume the 12 hour battery life that's been reported is accurate. That means with a circular battery you could expect just shy of 19 hours of battery life.

Kyle Krcmaric - Reply

if you look at the disassembly the battery fit at all direction beacuse of other soldering and capacitor is in the way, why which they produce their own batteries interfere with battery life?

-Snuggles -

Thank you for this. Both your disassembly and Moto's engineers' packaging are impressive.

Wish list for developing your incredible piece:

Profile pics of the motherboard and the screen, to get a perspective of the thickness.

Is the ring shaped case aluminum (which it seems to say when checking it out in online store descriptions) or stainless?

A BoM estimate would be fantastic.

gadgety - Reply

In step 15, the IC you have outlined in green is likely a TI WiLink WL1831MOD transceiver: http://www.ti.com/product/wl1831mod

bbasile - Reply

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