Someone's Apple Watch decided to go full Galaxy Note.
As reported by 9to5Mac, one Apple Watch Series 7 noticed that their watch seemed to feel hotter than usual. When they took a closer look, they noticed that the back of the watch had cracked and the screen was showing the warning that the it needed to shut down due to the temperature.
After contacting Apple Support and being told not to touch the watch, things took a turn for the worse the next day:
The following morning, however, the situation escalated even further. The Apple Watch user woke up to find the Apple Watch even hotter to the touch and the heat had shattered the device’s display.
When the user picked up the Apple Watch to take pictures to send to Apple, it started to immediately make “crackling sounds.” It then “exploded” just as he was throwing it out the window. The watch left burn marks on the user’s couch. He also ended up visiting the emergency room because of lead poisoning concerns, but it’s important to remember the Apple Watch does not actually contain nearly enough lead to actually cause poisoning. He was simply concerned about it.
The user filmed the watch as it began smoking before they threw it out of the window. You can watch the video on YouTube below:
These stories are pretty rare for Apple
According to the person who experienced the issue, Apple picked up their watch to take it in for testing to uncover the underlying issue. They apparently also asked them to sign a document forbidding them to share the story with anyone, but they declined to do so.
You rarely hear about Apple products having these kinds of overheating issues where a product actually catches on fire, smokes, or explodes. This story takes me back to when the Samsung Galaxy Note's overheating issue was so bad that it was banned from flights.
Thankfully, these issues with Apple's products tend to be quite rare. However, even one is too many, so it's good to see that the company is taking in the watch in question to figure out what happened here. Hopefully, that will lead to an answer that ensures this doesn't happen to anyone else.
