An Apple Watch exploded and sent someone to the hospital

Apple Watch Series 7 with smoke coming out of it
Apple Watch Series 7 with smoke coming out of it (Image credit: 9to5Mac)

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.

Joe Wituschek
Contributor

Joe Wituschek is a Contributor at iMore. With over ten years in the technology industry, one of them being at Apple, Joe now covers the company for the website. In addition to covering breaking news, Joe also writes editorials and reviews for a range of products. He fell in love with Apple products when he got an iPod nano for Christmas almost twenty years ago. Despite being considered a "heavy" user, he has always preferred the consumer-focused products like the MacBook Air, iPad mini, and iPhone 13 mini. He will fight to the death to keep a mini iPhone in the lineup. In his free time, Joe enjoys video games, movies, photography, running, and basically everything outdoors.