⟐ Commented August 15, 2026 at 7:55 MST

Before you answer, please, take a look at these pictures.

I recently replaced the battery on my S6 Apple Watch LTE following one of the repair guides here.

Everything ok, the watch is working fine.

However! Upon reassembly, I found that brownish/reddish film both on the case, and on the display. On the display side, it was already partially unglued.

So I thought: ook, maybe it's just another adhesive strip I need to peel off... Which I did. I removed both strips from the case and from the display. And replaced everything with only one adhesive strip, the one that came with the battery replacement kit.

Something like this.

So, it was a seal on the display with a brownish/reddish film on top of it, an identical one on the case (you can see it in the picture above), and some glue (the transparent one you can see in the pictures) in between them. Well, it was the same glue on all of them, but yeah.
So:
Seal on the display
Seal on the case
Glue in between the two
And glue under each brown strip.

Now, aside from the fact that the display didn't stick and constantly pops up of the frame, when putting back everything, I noticed the display was sitting a tiny little bit under the edge of the frame. It made kind of a lip of some sort. It's not noticeable unless you look really close, or if you run your finger over it.

Other than that, everything works fine, as far as I can tell.

However, now I wonder:

1. 1. should I have removed those strips (they felt a bit harder to remove, but I just thought it's probably just a harder glue to remove)?
   
   Funny enough, before removing those strips, I asked Google about it, and the first answer was: don't remove it, that's a 3D Touch Sensor. And I was like: what 3D Touch Sensor? Series 6 doesn't have that! And of course, it said: you're right, my bad. So I removed it, and now I'm confused.
2. 2. is there a 3D Touch/Force Touch sensor on the Series 6?! Cause, as far as I know, there isn't!
   
3. And if so, then what the hell are these sellers sell on sites like AliExpress (here), as "3D Force Touch Sensor Gasket For Apple Watch Series 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 SE Gravity Induction Sense Coil Flex Cable 38mm 40mm 42mm 44mm"?
   
4. For Series 1-5, yes, there is a 3D Touch sensor. But with Series 6, as far as I know, there is no such thing. So...what the hell is that?! A wireless sensor? There is no connection to the motherboard! How would that even work? Is it just a simple waterproof gasket....?
   The replacement they're selling seems to be similar to the thing I removed. So I'm thinking it's probably a multi-layer kind of sealant (is it?).

1. 3. do I need that? If so, is that supposed to replace the regular adhesive strip? Do I need to add both? I'm so confused!

What's even more confusing is that the guide I followed didn't seem to have any of that neither on the display side, nor the case side. So I thought: ok, he might have removed it. So here I am, removing it as well and cleaning everything up so that the new seal can properly adhere to the watch.

Can anyone, please, tell me what the hell is going on? Cause I'm completely lost at this point.

EDIT:
Apparently, there are different kinds of adhesive strips. And yes, as far as I can tell from this video here, that is supposed to be a lot thicker than what I got.

EDIT2:

See the Solution.

⟐ Answer edited August 06, 2026 at 0:06 MST

Thanks!

⟐ Answer edited July 18, 2026 at 3:14 MST

⟐ Commented May 27, 2026 at 15:32 MST

⟐ Commented March 20, 2026 at 11:17 MST

⟐ Answered January 21, 2026 at 17:35 MST

Is there anything I can do to get the watch to display the actual power level or am I stuck with this?

⟐ Commented January 13, 2026 at 15:42 MST

The watch is currently taken apart to replace the display flex cable, but this is a photo of where it disconnected.

⟐ Commented January 03, 2026 at 2:47 MST

⟐ Answer edited November 26, 2025 at 10:25 MST

At Christmas, our employer gave gift and one of them was an apple watch 6. The employé who won it, kept it to give as a gift later.

Unfortunately, it's not working, it's now too late to return and apple was asking 400$ to send for repair. (Rip off), so at work they were like never mind.

I took it to see if I can repair and then give back as a gift for one of my employee if possible.

The watch doesn't turn on at all.

I let it on charge for over a day without success. Unfortunately, I don't have other cable to testthat component but I have wireless phone charger. May be?

I suspect the battery is dead but does that make sense?

I also see a tiny crack where the charging and sensors are. Could that be the issue?

What do you think? I am uploading a picture, it's difficult because of the reflection.

⟐ Commented July 18, 2025 at 19:36 MST

⟐ Answered April 19, 2025 at 4:47 MST

⟐ Answered March 21, 2025 at 13:10 MST

⟐ Commented February 18, 2025 at 0:56 MST

thank you so much for replying instantly, i did not expect that.

https://imgur.com/a/TsCSPdC here is the link to what got removed. I already tried putting it back glueing with B7000 the black underside part of the gold notch.

For context, my watch got damaged by water - stuck in bootloop for weeks. A repair shop said it is a faulty board and they'll try fixing it in exchange for a big amount of money.

I then submerged the watch in 99% alcohol like 5 times until it turned on again. Everything is working fine perfect. and used it for 2 weeks.

However, I'm trying to remove the old adhesive to prepare reapplying adhesive, then the gold notch got removed. After that, the sensors do not work and my wrist is not detected

⟐ Answer edited October 24, 2024 at 12:08 MST

The blood sensors on my Apple watch series 6 LTE suddenly decided to die.

No visible lights come from the sensors, none of the measurements work.

I did several shutdowns, force-restarts, hard-resets, let battery die and recharge, nothing changed.

The rest of the watch function is not effected.

I am perfectly able to do the repair the common way (open the whole watch and replace the entire back with the sensors), but i would prefer not to, as the repair is always messy, and always leaves the watch "scared" inside.

Can the sensor assembly alone be unglued from the back of an Apple watch with some heat and some isopropyl alcohol?

A picture from the net as an example:

After that it's just connecting a single connector and gluing it back.

⟐ Commented October 23, 2024 at 10:20 MST

At this point I took it to Apple , and they basically said we can send it back for repairs, but it’s gonna cost me an arm and a leg. So I’m trying to see if I can fix it myself otherwise it’s just a piece of junk.

I removed the screen to try to see if there was any corrosion or evidence of water damage and I couldn’t find anything. But I did notice when I remove the screen that some lines on the screen itself, which makes me think that it did take the charge at least.

Any thoughts on what’s happening or how I can go about fixing it or even figuring out what’s wrong with it in the first place I can’t tell if it’s a board issue, battery issue, or screen issue.

I did whatever it need to fix it such as hard rest or update and....

with screen monitoring I can access to my apple watch via my iPhone and the touch is working too!

and sometimes suddenly screen start working and sometimes turn off again!

what should I do??????

⟐ Commented June 21, 2024 at 19:18 MST

I replaced the battery on my series 6 40mm watch and now there are two bright white lines through the screen. Did I damage the wiring harness or the display unit?

⟐ Edited by author January 04, 2024 at 12:15 MST

I engaged Apple Support via online Chat agent. Since there is no display capability, The agent requested to Reset the Watch using iPhone Watch app. This was hoped to return the Watch to original factory settings. The remote reset was completed, which unpaired the Watch from my iPhone.

But now, the Watch is signaling nearby iPhones it is available to Pair. However, it cannot pair since it cannot display anything not even Apple logo, nothing.

I want to turn it off, or force a power off, but How? Every instruction I find has some step referring to touch controls appearing on the watch face/screen. That can’t work with a dead display

⟐ Edited by author December 29, 2023 at 7:38 MST