You can thank the EU that your next wearable won’t get this awesome battery upgrade

Whether you’re using an Apple Watch Series 11, Galaxy Watch 8, or some other smartwatch, it’s very likely you’d welcome having better user experience around its battery. An EU regulation was supposed to offer exactly that, but thanks to a change of heart, that won’t happen anymore.

The EU won’t require removable batteries on smartwatches anymore

The European Commission announced a new set of exemptions to the European Union’s Batteries Regulation that required devices to have user-replaceable batteries. This change adds another six categories of devices that will be exempted from the regulation, including smartwatches and fitness trackers.

The reasons for the exemptions are rather practical and revolve around so-called wet appliances. Those are devices designed to work in environments where they could be splashed or submerged in water or are designed to be washable.

This category previously included electric toothbrushes, but it now includes wearable devices, including heart rate monitors, earbuds, smartwatches, and smart glasses. Outdoor wireless speakers and other electronics embedded into clothing are also part of the new exemptions.

Safety first, repairability a close second

One of the main concerns of the European Commission with the new changes appears to be safety. The exemptions apply when opening a device could compromise its safety, durability, or water resistance. Another reason is when the device is so small that opening it would be impractical due to the design.

On the bright side, manufacturers still need to make these devices easily repairable. Most of the devices, even in the exempted categories, will need to have batteries that can be replaced by an independent professional.

This means that devices like the Apple Watch Series 12 and the upcoming Galaxy Watch 9 and Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 won’t need to have user-replaceable batteries. The changes are also good news for the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses, which haven’t launched in the EU partially due to this regulation.

While the new exemption makes sense, one user on Reddit was pretty critical of how tech companies approach the problem. Comparing the new smartwatches to old-school watches, they said it’d be better to add a few screws and an O-ring than have a 0.5 mm thinner watch.

Still not in force

The changes are still not set in stone and need to clear the scrutiny of the European Parliament and the Council of the EU. Once that’s done, the exemptions will apply 20 days after being published in the Official Journal of the EU.

Just improve the batteries

I don’t want to change the batteries on my devices myself, but I’d love them to be better. Not only to last longer on one charge, but also to have a longer life span, so I can use my devices longer. Once that’s happening, I won’t mind even more exemptions from the EU’s battery rules.

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