https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/App...al&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Quite an interesting exploration of its guts, the part that concerns me is the sheer number of small fragile gaskets that give it water resistance in a watch that isn't going to see regular seal changes like a Swiss mechanical might.

Looks like a crystal seal, caseback seal, digital crown seal, button seal, diagnostic port seal, speaker seal and mic seal with most of them being square-ish or odd-shaped rather than round and many are adhesive like the crystal seal which also holds the crystal onto the watch.

 

1) I think so, it replaces my Luminox as my quartz work-out / walking / errands / daggy wear watch and I really have no love for the Luminox, I bought it as a cheap quartz that was destroyable, I thought being tritium tube rather than luminova would make it "interesting" enough for me to like it, turns out I was wrong, its just crummier lume than luminova.

2) Probably not, as there's a lot to indicate I wouldn't be missing much by sticking to the old one. Its not as though when the new one comes out the old one suddenly ceases to function, as long as bluetooth exists, Apple can support watches indefinitely.

Given BT is already 21 years old and has no obvious replacement and universal support its likely not going anywhere, Apple's clearly gearing up for long term parts availability and support including pricing for both a battery service and re-seal ~$79 and a full overhaul $229 for Apple Watch Sport / $329 for Apple Watch in Steel.

 

No worries, you can get the 2016 kinetic quartz model.