Aberystwyth man wins Apple Watch warranty court battle Published duration 2 February 2016

image copyright SWNS.com

A man from Ceredigion has successfully sued Apple after his watch broke.

Gareth Cross, 32, from Aberystwyth, paid £339 last July for his Apple Watch Sport, but spotted a crack in the glass face 10 days later.

The technology giant said work to fix the watch was not covered by warranty, despite its official claim it was scratch-resistant.

Mr Cross won a case against the company for breach of the Sale of Goods Act. Apple has been asked to comment.

He took the company to the small claims court in Aberystwyth and after a six-month fight, the company was ordered to refund the cost of the watch and pay £429 costs.

image copyright SWNS.com

Mr Cross said: "I went for the sport version because I am prone to knocking things about a bit and it said it was impact resistant.

"I hadn't even been doing anything strenuous, just sitting around watching TV. When I got to work the hairline crack had got bigger and bigger so I called Apple up to get it repaired."

Mr Cross told the BBC the case did begin to become stressful.

"I couldn't understand why they would want to go to court over the issue, but ultimately I wanted [to] stand by my consumer rights," he said.

"The case did start to become a little stressful, especially toward the end with the prospect of having to attend court to defend my claim against what was the most valuable company in the world."

Mr Cross added he had been relieved when the judge ruled Apple had breached the contract of sale by refusing to fix the watch.

"I plan to buy another Apple Watch, as for the 10 days I had it, I really liked it," said Mr Cross, "but I may wait until the next model is out."