LG rolling out OTA update to address complaints from G Watch owners about corrosion and skin irritation

Last week, reports started to emerge claiming that the charging contacts on the LG G Watch were causing skin irritation for many users. Dubbed #CorrosionGate, it was clear this issue was going to need to be addressed by LG at some point. Now, the company has started rolling out an OTA update, bumping the software from build number KMV78V to KMV78Y, to address the issue.

The issue comes as a result of galvanic corrosion, which is a fancy way of saying that our sweat paired with the running of an electrical current between two metals causes the corrosion and irritation. The issue of skin irritation was caused by the contrast electrical current between two of the metal charging pins. The update that is currently rolling out to G Watch users simply disables that electrical current when the device is not charging. Though, this won’t help users who have had the actual charging pins corroded.

Google had the following to say to Android Police:

Recently it has come to our attention that a small number of G Watch devices have been reported to have developed discoloration and residue buildup on the terminal pins located on the back. While completely safe and unlikely to affect charging, LG will be rolling out a maintenance release over the next few days that will disable the current when the G Watch is not in the charging dock. The maintenance release will be rolled out automatically over-the-air to all G Watch owners. We thank G Watch users for their patience and apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

The update is rolling out to G Watch units now, so keep an eye out for it.