How to Turn On, Wake, and Turn Off Your Apple Watch.
Restarting can often fix a misbehaving Apple Watch. While watchOS doesn’t have many bugs, you may need to reset your smartwatch every few months if you experience any issues with the software.
In this guide, we’ll show you how to turn on, wake up, and turn off your Apple Watch.
How to Turn On Your Apple Watch
Starting your Apple Watch is independent of a paired iPhone or other Apple devices. The watch does not turn off or restart according to the iOS device. You will have to manually turn on your Apple Watch when you want to use it. It’s also worth remembering that you can’t connect an Apple Watch to a Mac or iPad.
To turn on your Apple Watch, press and hold the side button below the Digital Crown. You can release the side button when you see the Apple logo on the Apple Watch display. Your Apple Watch will now start up.
The same method also works if your Apple Watch is in Power Reserve mode, a battery saving feature. Press and hold the side button to wake up the watch and take it out of power reserve mode.
Remember that you can’t restart your Apple Watch while it’s charging. You will have to remove the watch from the charger to turn it on. If you are installing a software update on your Apple Watch, we recommend that you leave the watch on the charging stand until the software update is complete.
If that doesn’t work, your Apple Watch might be dead. You can put the watch on the charger and wait a couple of minutes. The Apple logo should appear on the Apple Watch screen, and your watch will soon turn on. Keep in mind that you won’t be able to use your Apple Watch until you enter its passcode.
If you find it difficult to press and hold the side button, you can change the orientation of your Apple Watch. You can take your Apple Watch off, flip it over so the side button is easier to press, and put it back on. After that, open the Watch app on your iPhone and navigate to the My Watch tab.
Go to General > Watch Orientation in your Apple Watch settings and change it to the one you want.
How to Wake Your Apple Watch
If your Apple Watch display is off, there are several ways to wake it up. The easiest way is to touch the screen once and the display will turn on by itself. If you have an Apple Watch Series 5, Series 6, or Series 7, your smartwatch may have an Always On Display feature.
If this feature is enabled, you may notice a drop in battery life, but your Apple Watch display will always be on.
You can also enable the option to wake the Apple Watch screen when you raise your wrist. To do this, open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone, go to the My Watch > Display & Brightness tab, and turn on Turn on when you raise your wrist.
On the same page, turn on the “Wake When Head Up” feature, which will allow you to use your Digital Crown to wake up your Apple Watch display. When the display is off, you can slowly rotate the Digital Crown to look at the screen and then rotate it back to turn off the display.
This method is especially effective if you want to check the time in a dark place, such as a movie theater, without disturbing others.
If your Apple Watch display won’t wake up, check to see if you accidentally turned on a DND (Do Not Disturb) mode, such as theater mode. On your Apple Watch, go to any watch face and swipe up from the bottom of the screen.
This will open the Control Center. Make sure Do Not Disturb is turned off. Tap the crescent moon or bed icon and turn it off if it’s enabled. You should also check if the theatrical mask icon is enabled. This is your watch’s cinematic mode (also known as theater mode) that prevents the display from waking up when you raise your wrist or receive notifications.
You can also customize the Control Center to prioritize your most used shortcuts.
How to Turn Off Your Apple Watch
To turn off your Apple Watch, you can press and hold the side button until the power off slider appears. Swipe right on the Power Off button and your wearable will turn off. Unfortunately, you can’t use Siri to turn off your Apple Watch.
If you want to force restart an unresponsive Apple Watch, you can hold the Digital Crown and Side button for 10 seconds until the Apple logo appears.
Finally, if restarting your Apple Watch doesn’t fix the problem, you can also try restarting your paired iPhone. If you have one of the Apple smartphones with Face ID, press and hold the side button and the volume up button at the same time until the power off slider appears. Swipe right on the power slider to turn it off, then hold the side button to restart your device.
On an iPhone without Face ID, you can press and hold the top or side button and follow the same steps as above.
Make the Most of Your Apple Watch
Now that your Apple Watch is working properly again, you should make the most of it. Check out our guide to the best Apple Watch apps to learn more about your favorite smartwatches.
How to Turn On, Wake, and Turn Off Your Apple Watch
How to Turn On, Wake, and Turn Off Your Apple Watch