The Apple Watch is a unique device to be sure. Not only does it put a wide array of notifications, updates, and information on your wrist, but it is also an always-on health tracker that is constantly monitoring your movement, checking your heart rate, and keeping track of the intensity of your workouts. In a lot of ways, it is Apple’s most sophisticated gadget yet, and even though it has a bit of a learning curve, it can quickly and easily become an essential part of your life. But just like all complicated electronic devices, it needs to be powered off or reset from time to time. Here’s how you turn off and restart your Apple Watch.
The idea of turning off a watch is an unusual one. After all, they are usually meant to run for weeks, if not years, at a time, with minimal interaction from the user. But the Apple Watch requires daily charging, and gives the wearer far more reasons to interact with it than most other watches. Because of this, power management can sometimes be an issue, and while the Watch has a built-in “Power Reserve” mode, there are times when you may need to turn it off completely.
To shut down your Apple Watch press and hold the side button on the device. After a few seconds, the power down menu will appear, giving you three different options. Those options include a slider to power off the device completely, another to put it into Power Reserve mode, and a third to lock the device. Each of these has its own value depending on the situation, but in this case you simply want to turn your Apple Watch off, which is accomplished by dragging the appropriate slider to the right. You can later power up your Watch by holding the side button once again.
After using my own Apple Watch for several weeks now, I’ve discovered that the watchOS that powers it is a stable and dynamic operating system. In fact, I have yet to experience anything that I would describe as a crash, and my Watch hasn’t ever locked up in any way either. But since this is a modern mobile OS, with lots of complicated code and some fairly sophisticated apps, there is always a potential for things to go awry. It is even possible that the Watch to completely lock-up, turning your expensive and sophisticated timepiece into a frozen computer on your wrist. Fortunately, Apple knew this was a possibility, and has given us the ability to reboot our Watches as needed.
To restart your Apple Watch simply hold down the side button and the digital crown at the same time. After a few seconds have passed, the Apple logo will appear on the screen, and the device will begin its reboot sequence. Once that process has completed, the Watch should begin operating normally again with all of your apps and data still intact.
Both the ability to power off, and reboot, the Apple Watch can come in handy at times and are useful for ensuring that the device is running smoothly. Use them as needed.
Also Read:
Apple Watch has “Power Reserve” Mode to Conserve Battery Life
A Day with Apple Watch
2 thoughts on “How to Turn Off and Restart Your Apple Watch”
Good, clean simple and easy to read comments on the watch faces. However I was really hoping to find information on how to change time zones. I have tried everything I know and failed in this most basic and important function.
I live in UK but currently on holiday in Thailand. My iPhone 6 changed automatically but my watch did not! Do you have any idea why this is the case?
I have tried rebooting the watch (thanks to your instructions!) but even this action failed to change from UK time. I am tempted to change back to my $25 dual time Casio watch that has served me well for almost 10 years. Not a good reference for Apple!
Hi Danny –
I’m not sure why your Apple Watch isn’t adjusting itself automatically to your new timezone, but if you’re just on vacation in Thailand, a relatively simple fix would be to add your Thailand timezone to your clocks on your iPhone and then add a timezone complication on your Apple Watch face.
I have instructions on the process here: https://www.applegazette.com/how-to-2/how-to-change-your-apple-watch-time-zone/
Hope this helps!