There is a specific kind of anxiety that every Apple Watch owner knows all too well. It usually strikes around 4:00 PM. You are having a busy day, perhaps you went for a longer run than usual this morning, and you glance down at your wrist to check a notification. There it is: the dreaded red battery icon, or worse, the 10% warning prompt. Suddenly, your focus shifts from closing your Activity Rings to simply praying your watch survives until you get home to a charger.
The Apple Watch is an incredible piece of technology. It tracks our health, keeps us connected, and even unlocks our Macs. However, all those background sensors, bright displays, and constant pings come at a cost. While Apple promises "all-day battery life" (generally rated for 18 hours), power users—or just those of us with older models—often find themselves running on fumes by evening.
The good news is that you don’t have to sacrifice the features you love just to make it through the day. By tweaking a few settings and understanding what actually drains the battery, you can significantly extend your watch's lifespan. Here are the most effective, practical tricks to keep your Apple Watch running as long as you do.
Taming the Display: Brightness and "Always On"
Let’s start with the biggest energy consumer: the screen. The Apple Watch display is gorgeous, vivid, and bright. Unfortunately, lighting up those pixels takes a significant amount of power. If you have a Series 5 or later (excluding the SE), you likely have the "Always On" display feature enabled by default. While it looks sleek to have your watch face visible at all times, it constantly sips battery power.
If you are struggling to make it through the day, turning this feature off is the single most effective change you can make. With "Always On" disabled, the screen goes completely black when you lower your wrist, saving a massive amount of energy.
How to adjust your display settings:
- Open the Settings app on your Apple Watch (or the Watch app on your iPhone).
- Scroll down and tap Display & Brightness.
- Tap Always On and toggle the switch to off.
- While you are in this menu, you can also lower the brightness. Even reducing it from the highest setting to the middle setting can make a difference without impacting readability indoors.
Another often-overlooked setting is the "Wake Duration." When you tap your screen to wake it up, how long does it stay on? For most of us, 15 seconds is plenty of time to check the time or read a text. However, some watches are set to stay awake for 70 seconds, which is unnecessary battery drain.
Pro Tip: Use Theater Mode for a Quick Fix
Heading to a movie or just want to stop your watch from lighting up every time you move your arm? Swipe up from the bottom of your watch face to open the Control Center and tap the "Theater Mode" icon (the two drama masks). This keeps the screen dark even when you raise your wrist and silences sounds. It is excellent for saving battery during long meetings or while you sleep.
Streamline Your Notifications
Every time your wrist buzzes, two things happen: the Taptic Engine (the vibration motor) fires up, and the screen usually lights up as you look to see who is messaging you. If you are in active group chats, receive constant email alerts, or have social media apps notifying you of every "like," your battery is taking a beating.
The key here is to be ruthless with your notifications. Ask yourself: Do I really need to know that Instagram wants me to watch a Reel right this second? Probably not. By limiting notifications to only the essentials—calls, texts, calendar alerts, and maybe your home security—you save battery and, frankly, your sanity.
How to curate your notifications:
- Open the Watch app on your iPhone.
- Tap on Notifications.
- Scroll down to the "Mirror iPhone Alerts From" section.
- Toggle OFF any app that isn't urgent. Leave on the essentials like Messages, Phone, and Mail (if you need it for work).
Beyond just notifications, there is the issue of "Background App Refresh." Just like on your iPhone, apps on your watch run in the background to update content so it's ready when you open them. If you have 30 apps all refreshing in the background, your battery will drain faster than you can close your rings.
Go to Settings > General > Background App Refresh and turn it off entirely, or selectively turn it off for apps you rarely use. You likely don't need the Stocks app or the Calculator refreshing in the background constantly.
Optimize Health and Fitness Settings
One of the primary reasons we wear the Apple Watch is for fitness tracking. However, the heart rate sensor is one of the most power-hungry components on the device. During a workout, the watch checks your heart rate continuously. While this is great for data accuracy, it might be overkill for a casual 45-minute walk.
If you are a serious athlete, you want that data. But if you are just trying to close your rings while walking the dog, you can use the "Power Saving Mode" specifically for workouts. This disables the Always On display and limits cellular data during the workout, and on some models, it reduces the frequency of heart rate readings.
Adjusting workout settings:
- Open the Settings app on your Watch.
- Scroll down to Workout.
- Toggle on Low Power Mode.
Additionally, take a look at the "Start Workout Reminder." This feature constantly monitors your movement to see if you've started running or walking so it can prompt you to record the activity. It is a helpful feature, but it requires the sensors to be on high alert. If you are disciplined about manually starting your workouts, you can turn this off to save a bit of juice.
Did you know?
The color of your Watch Face matters! The Apple Watch uses an OLED screen, which means black pixels are essentially "off" and use no power. Choosing a minimalist watch face with a mostly black background (like the Modular, Numerals, or X-Large faces) uses significantly less energy than a face filled with bright colors or photos.
Manage Connectivity: Walkie-Talkie and Siri
There are a few features that are incredibly cool but are secret battery assassins because they keep the watch in a state of "listening" or "searching."
First is the Walkie-Talkie app. It’s fun to communicate with friends spy-style, but if you have your availability toggled to "on," your watch is constantly maintaining a background connection to see if anyone is trying to reach you. If you aren't actively using it, open the Walkie-Talkie app and toggle your availability to off. Many users have reported a significant boost in battery life just by doing this one thing.
Second is "Hey Siri." By default, your watch is always listening for those two magic words. It is convenient, but it requires microphone processing power. If you don't use Siri often, or if you are comfortable activating Siri by holding down the Digital Crown instead of using your voice, you can turn the listening feature off.
To disable "Hey Siri":
- Go to Settings > Siri.
- Toggle off Listen for "Hey Siri".
- You can also turn off Raise to Speak if you find it activating accidentally.
The "Nuclear" Option: Low Power Mode
Sometimes, tweaking settings isn't enough. Maybe you forgot to charge your watch last night, or you are on a long flight without a charger. Introduced in watchOS 9, Apple finally gave us a true Low Power Mode. This is different from the old "Power Reserve" which turned your smart watch into a dumb digital clock that only showed the time.
Modern Low Power Mode keeps your watch smart but turns off specific battery-draining features. It disables the Always On display, limits background heart rate measurements (so you won't get high/low heart rate notifications), and turns off background blood oxygen measurements. It also turns off Wi-Fi and cellular connections when your iPhone isn't nearby.
When to use it:
You don't need to wait until your battery hits 10% to use this. If you know you have a remarkably long day ahead—say, a wedding that goes from early morning until late at night—turn Low Power Mode on right when you take the watch off the charger. It can effectively double your battery life, easily getting you through 36 hours or more on newer models.
To activate it, simply swipe up to open the Control Center, tap the battery percentage, and toggle Low Power Mode on. You can even choose to turn it on for 1, 2, or 3 days.
Finding Your Balance
Optimizing your Apple Watch battery life is not about turning off every single feature that makes the device great. It is about customization. If you love the Always On display, keep it! But maybe offset that power usage by turning off "Hey Siri" and reducing the number of apps that refresh in the background.
Try applying two or three of these tips over the next few days. You will likely find that you’re no longer looking for a charger at 4:00 PM, and your watch becomes a helpful tool rather than a source of battery anxiety. After all, technology should work for you, not the other way around.