We have all been there. It’s 7:00 PM, you are just finishing up dinner or getting ready for an evening workout, and you feel that dreaded double-tap on your wrist. You look down to see the red icon indicating you have 10% battery remaining. For a device designed to track your sleep and act as your silent assistant throughout the day, running out of juice before you even hit the pillow is incredibly frustrating.
While the Apple Watch is a marvel of engineering—packing a phone, a doctor, and a fitness coach into a tiny square of glass and aluminum—it is still bound by the laws of physics. The battery is small, and the demands we place on it are high. Apple generally rates the standard Apple Watch battery for "all-day" use (roughly 18 hours), but heavy usage, GPS workouts, and constant notifications can drain that much faster.
The good news? You don’t need to upgrade to the Apple Watch Ultra to get through the day (and night) comfortably. By adjusting a few settings and understanding what actually drains your power, you can significantly extend your watch's longevity. Here are the most effective, simple tweaks to keep your watch running longer.
1. Tame the "Always On" Display
If you have an Apple Watch Series 5 or newer (excluding the SE models), you likely have the "Always On" display feature. It looks fantastic, allowing you to glance at the time without raising your wrist. However, it is arguably the single biggest drain on your battery life. The screen has to stay illuminated, albeit at a lower refresh rate, constantly.
If you are struggling to make it through the day, turning this off is your first line of defense. You might be surprised at how quickly you get used to the screen being off when you aren't looking at it.
- Open the Settings app on your Apple Watch.
- Scroll down and tap Display & Brightness.
- Tap Always On.
- Toggle the switch to Off.
If you love the Always On feature too much to let it go completely, consider lowering the brightness instead. In that same Display & Brightness menu, you can adjust the brightness slider. The lowest setting is usually perfectly visible in most lighting conditions and saves a surprising amount of energy over the course of 16 hours.
Pro Tip: Check your "Wake Duration." In the Display & Brightness settings, scroll down to "Wake Duration." Set this to "Wake for 15 Seconds" rather than 70 seconds. This ensures that if you accidentally tap the screen, it doesn't stay lit for over a minute, burning unnecessary power.
2. Curate Your Notifications (Stop the Phantom Buzzing)
Every time your wrist buzzes, your watch is using power to spin the Taptic Engine (the vibration motor), light up the screen, and pull data from your iPhone via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. Do you really need to know that a random Facebook friend commented on a photo from 2014, or that a game you haven't played in months has a coin sale?
Notification hygiene isn't just good for your mental health; it’s crucial for battery life. By default, the Apple Watch mirrors every notification from your iPhone. It is time to be selective.
- Open the Watch app on your iPhone.
- Tap on the My Watch tab and select Notifications.
- Scroll down to the section titled "Mirror iPhone Alerts From."
- Turn off switches for apps that don't require immediate attention on your wrist (e.g., Instagram, Twitter/X, News, Games).
By limiting notifications to only the essentials—calls, texts, calendar invites, and perhaps your home security system—you reduce the amount of time the watch spends "working" in the background.
3. Disable "Hey Siri" Listening
Siri is incredibly useful for setting timers while cooking or sending a quick text while driving. However, to work hands-free, your Apple Watch is constantly using its microphone to listen for the trigger phrase "Hey Siri" or waiting for you to raise your wrist to speak.
This constant state of alertness consumes background power. If you don't mind pressing the Digital Crown to activate Siri, turning off the listening features can help squeeze out extra hours.
- On your Apple Watch, go to Settings.
- Scroll down to Siri.
- Toggle off Listen for "Hey Siri".
- You can also toggle off Raise to Speak if you find it activating accidentally.
4. Manage Background App Refresh
Just like on your iPhone, apps on your Apple Watch are constantly refreshing in the background to ensure that when you open them, the data is up to date. While this makes the user experience snappy, it is often unnecessary for every single app installed on your device.
Does your calculator app need to refresh in the background? Probably not. Does the Stocks app need to pull data every few minutes if you only check it once a week? Definitely not.
To manage this:
- Open the Watch app on your iPhone.
- Go to General > Background App Refresh.
- You can turn it off completely (the nuclear option), or better yet, manually toggle off apps that don't need real-time updates.
Real-World Example: If you use an app like Citymapper or Uber, keep background refresh on so you get travel updates. But for static apps like Voice Memos or a breathing app, turn it off. They will update the moment you tap to open them anyway.
5. Optimize Workout Settings
For many of us, the Apple Watch is primarily a fitness tracker. However, the heart rate sensor is a power-hungry beast. During workouts, the sensor reads your heart rate continuously rather than periodically. If you are going for a long hike or a marathon walk where pinpoint heart rate accuracy isn't critical, you can use the Power Saving Mode for workouts.
This mode disables the Always On display and limits cellular and heart rate readings during walking and running workouts. It is designed specifically to make the battery last through long-duration exercises.
- Go to Settings on your watch.
- Tap Workout.
- Toggle on Low Power Mode.
Additionally, if you don't care about heart rate data at all for certain activities, you can pair a Bluetooth chest strap. The watch will defer to the chest strap for data, which uses significantly less watch battery than the built-in optical sensor.
6. Reduce Haptic Intensity and Sound
The Taptic Engine inside the Apple Watch is sophisticated, but physically moving a weight inside the watch to create a vibration requires energy. If you have your haptics set to "Prominent," the watch adds an extra tap to every alert to ensure you feel it. While useful for heavy sleepers or those in thick coats, it drains the battery faster.
Similarly, if you have the volume cranked up for alerts, the speaker draws more power. Setting your watch to "Silent Mode" is a great way to save battery (and be more polite in public spaces). The vibration is usually enough to alert you.
- Swipe up from the bottom of your watch face to open Control Center.
- Tap the Bell icon to turn on Silent Mode (it will turn red).
- To adjust vibration strength, go to Settings > Sounds & Haptics and ensure "Default" is selected rather than "Prominent."
7. The Nuclear Option: Low Power Mode
With the release of watchOS 9 and later, Apple introduced 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 is a game-changer. It maintains the core functionality of your watch but temporarily turns off or limits specific features, including:
- Always On Display
- Heart rate notifications for irregular rhythm
- Background heart rate measurements
- Blood Oxygen measurements
- "Start workout" reminder
It effectively doubles the battery life for many users. This is perfect for days when you forgot your charger, or when you are traveling and know you'll have a very long day.
To activate it, swipe up to open the Control Center, tap your battery percentage percentage, and toggle on Low Power Mode. You can even choose to turn it on for 1, 2, or 3 days.
Final Thoughts
You don't need to turn your Apple Watch into a glorified bracelet to get good battery life. The goal isn't to disable every feature that makes the watch "smart," but rather to disable the features you aren't using.
Start with the display settings and notification management. For most users, those two changes alone can add 20% to 30% more battery life to your day. Experiment with these tweaks, and you will find that sweet spot where your watch is just as helpful as ever, but still has plenty of power left when you place it on the charger at night.