How to Turn Off Apple Watch

Oct 1, 2016 - 6 Comments

A powered off Apple Watch is achieved by turning off the device

The Apple Watch battery lasts a while, and most users will place the Apple Watch onto the charger or into Night Stand mode if they’re letting it sit for a while, but sometimes you might want to actually turn the Apple Watch off completely. Maybe you’re putting the watch into longterm storage or sending it off, or maybe you aren’t using it, whatever the reason, powering it off can be appropriate.

This article will show you how to turn off Apple Watch, and also how to turn it back on again.


Powering down the Watch is easy but it’s not particularly obvious, and I’ve had multiple Apple Watch owners ask me the simple question; how do you turn off the Apple Watch? Well, here is what you want to do:

How to Turn Off Apple Watch Completely

Note that with watchOS 3 onward, the Emergency SOS feature is also tied to the same button.

  1. Press and hold the Power button on the side of the Apple Watch (not the rotating dial, hold the button underneath it)
  2. How to turn off Apple Watch

  3. When you see the power options menu, choose and swipe on “Power Off” to turn off the Apple Watch

WatchOS 3 power off

The Apple Watch powers down and will stay turned off until it is turned on again using the same power button on the side of the device.

Turning it off and back on again is actually how Apple recommends you reboot the Apple Watch too, in case you were curious.

Choose to Power Off the Apple Watch to turn it off

Note that you want to hold down the proper button, otherwise you will get different effects. If you hold down the top button, you will get Siri on Apple Watch, and if you hold down both buttons you will force restart the Apple Watch, whereas a short press on both buttons will screen shot the Apple Watch instead. It can be a little confusing to have so many functions assigned to the same buttons, but after a while you will get the hang of it.

How to Turn On Apple Watch

Of course you can also turn on and power on the Apple Watch, that’s easy too:

  1. Press and hold the side button until you see an  Apple logo indicating it is turning on
  2. If that doesn’t power on the Apple Watch, then place Apple Watch onto its charger and let it charge for a while before trying again (or it will turn on itself automatically if the battery ran out)

With the Apple Watch on, you’re ready to use the device as you would in any other way.

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Related articles:

Posted by: Paul Horowitz in Apple Watch, Tips & Tricks

6 Comments

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  1. Luis says:

    Thanks for help I really appreciate it.

  2. Paula says:

    Yep. Just called 911 while trying to turn off the watch.

  3. Jason says:

    Except that in watchOS 3 that defaults to calling emergency services. Not great advice here, boss.

    • Paul says:

      Jason, in Apple Watch settings:

      Go to General then to ‘Emergency SOS’

      Toggle ‘Press and Hold for SOS’ to Off

      This allows you to power off Apple Watch this way if you are using Watch OS 3

  4. Laura Hess says:

    Unless you’re left-handed- then the bottom button is the top button. 😜

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