Charging an Apple Watch is an important part of the daily use of the Apple Watch. After all, an empty battery can mean that you miss important notifications or that you cannot use the watch when you need it. As Apple Watch connoisseurs, we know how annoying it can be to have an empty Apple Watch. Fortunately, charging an Apple Watch is easy and quick to do. In this article we explain step by step how you can best charge your Apple Watch!
When to charge your Apple Watch?
If you notice that your Apple Watch's battery is low, it's a good idea to charge it as soon as possible. This is especially true if you have enabled power saving mode. In power saving mode, some of the watch's features are turned off to conserve battery power.
Therefore, check your Apple Watch's battery charge to determine when it's time to charge your watch. There are several ways to check your battery charge or charge level:
- If you have added a battery complication to your watch face, you can simply check your display.
- Swipe up on your watch face to access the Control Center and check your battery power.
- Use a battery widget on your iPhone to show the battery percentage of your connected Apple Watch.
- While charging: When you're charging your Apple Watch, tap the charge button to check the battery percentage.
You also know it's time to charge your Apple Watch as soon as you see the red light bolt icon appear on your display. Now let's start charging your Apple Watch.
Step 1: Prepare the charger for use
First you need to set up the Apple Watch charger. Choose a well-ventilated area and place the charger or charging cable on a flat surface. If you have an Apple Watch Series 7 or later, the Magnetic Fast Charger to USB-C Cable came with your watch. The standard magnetic charging cable for the Apple Watch was included with previous models.
You can only charge the Apple Watch with the accompanying magnetic charger, the Apple MagSafe Duo charger or with an Apple Watch charger Dock. Unless you have the right charger, your smartwatch will eventually run out of power and turn off. This article focuses on charging the Apple Watch with the included charging cable.
Step 2: Plug the charging cable into a power adapter
You then need to connect the charging cable of the Apple Watch to a USB power adapter. You can use all USB power adapters for this, such as those for your iPad, MacBook or iPhone. The higher the number of watts, the faster your Apple Watch will be charged.
Step 3: Plug the power adapter into a power outlet
As soon as you have connected the power cable of the Apple Watch to the adapter, your adapter must of course be plugged into a socket. If you have an adapter with a USB or USB-C port, you can also plug the cable into a USB device. Please note that charging will then be slower.
Step 4: Place the Apple Watch on the charger
Then place the back of the Apple Watch in the correct position on the magnetic charging cable. It is important that you take off your watch before you put it on the charging cable.
Place the Apple Watch on the magnetic charging cable so that it clicks into place on the back of the smartwatch. When the cable is properly aligned with the back of the Apple Watch, you will see a green lightning icon on the display. This indicates that the Apple Watch battery is charging.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does it take to charge the Apple Watch?
Since the Apple Watch has an endurance of up to 18 hours, you also spend a lot of time charging the Apple Watch. But how long does it take exactly to charge the Apple Watch? Here's an overview of how long each Apple Watch model should take to charge according to Apple:
| Charging time 0% to 80% | Charging time 0% to 100% | |
| Apple Watch Ultra | 60 minutes | 90 minutes |
| Apple Watch 8 | 45 minutes | 75 minutes |
| Apple Watch SE (2022) | 90 minutes | 150 minutes |
| Apple Watch 7 | 45 minutes | 75 minutes |
| Apple Watch 6 | 60 minutes | 90 minutes |
| Apple Watch SE | 90 minutes | 150 minutes |
| Apple Watch 3 | 90 minutes | 120 minutes |
Recently the large battery, the Apple Watch Ultra takes an extra 15 minutes to charge from 0% to 80% than the Apple Watch Series 8 and Series 7 . The latter two models only need 45 minutes to charge to 80% and another 30 minutes to reach 100%.
As the overview included above also shows, the charging speed of the Apple Watch has made a big leap from the Series 6. The most important for this improvement stems from the new included magnetic fast charging cable (USB-C) that allows wattages up to 20W. This is a big leap from the standard 5W supported by older Apple Watches.
If you still have an old Apple Watch SE or 3, it will take 90 minutes to charge to 80% and then another 60 minutes to reach 100%. It should also be mentioned that the Apple Watch SE 2022 charges much faster than its predecessor.
Can I charge my Apple Watch all night?
According to Apple, you can charge the Apple Watch all night. The Apple Watch charges quickly from 0 to 80% and then it takes a little longer for the smartwatch to be fully charged. You can also use the night mode of the Apple Watch. This turns the charging Apple Watch into an alarm clock.
It is good to mention that there are also various reasons not to charge your Apple Watch at night. An example of this is when you use the Apple Watch to monitor your batting. In that case, you should wear the Apple Watch on your wrist at night. In that case, it's better to charge the Apple Watch during the day when you're watching TV or taking a shower, for example.
In addition, Apple has significantly improved the charging speed of its new watches. As a result, it is no longer necessary to charge the Apple Watch at night.