Check That Power Reserve Is Turned Off

Power Reserve is an Apple Watch feature designed to maximize its battery life. When Power Reserve is activated, the only function you’ll be able to access on your Apple Watch is the current time.

If your Apple Watch is currently in Power Reserve mode, the following steps should get it working again:

1. Press and hold the side button.
2. Continue holding the side button until the Apple logo appears on the watch face.
3. If your Apple Watch turns back on and looks normal, you’ve successfully deactivated Power Reserve.

Why this works:

Many people activate Power Reserve assuming it’s a similar function to the battery saving features on the iPhone. It might be quite a surprise to find that, after activating this function, basically every “smart” feature on your Apple Watch has stopped working.

When this happens, it’s easy to mistake your Apple Watch for being powered off rather than in Power Reserve mode. Making sure that your Apple watch isn’t experiencing this problem can be a very quick and helpful troubleshooting step.