Apple Watch tips

The Apple Watch can do so much more than just tell the time. Here’s our pick of essential tips for unlocking the potential of watchOS! WRITTEN BY CARRIE MARSHALL

Unlock the full potential of your Apple Watch with our essential tips for watchOS — you can now go far beyond simply telling the time!

Over the last few months, we’ve rummaged around the more obscure corners of macOS Big Sur, iOS and iPadOS to discover all kinds of tips, tricks and apps to get even more out of your devices. This month, we’re turning our attention to the Apple Watch.

It’s safe to say that when Apple first launched the Apple Watch it wasn’t entirely sure what the device was for — the answer to a question Apple hadn’t quite worked out. But in six generations it’s become clear that it’s an incredibly powerful health monitor, fitness tracker and information provider. As the range of watch faces and complications — the little sections you can use to get info from and launch apps — has increased, so has the Apple Watch’s usefulness. What was a fun, clever but inessential bit of tech has, for many, become an integral part of our everyday lives.

We’ll show you how to get your Apple Watch just–so, from choosing and customising watch faces to the apps that can help you navigate unfamiliar places and find things that matter to you. We’ll explore the fitness features, including Apple Fitness+, and you’ll even discover how your Apple Watch can help in the battle against COVID.

We also reveal why the Apple Watch is the most personal device Apple has ever made — it’s there when you sleep and when you swim, when you work and when you work out, and, if you ever go skydiving, you can wear it then too. Here’s how to make the most of it.