- An Apple Watch Series 9 has a battery life of approximately 18 hours before it requires charging.
- If your battery is draining quickly, there are a few tricks to drastically extend it.
- Battery-saving tips include turning off Always on Display, using correct watch face, and turning off low power mode.
Compared to other smartwatches, the Apple Watch Series 9 does not have a particularly robust battery life.
An Apple Watch Series 9 lasts for just 18 hours, which means you need to charge it daily. This typically involves charging it overnight, but if you’re finding that your watch needs charging well before that, there are a few things you can do to save battery life and get more out of a single charge.
How to extend battery life on an Apple Watch Series 9
Below, we’ve rounded up some simple, yet effective, methods to optimize your Apple Watch Series 9 battery life.
You Probably Don’t Need the Screen Always On
Let’s start with something that may be controversial: you don’t need your Apple Watch screen always on. The face on a regular watch is always visible, and some people want that same functionality on their smartwatch. Why should we expect less from a smarter device? I understand the argument, but is it worth the hit in battery life?
In reality, you’re probably not actively looking at your watch screen very often. A quick glance to check the time only takes a few seconds. Apple Watches are pretty good at detecting when you lift your arm to look at your watch. You may have to wait an extra split second for the screen to light up, but the battery savings are worth it.
With some background activities disabled, an Apple Watch Series 9 can last around 49 hours with the Always-on Display enabled. However, with AOD disabled and "Wake on Wrist Raise" enabled, it lasts around 67 hours. You probably won’t have those same background activities disabled, but it shows the difference the AOD makes.
You can disable the Always-on Display on your Apple Watch Series 9 by going to Settings > Display & Brightness and making sure "Always On" is turned off.
Choose the right watch face
The dancing Mickey Mouse watch face may look cool, but it’s actually doing more harm than good. Animated watches faces can actually reduce battery life. You’re better off using one of the more basic ones. The Apple Watch also uses an OLED screen, meaning watch faces with more black than colors will use less energy.
To choose a new watch face, perform a hard long press (also known as a Force Touch), on the screen and select a new face. I personally prefer the modular one.
Make Sure You’re Using Auto Screen Brightness
Another way to make your Apple Watch series 9 battery last longer is to enable auto-brightness. There’s no need to adjust the brightness for every situation manually. There’s a good chance you already know this, but it’s easy to accidentally leave auto-brightness disabled. Then your watch won’t dim the display when needed to save battery.
Auto-brightness is the default setting, and you can manually tweak the brightness on command. Go to Settings > Display & Brightness and tap the sun icons to adjust the brightness.
Enable "Do Not Disturb" Mode to Reduce Screen Waking
If you haven’t figured it out yet, the display is the biggest battery killer on an Apple Watch Series 9. So, limiting the amount of time the display is on will increase battery life. Another way you can do that is by preventing every little notification from waking up the screen.
It’s generally a good idea to disable unimportant apps from sending notifications to your watch to begin with—no need to distract yourself constantly. However, a quick way to do this when you need some extra battery life is with "Do Not Disturb" mode. Just toggle it on and only important stuff will get through.
On your Apple Watch Series 9, go to Settings > Focus > Do Not Disturb and toggle the switch on. You can also use one of several Focus Modes or create your own.
Enter Into "Low Power Mode" During Down Times
You can extend the battery life on the Apple Watch Series 9 by using the Low Power Mode. Introduced in watchOS 9, this feature will help you preserve battery life by turning off certain unnecessary features, like Wi-Fi, the always-on display, heart rate notifications, and more. Do note that this means certain features won’t work as well (for example, placing a call could take longer), but if preserving your battery is the priority, this can be a huge help.
On your Apple Watch Series 9, simply open the Control Center, tap the battery percentage, and toggle on the "Low Power Mode" switch. You’ll also have the option to turn it on for one, two, or three days.
Thankfully, battery life in Apple Watches has somewhat improved over the years. It’s not terribly difficult to get from morning to bedtime with juice to spare on your Apple Watch Series 9. Whether you’ll be able to stretch it to the next night, however, is still not often possible without some help.
