Apple Watch Power Reserve Mode

The battery in the Apple Watch lasts approximately 18 hours, depending on use. If your battery gets too low, you can put the watch into Power Reserve mode so you can see the time for up to 72 hours. Power Reserve allows you to continue to see the time on your Apple Watch while preserving your battery life.

Your Apple Watch will automatically enter Power Reserve if the battery gets too low, and you might see Charge icon next to the time. In Power Reserve, press the side button to show the current time in a 24-hour format. The time will display for six seconds. While your Apple Watch is in Power Reserve, your Apple Watch and iPhone won’t communicate, and you can’t access other watch features.

We’ll show you how to enable Power Reserve mode and how to get your watch back to normal mode. There are few ways you can enable Power Reserve mode.

Turn on Power Reserve

If you’ve run down the battery on your watch to 10 percent, the “Low Power” screen displays, as shown in the image at the beginning of this article. Tap the “Power Reserve” button. The following confirmation screen displays. Tap “Proceed” to put the watch in “Power Reserve” mode.

If you need to, you can turn on Power Reserve. Press and hold the side button until you see the Power Off, Power Reserve, and Lock Device options. Then drag the slider to turn on Power Reserve. You can also turn on Power Reserve using Glances. Swipe up on the watch face to open Glances, then swipe left or right to find the Battery Glance. Tap Power Reserve, then tap Proceed.

Turn off Power Reserve

To disable “Power Reserve” mode and return your Apple Watch to normal mode, you need to reboot the watch. Press and hold the side button until you see the Apple logo. The watch will boot into normal mode. Note that this only works if you have enough battery life to boot the watch. You can attach the charger to the watch while it’s booting if you don’t have enough battery power.

“Power Reserve” mode makes your smartwatch into a very dumb watch. While your Apple Watch is in “Power Reserve” mode, there are things that “normal” watches (non-smart watches) can do that the Apple Watch can’t do. But, if you need to make your battery last longer, “Power Reserve” mode is helpful.

Monitoring Battery Performance

Apple also added some basic battery stats into its Watch settings that allow you to view your usage times. Open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone, tap My Watch, and then go to General > Usage. Here you can view the Usage and Standby values, which when added together provide the elapsed time since the last full charge. You also can see the Power Reserve value, which estimates how long your Watch will last until its battery level drops to a critical level, and Power Reserve is enabled automatically.

Have you used Power Reserve mode in a pinch? Or is it a feature you will never use? Share your opinions on this power-saving feature in the comments below. If you are looking for more information on the Watch and its battery life, please read our handy tips on extending your Watch battery life.