Find My is an Apple feature that enables you to locate lost or misplaced Apple devices – including your Apple Watch. If you've already set up ‌Find My‌ on your paired iPhone, it's automatically enabled on your Apple Watch too.

lost apple watch
When you sign in to iCloud.com or the Find app, you can see your Apple Watch on a map and play a sound to locate it if it's nearby. ‌Find My‌ also has a Lost Mode to lock, track, or remotely erase all of your personal information.

One of the newest features in ‌Find My‌ is its ability to locate lost devices even when they're not connected to WiFi or LTE by leveraging Bluetooth and proximity to other nearby Apple devices.

When your lost device is offline but close to another device, it's able to connect to that other device over Bluetooth and relay its location. That means that your devices are more trackable than ever, and there's a better chance you can find a device that's been lost. Of course, if your Apple Watch is nowhere near another device, this feature won't work, but you can still try locating it if it's nearby by getting it to play an audible tone. Here's how.

Locating an Apple Watch Lost Nearby

You can find your Apple Watch using the ‌Find My‌ app on iOS devices and iCloud.com. If your Apple Watch is powered on, it will show up on the ‌Find My‌ map, just like an iPad, ‌iPhone‌, or Mac.

  1. Launch the Find My app on your ‌iPhone‌ or ‌iPad‌.
  2. Swipe up to reveal the full devices list.
  3. Tap the Apple Watch in the list.
  4. Tap Play Sound.

find my
A soft chirping sound will start playing after you initiate the "Play Sound" command, which will gradually get louder and louder with each chirp to make the Apple Watch easier to locate.

Locating an Apple Watch Lost Far Away

The way ‌Find My‌ works with an Apple Watch that's lost far away depends on the model. Apple Watch Series 3 and Series 4 use GPS and a trusted Wi-Fi or cellular connection to give you their approximate location, while Apple Watch Series 2 uses GPS and a trusted Wi-Fi connection. Apple Watch Series 1 models don't feature GPS, and they can only use the location of your paired ‌iPhone‌ or its Wi-Fi connection, making locating them at a distance impossible unless your ‌iPhone‌ is also nearby.

For these reasons, using ‌Find My‌ to locate an ‌Apple Watch Series 2‌, Series 3, or Series 4 that's been left behind isn't going to be very accurate, but it will give you a general idea of where the watch was lost so you can go back to that location. When attempting to locate an Apple Watch this way, tap the Directions option and you will be given Apple Maps directions to the last known location.

How to Put Your Apple Watch in Lost Mode

If you didn't turn on ‌Find My‌ before your Apple Watch was lost or stolen and your watch isn't connected to Wi-Fi, cellular, or your paired ‌iPhone‌, you can't use it to locate your device. However, you can put your Apple Watch in Lost Mode, which ensures your passcode is required before anyone can turn off ‌Find My‌ ‌iPhone‌, erase your watch, or pair it with another ‌iPhone‌.

  1. Launch the Find My app on your ‌iPhone‌.
  2. Swipe up to reveal a list of your devices, then tap your Apple Watch in the list.
  3. Swipe up to reveal the full device actions menu.
  4. Under Mark as Lost, tap Activate.
  5. Tap Continue to confirm that you want to turn on Lost Mode.
    find my Apple Watch

  6. Enter a phone number where you can be reached, then tap Next.
  7. Enter the message that you want to appear on the watch screen.
  8. Tap Enable.

‌Find My‌ ‌iPhone‌ will send you an email message to confirm that you've put your Apple Watch in Lost Mode. Once it's activated you can turn off lost mode any time using the same device actions menu described in the above steps (Pending -> Turn Off Mark as Lost).

Related Roundup: Apple Watch 10
Buyer's Guide: Apple Watch (Neutral)

Popular Stories

ios 18 4 carplay

iOS 18.4 Includes a Small But Useful Change for CarPlay

Sunday February 23, 2025 2:23 pm PST by
The first beta of iOS 18.4 is now available, and it includes a small but useful change for CarPlay. As we noted in our list of iOS 18.4 features, CarPlay now shows a third row of icons, up from two rows previously. However, this change is only visible in vehicles with a larger center display. For example, a MacRumors Forums member noticed the change in a Toyota Tundra, which can be equipped...
cook trump

Trump Responds to Apple Keeping Diversity Policies

Wednesday February 26, 2025 6:32 am PST by
In an all-caps post on Truth Social today, U.S. President Donald Trump said Apple should fully end its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies. Tim Cook meeting with President Trump in 2017 "APPLE SHOULD GET RID OF DEI RULES, NOT JUST MAKE ADJUSTMENTS TO THEM," he wrote. Trump's post comes one day after Apple held its annual shareholders meeting, during which a majority of...
apple watch ultra snow

6 Features Coming to the Apple Watch Ultra 3

Tuesday February 25, 2025 9:00 am PST by
The Apple Watch Ultra 3 is expected to launch later this year, arriving two years after the previous model with a series of improvements. While no noticeable design changes are expected for the third generation since the company tends to stick with the same Apple Watch design through three generations before changing it, there are a series of internal upgrades on the way. By the time the ...
iPhone Fold Vertical Feature

Apple's 2026 Foldable iPhone Has No Visible Display Crease – Report

Tuesday February 25, 2025 2:58 am PST by
Apple is making significant headway on its long-rumored foldable iPhone, with a new report suggesting the company has achieved a major breakthrough by effectively eliminating the screen crease that plagues current foldable devices. According to Korean publication ETNews, Apple is finalizing its component suppliers for the foldable iPhone, with the selection process expected to be completed...
airtag orange

AirTag 2 Rumored to Launch in May or June With These New Features

Monday February 24, 2025 6:11 am PST by
Apple plans to launch a second-generation AirTag in May or June this year, according to a post today from a leaker known as Kosutami. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman previously reported that a new AirTag would be released in mid-2025. May or June would align with that timeframe. Below, we recap three new features rumored for the AirTag 2: With a second-generation Ultra Wideband chip, the...
iphone 17 lineup cad render majin bu

Revealed: Entire iPhone 17 Lineup's Striking New Camera Designs

Monday February 24, 2025 2:49 am PST by
A new CAD render of all the devices in Apple's upcoming iPhone 17 lineup has been shared online by leaker Majin Bu, specifically showing the allegedly different rear camera system designs of the standard iPhone 17, all-new ultra-thin iPhone 17 Air, and the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max models. The leaker Majin Bu has had some hits in the past, but some of his information has been wrong,...
trump iphone dictation issue

Apple Fixing 'Trump' Dictation Processing Bug

Tuesday February 25, 2025 1:18 pm PST by
Multiple iPhone owners today noticed a pronunciation processing issue that causes the word "Trump" to momentarily show up when using dictation to send a message with the word "racist." In some cases, when speaking the word racist through the iPhone's built-in dictation feature, the iPhone briefly interprets the spoken word as "Trump" and "Trump" text shows up in the Messages app before being ...
iOS 18

Apple Says iOS 18.4 Will Be Released in April With These New Features

Wednesday February 26, 2025 7:15 am PST by
In a recent press release, Apple confirmed that iOS 18.4 will be released in April. From the Apple News+ Food announcement:Coming with iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 in April, Apple News+ subscribers will have access to Apple News+ Food, a new section that will feature tens of thousands of recipes — as well as stories about restaurants, healthy eating, kitchen essentials, and more — from the...