CUPERTINO, Calif. — One of the big questions about the Apple Watch is how Apple will prevent thieves from ripping it off your wrist and using it to clear your bank account.
Because the Apple Watch is connected to Apple Pay — making purchases as easy as a quick swipe — what’s to stop miscreants from abusing it?
The answer wasn’t addressed at Tuesday’s unveiling, but an Apple staffer at the hands-on demo told me how the watch will be protected against fraud.
Thanks to sensors on the Apple Watch’s back, the device can tell when it’s being worn and when it has been taken off. When you first put the watch on, you must enter a code. When the watch is removed from your wrist, the watch locks itself and can’t be used for payments unless the code is entered again.
Pretty simple right? Unless the thief chops your arm off, of course, but that’s a different story.
Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac.
Leander is a longtime technology reporter and the author of six acclaimed books about Apple, including two New York Times bestsellers: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products and Inside Steve’s Brain, a biography of Steve Jobs.
He’s also written a top-selling biography of Apple CEO Tim Cook and authored Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, which both won prestigious design awards. Most recently, he was co-author of Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition.
Leander has been reporting about Apple and technology for nearly 30 years.
Before founding Cult of Mac as an independent publication, Leander was news editor at Wired.com, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Wired.com website. He headed up a team of six section editors, a dozen reporters and a large pool of freelancers. Together the team produced a daily digest of stories about the impact of science and technology, and won several awards, including several Webby Awards, 2X Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism and the 2010 MIN (Magazine Industry Newsletter) award for best blog, among others.
Before being promoted to news editor, Leander was Wired.com’s senior reporter, primarily covering Apple. During that time, Leander published a ton of scoops, including the first in-depth report about the development of the iPod. Leander attended almost every keynote speech and special product launch presented by Steve Jobs, including the historic launches of the iPhone and iPad. He also reported from almost every Macworld Expo in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s, including, sadly, the last shows in Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo. His reporting for Wired.com formed the basis of the first Cult of Mac book, and subsequently this website.
Before joining Wired, Leander was a senior reporter at the legendary MacWeek, the storied and long-running weekly that documented Apple and its community in the 1980s and ’90s.
Leander has written for Wired magazine (including the Issue 16.04 cover story about Steve Jobs’ leadership at Apple, entitled Evil/Genius), Scientific American, The Guardian, The Observer, The San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications.
Leander is an expert on:
Apple and Apple history
Steve Jobs, Jony Ive, Tim Cook and Apple leadership
Apple community
iPhone and iOS
iPad and iPadOS
Mac and macOS
Apple Watch and watchOS
Apple TV and tvOS
AirPods
Leander has a postgrad diploma in artificial intelligence from the University of Aberdeen, and a BSc (Hons) in experimental psychology from the University of Sussex.
He has a diploma in journalism from the UK’s National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Leander lives in San Francisco, California, and is married with four children. He’s an avid biker and has ridden in many long-distance bike events, including California’s legendary Death Ride.
You can find out more about Leander on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can follow him on X at @lkahney or Instagram.
26 responses to “Clever trick will safeguard Apple Watch from thieves”
Isn’t there some way that biometric data could be used to tie the watch exclusively to its owner? As we have seen recently, codes, aka passwords, are all too easily hacked.
You ever heard of the Nymi? getnymi.com
Needs a DNA sequencer too, that would be l33t! :-P
I’m guessing it’s a one-time use random code that your iPhone instructs you to enter on the watch to pair it. The next time you take it off and put it back on it requests a different random code.
I had a similar thought though, could they do a Touch ID type sensor to map the veins or something on your wrist that can be used as a biometric identifier?
I guess you will be able to prevent the device from being used at all unless the code is entered.
Thief chops off arm, Apple sends you notifications that you need to move more.
Arm chopped off = no more heartbeat. Still secure.
Well, if your wrist continues pulsing even after it’s been chopped off, then sure an axe will be required for would-be Pay fraudsters.
I understood that the watch has to be connected with your phone to make payments – so an arm chopped off still wouldn’t do it.
I would imagine if someone had the balls to chop your arm off, they would have no problem taking your phone out of your lifeless body.
I also suspect that anyone who’s willing hack your body to pieces isn’t terribly interested in either your Apple Watch or your iPhone (though your bank account is another matter) because if they were to apply all that effort to a more non-choppy pursuit they could have an Apple Watch and an iPhone of their own..
people didn’t find it hard to hack Iphones though did they
yes they did. thus only 0.1% of malware targets iOS devices and 99.9% targets Android devices.
YOU PWNED HIM GOOD!
YOU GOT OWNED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“…unless the code is entered again…” – are you telling me that not only do I have to take off the watch every night because it needs charging, but I have to also enter a code every morning after I put it on? That’s it – after hearing that the “sport” edition can’t even be worn in the pool, the nightly charging, and now this code! If true, I’m not getting this watch. What a bummer!
Don’t you already have to enter a passcode EVERY time you unlock your phone……
What’s entering a code once a day gonna do that’s not worth saving your personal info and bank accounts. Please….
Uh, actually, no – I don’t . You’ve heard of TouchId, right? Seems my absent logic is only exceeded by your ignorance.
I still see this as a major shortcoming, the phone will allow me to protect EACH transaction via Touch ID, but the watch will essentially just give my money away, there must be more to it than that, I could easily see ways of circumventing the removed from a wrist detection…
Hacking passwords… Hacking off arms… You have to be adept at code breaking, as well as the use of an axe, to get someone’s mobile payments to work with a stolen Watch.
I can just imagine someone at Walmart trying to pay using the watch attached to a severed arm they brought in a plastic bag. No problem, have a nice day sir….
If the arm is chopped off, there won’t be a pulse or other data the sensors would need to indicate it’s being worn.
Apparently the writer does not realize that chopping off your arm cuts ff your blood flow.
“In other news, 27 arms were found today in a trash dump behind a convenience store…”
OK, now imagine this scenario: You’re mugged, and the mugger demands your money… and your watch… and your code.
Typical of those who would stand in line for iCrap. Because typing in a code everytime you make a purchase (as opposed to say, pulling out your billfold, pulling out your credit card, swiping it, punching in a pin or signing, showing id, etc.) would be inconvenient.