My Apple Watch is getting a little crufty. I wear it every day, including when I sweat a lot — like during a run, for example.
Recently, the Digital Crown started to get a little tough to turn. It took extra effort to spin the darn thing, and I wasn’t able to rotate it smoothly anymore.
Luckily, Apple had me covered — but I wasn’t prepared for what I had to do to get this Digital Crown fix to work.
The first step if you’ve got a crufty Digital Crown on your Apple Watch is to check for any obvious debris and wipe down your wearable. If you see dust or lotion (or just plain skin goo) around the Digital Crown, or even if you don’t, be sure to take your Apple Watch off the charger and turn it off.
Remove any leather watch bands you may have on there — I left my green Sport band on because I like to live dangerously. Also, it’s made of water-safe stuff.
Now for the part of the fix that’s not for the faint of heart: Hold the Digital Crown part of your Apple Watch under lightly running, warm, fresh water from the tap for about 10 to 15 seconds. Turn and press the Digital Crown while you do this, so water gets all up in there.
Turn off the water, dry off the Apple Watch (with a non-abrasive, lint-free cleaning cloth, says Apple — I just used a towel), and your Digital Crown should be back to its smooth, cool-runnings state again.
It worked for me, and the Apple Watch still seems to work, so while I’m not going to guarantee this will not cause any damage to your Apple Watch, I’m pretty sure Apple wouldn’t recommend it if it weren’t safe.
Rob LeFebvre is an Anchorage, Alaska-based writer and editor who has contributed to various tech, gaming and iOS sites, including 148Apps, Creative Screenwriting, Shelf-Awareness, VentureBeat, and Paste Magazine. Feel free to find Rob on Twitter @roblef, and send him a cookie once in a while; he’ll really appreciate it.
17 responses to “Weird Digital Crown fix will make you fear for your Apple Watch”
LMAO Apple recommended that you put your Apple Watch under running water? Is there documentation for this? Via a KB article, perhaps?
Yes it’s in the instructions, I wash mine all the time, it is IPX7 rated, so it can definitely be immersed in water. I shower with mine on.
It’s linked there at the bottom of the post.
I got the same advice and was given a print out. I had them note my serial number that they instructed me to do so, just in case.
nicely done!
I was encouraged to shower and swim with my watch by an apple chat guy, I have the screen shot of the whole conversation
Tim Cook himself has been quoted to shower with his Apple Watch.
One of the things We talk about and the apple guy said “you bet he does” apple watch can take more than that
You guys are killing me.
IPX 7 rating under IEC standard 60529 clearly explains that the watch can handle this. Why is any of this shocking.
Now read the well crafted headline of the article and juxtapose that against the last sentence of what Rob wrote. It negates the headline and could be construed as link-baiting. The HL could have read , “Apple recommend cleaning Digital Crown with Warm Running Water” but hey that roll about 70% less clicks.
Correct. This is just hyperbole for the sake of clicks. But it worked, we commented on it. I bet things would be different if we could rate articles so advertisers knew the real value of these “stories”.
Smarten up your game Rob, I already bypass so many articles on this site. How about some more how to and informative pieces and videos like OSXDaily does.
Excellent point Doc – these tech pundit sites must be learning their journo craft from supermarket tabloids.
If you documented better before writing this article you would’ve known that the Apple Watch is water resistant with a rating of IPX7 under IEC standard 60529 which means it will survive even worse then this.
we posted almost same reply at same time
Hehe, well one more reason for the author to do his homework next time.
Via Reddit! I also heard you can also charge your phone quickly by running it in the microwave for 30 seconds.
Reminds me of the tiny trackball on the Apple Mighty Mouse which would get clogged up with dust and require a periodic fix of opening up the mouse to wipe the muck off. That was an Apple design failure.
what about a dry air blow spray from a compressed air can?