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.