You can ping a lost Apple Watch from your iPhone, thanks to iOS 17 and watchOS 10. The reverse has always been a cool feature of the Apple Watch, helping you find a lost iPhone you left somewhere nearby.
If you take your Apple Watch off at the end of the day, forgetting to throw it on the charger, you might not remember where you left it the following morning. Now, you can find a lost Apple Watch from your iPhone. Here’s how it works.
How to ping a lost Apple Watch using an iPhone
You could always use Apple’s Find My app to locate a lost Apple Watch. But this handy trick is faster and easier. I typically employ the rule that my watch is only ever (a) on its charger or (b) on my wrist, but that just makes it harder for me to find when I happen to leave it elsewhere. This handy method makes it far easier to quickly find a missing Apple Watch.
Table of contents: How to ping a lost Apple Watch using an iPhone
- Add “Ping My Watch” button in Settings > Control Center
- Open Control Center and hit the Apple Watch button
1. Add the button to your iPhone’s Control Center
Screenshot: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
To quickly find your Apple Watch with your iPhone, first you need to add the Ping My Watch button to your phone’s Control Center. First open the Control Center, then tap the + button in the top left of the screen (or tap and hold an empty part of the screen) to begin editing.
Next, tap Add a Control at the bottom of the screen. You’ll see a panel slide up from the bottom with a palette full of buttons and toggles. Scroll down to the “Watch” section, towards the bottom, then tap Ping My Watch. You can drag it around to move it to a convenient location, and drag the grabber at the bottom to make it bigger.
2. Ping your Apple Watch from iPhone’s Control Center
Now you’re ready to ping your Apple Watch from your iPhone for the fastest find possible. To do so, simply swipe down from the top right corner of your iPhone screen to bring up Control Center. Then, tap the Ping My Watch button. Your watch will play the same fun, rhythmic chime out of its speakers that you’re used to hearing when using it to find your iPhone. And yes, this works even if you leave your watch in Silent mode — as most people do, and honestly, everyone should.
The Apple Watch doesn’t have quite as loud of a speaker as the iPhone, but the audible alert still should help you find your missing watch in a room. If you can’t hear anything after pinging it for a while, it’s likely too far away for you to hear the alert. In that case, you might want to open Find My, tap the Devices tab, and then tap on your Apple Watch to confirm it’s not truly missing.
More Find My features
- Find your lost devices from an iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch or Mac from the Find My app. Or, sign into an Android device or PC from the web.
- Share an AirTag temporarily with airport staff to find lost luggage or to get help from someone else.
- Share an AirTag with a family member or friend to share its location with them.
This article on how to ping an Apple Watch from an iPhone was originally published on November 8, 2023. We updated it with the latest information on June 25, 2024 and November 25, 2025.
D. Griffin Jones is a writer, podcaster and video producer for Cult of Mac. Griffin has been a passionate computer enthusiast since 2002, when he got his first PC — but since getting a Mac in 2008, he hasn’t turned back. His skills in graphic and web design, along with video and podcast editing, are self-taught over 20+ years. Griffin has a bachelor’s degree in computer science and has written several (unpublished) apps for Mac and iOS. His collection of old computers is made up of 40+ desktops, laptops, PDAs and devices, dating back to the early ’80s. He brings all of these creative and technical skills, along with a deep knowledge of Apple history, into his work for Cult of Mac.
