The Apple Watch daylight saving time bug leaves the Always On display showing the wrong hour after clocks change, and Apple has two quick fixes. The wrong time appears only while your wrist is down, and alarms are not affected.
Clocks in most of the United States went back an hour on Sunday, November 1, and Apple says the Always On time glitch clears on its own at midnight after the change. Until then, you can restart your Apple Watch or switch to another watch face and back.
The Apple Watch Daylight Saving Time Bug Only Shows When Your Wrist Is Down
After daylight saving time changes in your area, the Always On display can keep showing a time that is one hour off. Always On dims the screen when your wrist is down or a hand covers it, and that dimmed state is the only place the wrong hour appears. Raise your wrist or tap the display and the time changes to the correct hour.
Alarms and other time-based features keep the correct time, so the problem is limited to what the dimmed screen shows. Always On is turned on by default on the Apple Watch Series 5 and later, the Apple Watch SE 3 and every Apple Watch Ultra.
Apple published the support document on October 30, two days before the US time change. The company has not specified which watchOS update will address the bug.
A Watch Face Switch or a Restart Clears the Wrong Hour
The first fix is to switch watch faces. Touch and hold the display, swipe to a different face and tap it, then do the same to return to your usual face. If you turn on Swipe to Switch Watch Face under Settings, then Clock, you can move between faces with a swipe instead of the touch and hold.
To restart instead, press and hold the side button until the sliders appear, tap the power button and drag the Power Off slider to the right. Hold the side button until the Apple logo appears to turn the watch back on.
The watch cannot restart while it is charging, so take it off the charger first. If it will not power off, hold the side button and the Digital Crown together for at least 10 seconds to force a restart, which Apple says to use only when a normal restart is not possible.
If you do nothing, the issue resolves itself at midnight after the time change. For Sunday’s change, that is the start of Monday, November 2.
