Around a month ago, we wrote about our observations of Apple Watch users using watchOS 10.4: The latest update at the time could quickly bring even a relatively new Apple Watch or its battery to its knees, which is why the smartwatch only lasted a few hours on a single charge.
We were also able to prove the battery problems in practice with an Apple Watch Series 9, i.e. only six months old, but under certain conditions: If I had recorded a workout, the smartwatch consumed around one per cent battery per one minute. As a result, I had to recharge the watch at least briefly several times during a hike lasting several hours.
Last week, Apple released watchOS 10.5 together with other systems. As is so often the case, the release notes were rather sparse: Apple promoted a new watch face for Pride Month and fixed undefined bugs.
I have now put it to the test and observed the battery of the Apple Watch under the same scenario last weekend. Neither during a 6.5-hour hike nor during a slightly longer 7.5-hour hike did the watch warn me in the middle of the day that it was 10% full, as was the case under watchOS 10.4.
Based on these observations, I assume that the unusually fast battery depletion has been fixed under watchOS 10.5 so update your Apple Watch to this version as soon as you can.
This article originally appeared on our sister publication Macwelt and was translated and adapted from German.