The Problem with Wet Touchscreens
Modern Apple Watches are highly water-resistant and designed to track your swimming workouts in the pool or the ocean. However, capacitive touchscreens rely on the electrical conductivity of your finger to register taps and swipes. Because water is also highly conductive, splashing water onto the screen—or submerging the watch entirely—will cause the touchscreen to go completely crazy. The water will simulate dozens of random, rapid finger taps, potentially pausing your workout, changing your watch face, or even dialing emergency services. To prevent this chaos, you must lock the screen before you dive in.
How to Turn On Water Lock
Apple built a dedicated hardware mode specifically to disable the touchscreen temporarily.
- Wake up your Apple Watch screen.
- Swipe up from the very bottom edge of the screen to open the Control Center (or press the flat side button once on newer watchOS versions).
- Scroll through the grid of icons until you find the icon that looks like a single water droplet.
- Tap the Water droplet icon.
The Control Center will instantly close, and a small, blue water droplet icon will appear at the very top of your watch face. The screen is now completely deactivated. You can swim, shower, or surf safely. (Note: If you start a “Swimming” workout via the Workout app, the watch automatically enables Water Lock for you).
How to Eject the Water and Unlock the Screen
When you are finished swimming, you need your touchscreen back. You also need to clear any physical water trapped inside the speaker grill.
- Locate the Digital Crown (the round, rotating dial on the side of the watch).
- Press and hold the Digital Crown continuously for about three seconds.
- The screen will display an animation of water clearing, and the watch will play a series of loud, specific tones. These tones are engineered to vibrate the speaker membrane violently, physically ejecting water from the speaker cavity.
- Once the sound stops, the blue icon will disappear, and your touchscreen will function normally again.