The Mechanical Illusion
The Apple Watch features a “Digital Crown” on the side of the device used for scrolling through menus. Because the crown is completely digital and has no internal gears, Apple utilizes the watch’s internal vibration motor (the Taptic Engine) to fire rapid micro-vibrations into your finger as you turn it. This creates the physical illusion that you are turning a mechanical gear. While this is an impressive engineering trick, these constant micro-vibrations drain the battery and can feel annoying during long scrolling sessions. You must sever the connection between the dial and the motor.
How to Turn Off Crown Haptics
You can permanently paralyze the rotational vibration trigger via the Sounds & Haptics settings.
- Open the Settings app directly on your Apple Watch (the grey gear icon).
- Scroll down the main list and tap on Sounds & Haptics.
- Scroll down until you find the toggle switch labeled Crown Haptics.
- Toggle this switch to the Off position (the green background will disappear).
Smooth Scrolling
The change is instantaneous. The Apple Watch will completely terminate the background daemon responsible for firing the vibration motor based on the rotational velocity of the dial. You can now spin the Digital Crown as fast as you want, and it will feel exactly like what it is: a completely smooth, frictionless digital wheel. The watch will still vibrate for incoming text messages and alarms, but the artificial mechanical clicking is permanently eradicated, resulting in a smoother interface and slightly improved battery life.