The Hourly Interruption
The Apple Watch includes a hidden feature called “Chimes.” When enabled, the watch will emit a distinct audio cue (such as a ringing bell or a chirping bird) and fire a short haptic vibration into your wrist at the top of every single hour. While some users enjoy this as a subtle time-tracking tool, it can be incredibly disruptive. If you are in a quiet meeting, a movie theater, or simply trying to focus on deep work, your wrist suddenly chirping like a bird every 60 minutes is unprofessional and annoying. You must silence this hourly automated daemon.
How to Turn Off Chimes
You can permanently sever the watch’s hourly alarm clock via the Accessibility settings.
- Open the Settings app directly on your Apple Watch (the grey gear icon).
- Scroll down the main list and tap on Accessibility.
- Scroll down until you find the option labeled Chimes.
- Tap on Chimes to enter its specific sub-menu.
- Locate the master toggle switch labeled Chimes at the top.
- Toggle this switch to the Off position (the green background will disappear).
Absolute Silence
The change is instantaneous. The Apple Watch will completely terminate the background scheduling daemon responsible for triggering the hourly audio file. The watch will instantly stop generating both the haptic vibration and the chirping sound effect at the top of the hour. You can still set manual alarms and receive standard app notifications, but the operating system will absolutely never again attempt to automatically announce the passing of an hour.