Apple Watch Series 3 unlocked?

[MrRedfield]

Hello,
Quick question. I just bought an Apple Watch Series 3 from eBay.

How can I see if the watch is locked to a specific carrier? Or are all Watches factory unlocked?

 

[musicpenguy]

I believe they are all unlocked. They are region locked though. Each country has a different SKU.

 

[Itada]

All Watches are carrier unlocked.

You can also activate the cellular on an Apple Watch in any country, regardless of which country the watch was purchased from, as long as the local carrier uses bands that the watch model supports. (you just can't roam from one network to another, but you can absolutely buy a watch in one country, use it there, then go to another country, delete the existing carrier plan eSIM and activate the eSIM again locally in the new country, etc)

 

[Strangedream]

If the watch has been unpaired from the previous owner's phone it should be unlocked.

Beware that AW are region limitations though: https://www.apple.com/watch/cellular/

 

[Itada]

There is no region lock implemented, it’s purely down to whether the carrier uses the bands that the model supports, regardless of which model it is or where it was purchased. (So of course it would be silly to buy a North/South American model for use in the rest of the world, or vice versa, since the band support would be totally inappropriate, but it isn’t locked to the regional area it was designed for.)

 

[musicpenguy]

There is no region lock implemented, it’s purely down to whether the carrier uses the bands that the model supports, regardless of which model it is or where it was purchased. (So of course it would be silly to buy a North/South American model for use in the rest of the world, or vice versa, since the band support would be totally inappropriate, but it isn’t locked to the regional area it was designed for.)

Yes but with Series 3 you are basically buying a North America/South America watch, a European watch, or a China watch - so there is a fair bit of region lock there. Series 5 looks like that didn’t change sadly and there is still a North America/South America Model and a European Model.