Apple Watch Series 6 Time Lag Gate!

[Mohan Kumar]

Dear All,
I have purchased apple watch from newly launched apple India store (44 mm Nike Edition, Aluminum black). And here is the issue I am facing. After spending several meetings with apple support, finally they admitted that many users are facing this issue, and they have forwarded it to the engineering team.

Here is the issue description

1. When the watch is on always on display, the time that is shown on the watch does not refresh every minute. When the arm is at rest lets say on table, it many times will skip updating the time every minute and then when you raise the wrist, it will suddenly jump a couple of minutes to show you the time.

2. The issue is easily detectable when you have digital watch face. It is not limited to any single watch face.

3. The paired iphone is iphone 8+

4. Both the watch and iphone are on the latest operating systems

5. I have tried disabling wifi, disabling bluetooth, getting on airplane mode, the issue is replicable

6. The issue is intermittent. It will happen if you observe closely a few times in an hour

7. The issue has persisted since last 10 days, almost every day, and almost every hour when I took time to observe

The technical support team initially tried to justify that you can just raise your wrist to see the time. But this is understood that Apple would have hired newly trained folks in Apple India store.

Overall I have been fully disappointed by the fact that no returns are allowed for apple watch here in India store, even within 14 days limit. I have already raised it as an issue with my case to tcook@apple.com, but I dont expect anyone to help me with return. The current status is that I have to wait till apple engineering time finds a solution. Hardware or software, its a defect and I think I made a big mistake to go with the first lot of a newly launched product where the QA checks for both hardware and software would have been rushed...

Any of you facing this issue, please do report...

Regards

 

[LFC2020]

Same issue here with AOD turned on, some watch faces only update the time once you raise your wrist, hopefully gets fixed in the next update. 👀⌚

 

[Bazooka-joe]

Same issue here with AOD turned on, some watch faces only update the time once you raise your wrist, hopefully gets fixed in the next update. 👀⌚

This is nothing new. It was more apparent with the S5 under WatchOS6. So its not a new bug and I am not sure that Apple will rush to change it.

 

[Otflyer]

Noticed this myself but, didn’t think it an issue.

 

[Smoothie]

It’s not an issue and it’s certainly not a “gate.”

 

[Anthony Lee]

Hi Kumar,

This is Anthony. I am also having the same problem. Have you found any solutions to this problem yet? Hope you see this soon!

 

[Polmac]

I noticed this a few days ago. I have disabled “activate when raising wrist”, because I don’t like my screen turning brighter and paler as I move my wrist, and I guess I can’t trust the time to be exact while this issue persists.

I have found another issue related to this: I have Siri with “raise to talk” activated, but it wouldn’t work if the screen is not active. So I have to enable ”activate screen when raising wrist” for this to work.

 

[Knowlege Bomb]

Oh I have a problem with my device. GATE!

Why can’t we have a downvote button?? Whyyyyyy??

 

[Axmann8]

I am having the same issue as well.

So is this a bug or is this just to be expected/normal function? I didn't seem to notice the issue on the original 44 mm I had or the 40mm I also returned because it actually was too small.

 

[Spindel]

I'm pretty convinced this is an power saving feature.

Noticed it a long time ago, might disturb my OCD side but really a nothing burger. Even at a glance on the watch without rising the wrist the most I've noticed is 5 min off.

 

[NauCayuti]

I'm pretty convinced this is an power saving feature.

Noticed it a long time ago, might disturb my OCD side but really a nothing burger. Even at a glance on the watch without rising the wrist the most I've noticed is 5 min off.

Come on, stop rationalizing this bug as "power saving feature". The AOD refreshes once per second; don't tell me it costs any significant amount of energy to move the minute hand once a minute.

So much sophistication went into giving the AW a deviation of less than 50ms from the UTC standard only for its time to lag by 5 min? Any cheap quarz watch is better than this.

 

[wilberforce]

I think it is kind of a big issue. Showing the correct time is a fundamental feature of a watch. All the other features are arguably secondary.
It would be like a smartphone where the phone app does not dial the correct phone number. wtf! "Well it's not really an issue, just dial the number again."
I had this time lag issue with my S5 for a while, and then one day it no longer happened. I wish I knew what changed, because it wasn't something obvious.

 

[Spindel]

Come on, stop rationalizing this bug as "power saving feature". The AOD refreshes once per second; don't tell me it costs any significant amount of energy to move the minute hand once a minute.

So much sophistication went into giving the AW a deviation of less than 50ms from the UTC standard only for its time to lag by 5 min? Any cheap quarz watch is better than this.

Animations take CPU time, CPU time takes power. Using this as a way to squeeze out more time of a constrained battery size sounds reasonable.

Actually the AW has no lag at all when you move around, it's only when you are sedentary and to top it all of as soon as you move your wrist the correct time is shown, only OCD disturbing thing for people is that you see the hands move.

 

[jackbauer1909]

I really can't believe that this bug should be a feature. What is the sense of the always on display? Seeing the correct (!) time without moving the wrist. And because of this bug, you can't trust the shown time until you raise your wrist. That is ridiculous and it absolutely makes no sense.

Furthermore, it happens without any pattern. Some day the bug is there and after a restart then it isn't noticeable for the few next days.

Fix it Apple!

 

[Axmann8]

Animations take CPU time, CPU time takes power. Using this as a way to squeeze out more time of a constrained battery size sounds reasonable.

Actually the AW has no lag at all when you move around, it's only when you are sedentary and to top it all of as soon as you move your wrist the correct time is shown, only OCD disturbing thing for people is that you see the hands move.

The product is a watch, with an "always-on display" advertised as a main feature. Literally the most essential function of a watch is to show the correct time. I don't care if I'm stationary or not moving my wrist. It's a $400 watch that has a bug preventing the watch from displaying the correct time. A $5 digital watch from Walmart can perform this function without flaw. This doesn't bother you? Why doesn't it "just work"?

 

[Howard2k]

I don't even use AOD but that's an absurd bug.

 

[Howard2k]

So much sophistication went into giving the AW a deviation of less than 50ms from the UTC standard only for its time to lag by 5 min? Any cheap quarz watch is better than this.

Do you have any details on this? I just assumed it pulled the time from the cellular network or a network time server. What specific sophistication are we talking about?


EDIT: Not an Apple link - but I found this:

Everything You Need to Know About the Apple Watch

Wondering about the Apple Watch lineup? Learn about the latest Apple Watch models available from Apple, including the Series 10 and the Ultra Watch 2, and which models are discontinued.

www.lifewire.com

It isn't easy to be the most accurate watch in the world. Here are a few reasons Apple delivers the most accurate watch on the market.

• To support the Watch, Apple built a Network Time Protocol (NTP) that operates using servers located in different locations. Those servers ensure that the time that appears on the Apple Watch is as close to Stratum 1 accuracy as possible.
• The second hand on the watch is perfectly in sync with the second hand on every other Apple Watch. Each device is accurate down to 50 milliseconds of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). While one Apple Watch may be a tiny amount off from another, they're so close that no human can perceive the difference.
• The time on the Watch comes from atomic clocks, which measure time using the resonant frequency of a cesium atom—an atomic element—which works out the seconds. The time is served to GPS satellites that orbit the Earth, where high-precision time is used to determine location. That time is broadcast to servers deployed around the world to receive the signals from GPS satellites and share the time with a time server, which in turn communicates with the watches.
• Apple tested the Apple Watch in a variety of weather conditions to ensure its accuracy everywhere. The watch adjusts in cold weather, a situation where watches are often less accurate, to ensure it maintains a consistent time.
• The Apple Watch team used high-speed cameras to test the accuracy of the Apple Watch. The team filmed the screen at 1,000 frames per second, ensuring that each watch has millisecond precision. That precise time comes from an atomic clock within the Apple testing lab.

And this:

Apple's Kevin Lynch Explains Method Behind Apple Watch's Precise Timekeeping

One of the Apple Watch features Apple often highlights is the device's precise timekeeping, which Apple says is within 50 milliseconds of the...

www.macrumors.com

Apple's time servers communicate the time to iPhones across the world, and the iPhone in turn syncs with the Apple Watch via Bluetooth to provide the exact time. Communicating a GPS signal from a server to an iPhone to an Apple Watch over Bluetooth has its own delays, which Apple corrects for via software. Apple's NTP servers make sure iPhones and Apple Watches keep time at "Stratum One" accuracy, within milliseconds of "Stratum Zero" devices.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Lynch also described the hardware inside of the Apple Watch that makes sure the time remains accurate. Each Apple Watch has a temperature-controlled crystal oscillator inside to combat time drift that clocks and watches see. The oscillator also makes sure the Apple Watch remains warm enough to keep accurate time in very cold climates. Thanks to this hardware, the Apple Watch is even more accurate than the iPhone.

 

[wilberforce]

...Apple delivers the most accurate watch on the market.

This further emphasizes the absurdity of this bug.
Apple goes to extreme lengths to ensure exceptional accuracy in the Apple Watch, but, hey, it is fine if you look down at your watch and the time shown is 5 minutes off, no big deal, it's a feature not a flaw, you are being OCD for complaining.
/sarcasm

 

[Axmann8]

Has anyone ever got a response from Apple about this?

 

[hatchettjack]

the latest beta seems to have fixed this on my aw5! no more jumping ahead when I raise my arm

 

[michaelb5000]

I don't think this is a big deal, but I appreciate that folks want their watch to provide accurate time. I definitely saw this effect when using analog watch faces, like infographic. But are we really sure this happens with all faces, including all the digital ones? I have been using the infographic modular for the past few weeks, and now don't remember seeing this, and when I look at the watch when using AOD I can pretty reliably see the time click over minute by minute.

 

[jackbauer1909]

I can confirm that this issue happens on digital watch faces: activity digital (just happened several times today), infograph modular (it‘s my most used watch face and the issue happens each and every day) and memoji.
Again, it‘s absolutely ridiculous. A 400+$ watch that does not reliably show the right time. Unbelievable.

 

[Zaft]

I just ordered a series 6 today.. has this been fixed in the recent beta?
How some of you think this is “not a big deal” is hilarious. It’s a huge deal. What’s the point of AOD then?

 

[xraydoc]

I personally have never noticed this on my watch (series 5). Not saying it's not happening, but honestly I've never noticed it with many different digital and analog faces. I'll keep an eye on it, though.

 

[Rheinlaender]

I've had my series 6 for a week now and I'm really annoyed by this. The existence of this bug practically renders the AOD useless. Can anyone else confirm the issue has been fixed in the latest beta?