Can I extend the “wake time” on my Apple Watch?

The tiny screen of even the 42mm Apple Watch can be problematic if you have vision challenges or are simply tired or have allergies or another ailment. It’s hard to be able to focus on something the size of a postage stamp! In the original WatchOS, however, you’d be out of luck because while there’s a way to make the text larger, there’s no way to change what Apple calls the “wake time” of the screen.

WatchOS 2.0 changes that, however, so if you’ve updated, you’re ready to fix it and make your life better. If you haven’t updated yet, I suggest you take a detour and read my How to Update WatchOS on your Apple Watch tutorial.

Back? Great!

On your iPhone, launch the Watch app. It’ll look like this:

Notice the Brightness & Text Size option: you can pop onto that area to ensure you already have your text set at the largest size possible. It’s easy to figure out what to tweak, if not.

For this task, however, tap on General to proceed, and swipe down until you see these options:

It’s the modest Wake Screen you want to tap.

Tap it.

There’s what you want, halfway down the screen.

Change “ON TAP” from Wake for 15 Seconds (the default) to Wake for 70 Seconds. Why 15 and 70? I have no clue.

That change will make your watch easier to work with every time you tap on the screen to see what time it is or what’s going on!

One more, a personal preference of my own: Go into Sounds & Haptics and adjust your alert volume as desired:

As you can see, I like to have all the audio feedback muted but have the “haptic” (the vibration / tapping) at max. Fine tune yours for your own preferences.

I hope that helps you get more enjoyment out of your Apple Watch.