A Guide To Cleaning Your Apple Watch
APPLE WATCH – Here is a detailed, sequential set of instructions for effectively cleaning your Apple Watch.
The Apple Watch is certainly a great companion for achieving our health goals, but there’s an essential maintenance step to ensure it stays in optimal condition – cleaning. Yes, even the Apple Watch needs a thorough cleaning from time to time.
Consider this: You wear your Apple Watch daily, taking it with you to various places like the gym, sports events, or simply as a regular timepiece for work or college. Over time, it’s inevitable that the device will accumulate fingerprints, dirt, dust, and even moisture.
While the Apple Watch is durable, the accumulation of these tiny particles can impact the accuracy of its sensors, affect the functionality of its speakers and microphone, and reduce the visibility of the screen. A dirty Apple Watch or strap can even lead to skin irritation or itching, as it might contain allergens or cause increased friction with your skin. Therefore, cleaning your Apple Watch is crucial, just as you would clean any other electronic gadget.
Fortunately, cleaning your Apple Watch is an easy process that doesn’t require any special tools. All you need is a nonabrasive, lint-free cloth, like a microfiber or lens cloth. Optionally, you can also use cotton swabs to remove dirt from the watch’s crevices.
Here’s a step-by-step guide to cleaning your Apple Watch:
1. Turn off your Apple Watch and, if it’s charging, disconnect it from the charger.
2. Remove the watch straps by pressing the buttons where they attach to the device, and also remove any protective cases.
3. Gently wipe the device’s screen, side frames, and bottom panel with the lint-free cloth. If necessary, you can dampen the cloth with fresh water. This should effectively clean most of the surface unless there are stubborn stains or grime in hard-to-reach areas.
4. For stubborn stains, you can use a 70% isopropyl alcohol wipe or a 75% ethyl alcohol wipe. Apple also recommends Clorox Disinfecting Wipes for cleaning.
5. Inspect your watch for dirt or dust in the speaker or microphone vents. If you find any, use a cotton swab to remove it. If debris is stubborn, Apple suggests rinsing the watch under lightly running, warm, fresh water until it’s clean.
6. To clean the Digital Crown, hold that part of the watch under lightly running, warm, fresh water and continuously press it to dislodge anything trapped between the Digital Crown and the housing.
7. Avoid using soaps, detergents, compressed air, or other cleaning products on your Apple Watch. Finally, dry the device using another piece of microfiber or lens cloth.
Now that you’ve cleaned the watch itself, let’s focus on the watch bands. The cleaning process for the bands depends on their material:
For Apple-branded leather bands, wipe the leather portions with a nonabrasive, lint-free cloth, moving your hand with the grain. You can use fresh water to clean light stains.
For all other bands, like the Solo Loop (silicone), Braided Solo Loop (polyester), Sport Band (fluoroelastomer rubber), Ocean Band (stretchable elastomer), and more, you can use a damp microfiber cloth or “mild hypoallergenic hand soaps” for washing. Ensure the band is completely dry before reattaching it to the watch. For third-party bands, follow the cleaning instructions provided by the manufacturer.
If you have a stainless-steel watch strap, you can dip it in warm, soapy water for about 20 seconds, then scrub away any stains with a soft-bristled brush and rinse it under clean running water.
Before reassembling your Apple Watch, clean the inner surface of any protective casing, especially the microphone and speaker vents, if applicable.