Two weeks ago, I upgraded from a 40mm Apple Watch SE 2 to a 42mm Apple Watch Series 10. New wearables are great, and the Apple Watch Series 10’s battery life is at the top of the list of reasons why. This device typically lasts 30 to 36 hours on a single charge. The only thing I changed was the Always On display feature.
I’ve already used Apple Watch Series 10 to track my training for an upcoming marathon race and completed my first competitive half marathon. It’s worth noting that I finished a 21K race with 46% battery life left, about 16 hours after I took it off the charger.
However, the Apple Watch Series 10 has some very annoying issues. One of these concerns heart rate tracking during activity, a bug we first encountered in the early beta release of watchOS 11. The second has to do with weather complications, which can cause it to stop working unexpectedly. Some Apple Watch users have also encountered this bug before.
Fortunately, there are fixes for both, and we hope they’ll be resolved in a future watchOS 11 update.
heart rate bug
Shortly after installing watchOS 11 beta 1 on my older Apple Watch SE 2, I noticed that the Watch was having trouble reading my heart rate during some workouts. Heart rate information should be displayed on the screen in real time. If it malfunctions, a “beach ball” will appear in its place. The heart rate value will be grayed out and the heart icon will have a small animation to indicate that the watch is not taking pulse readings.
I didn’t think the wearable was tight enough, so I kept adjusting it until I saw a heart rate reading. This used to happen during the first kilometer.
As you can see in the screenshot from the iPhone’s Fitness app, the Watch can’t register heart rate data. Therefore, it will not appear in the statistics.
The unofficial solution my editor Zach Epstein shared with me at the time was to check your pulse on your watch’s dedicated heart rate app right before you started your workout. I did that for most of the summer until Apple finally fixed the problem. In fact, I was so used to checking my pulse before starting a workout that I missed the exact moment Apple fixed the bug. Or so I thought.
I believed this issue had been resolved by the time I purchased my Apple Watch Series 10, but imagine my surprise when I learned that the heart rate sensor wasn’t measuring during some of my workouts. please. This is a very annoying bug as I primarily use my Apple Watch to track health data, including workouts.
I experienced heart rate bugs while running and walking. Usually it happens right after the start of the workout. However, I noticed that my heart rate was not being recorded even during the second half of my run.
These examples are brief and the fixes are the same. I end up repositioning my Apple Watch Series 10 on my wrist even though I shouldn’t have to. I tried not to mess with the wearable and went for a run to see how long it took for the sensor to give me a reading. It was obviously quite disappointing as it was over a kilometer.
Bugs that complicate the weather
The weather complexity issue is an even older bug in watchOS. This first appeared in watchOS 10 about a year ago, but I never experienced it with the Apple Watch SE 2. Or if it did happen, it didn’t last long. This bug prevents weather information from appearing in on-screen complications. Although annoying, it’s not as serious as the heart rate monitoring issue.
Somehow, this bug has resurfaced and weather information is often not displayed on Apple Watch Series 10 complications. This is another important piece of data I look for in my Watch. I run and walk a lot so I always check the weather to make the most of it. The weather complication on Apple Watch Series 10 doesn’t display temperature or other information.
I don’t know what’s causing the weather problem. It happens when I wear the watch and after I take it out of the charger. I don’t understand why my Watch isn’t showing weather information. I suspected the internet connection on my iPhone 16 Plus, but it wasn’t.
The fix here is actually quite simple. Just tap the weather complication to load the weather app. There you can travel between cities and check weather parameters for your area. When you return to the watch face, the missing data will be displayed in the additional weather forecast features. If it doesn’t work on the first try, start the process again.
I’m running a beta version of watchOS 11, so it could be a software issue. Either drop out of beta or wait for Apple to roll out fixes for known bugs.
