While it’s highly unlikely that your Apple Watch will be stolen, there is always a chance, especially if you wear it all the time. Here’s what to do if your Apple Watch is stolen.
The Apple Watch is a little different when it comes to theft. First of all, stealing an Apple Watch is much more difficult because it’s a device that actually wears on your wrist, rather than just being put in a pocket or purse. Frankly, it’s much easier to steal an iPhone.
But having your Apple Watch stolen is something that can happen, especially if you take it out for a short time and leave it somewhere, or perhaps put it in your bag on your commute. Granted, some people watch their Apple Watch 24/7, but other users don’t.
If you discover your Apple Watch has been stolen, there isn’t much you can do compared to a stolen iPhone, but there are still a few things to keep in mind if your Apple Watch is lost.
Update to watchOS 2
While this isn’t really something you can do afterward, updating your Apple Watch to watchOS 2 adds Activation Lock to your wearable, making it impossible for anyone else to pair your Apple Watch with your iPhone or pair and use your Apple Watch. With a new iPhone without knowing your Apple ID password.
Prior to watchOS 2, anyone could steal your Apple Watch and easily pair it with their iPhone with no further action required, which was pretty scary, but now that Apple Watch has Activation Lock, hopefully lessens the temptation for thieves to steal your smartwatch. .
“Find My Apple Watch”
A great tool you can use to track down a stolen iPhone or iPad is Find My iPhone, which lets you see the location of your stolen iPhone unless the thief hasn’t turned off or disabled data and GPS. If they did, your iPhone will at least send you the last known location of your device and hopefully make it easier to find.
However, Find My Apple Watch isn’t available as the smartwatch itself doesn’t have GPS, so there’s no way to know where your stolen Apple Watch is.
That’s kind of a bummer, but not too surprising, and we probably won’t see the Find My Apple Watch app for Apple Watch until future models of the Apple Watch come with built-in GPS.
Mark Missing in Apple Watch App
If you open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone and tap the Apple Watch at the top, you’ll see a button called Mark Missing that you can press.
When you press this button, several things happen (via Apple’s website):
These are two pretty important features that you’ll want enabled when your Apple Watch is stolen, so keep that in mind if it ever comes up.
Go to the Police and File a Complaint
Since you can’t track the location of your Apple Watch after it was stolen, you can at least go to the police and file a complaint.
Give them as much information as possible, including your Apple Watch’s serial number, which can be found in the Apple Watch app.
If you don’t know who stole your Apple Watch or where it is, the police are unlikely to help you, but at least you have an official report you can use for insurance if needed.
