Nothing derails the smartwatch experience quite like running out of battery mid-day. Whether you're training for a marathon or simply want to track your sleep without nightly charging, understanding what drains your watch—and how to prevent it—can dramatically improve your daily experience.

After testing dozens of smartwatches and experimenting with countless setting combinations, we've compiled the most effective strategies to extend your battery life without sacrificing the features you actually use.

Understanding What Drains Your Battery

Before diving into solutions, it helps to understand the primary power consumers in your smartwatch. These components and features have the biggest impact:

  • Display: The screen is typically the largest battery drain, especially on watches with AMOLED or always-on displays
  • GPS: Continuous location tracking during outdoor activities uses significant power
  • Heart rate monitoring: Constant optical sensor readings consume battery throughout the day
  • Connectivity: Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and cellular connections all require power
  • Notifications: Screen wake-ups and haptic vibrations for each alert add up
  • Background apps: Apps running in the background can silently drain battery

Display Settings: The Biggest Impact

Adjusting your display settings offers the most significant battery savings. Here's what to consider:

Always-On Display

The always-on display (AOD) feature keeps your watch face visible at all times, even when you're not actively looking at it. While convenient, this feature can reduce battery life by 20-30% on most smartwatches.

If you're comfortable with raise-to-wake or tapping the screen to check the time, disabling AOD is the single most effective way to extend battery life. Most users find they adapt within a day or two.

Compromise Option

Some watches offer scheduled AOD, where the always-on display only activates during certain hours (like 9 AM to 6 PM). This gives you the convenience when you need it while conserving battery overnight.

Screen Brightness

Reducing screen brightness conserves significant battery. Most smartwatches offer automatic brightness adjustment based on ambient light—enable this feature rather than setting a fixed high brightness level.

On AMOLED displays, using watch faces with darker backgrounds and fewer bright elements also helps, since AMOLED technology only powers the individual pixels that light up.

Screen Timeout

The shorter your screen timeout, the less time your display stays on after each interaction. Set this to the minimum comfortable duration—usually 5 or 10 seconds rather than 15 or 30.

Optimising Health Monitoring

Health sensors are core to the smartwatch experience, but you can adjust their frequency without losing valuable data.

Heart Rate Monitoring

Most smartwatches offer options for heart rate monitoring frequency:

  • Continuous: Measures every few seconds—most accurate but highest battery drain
  • Every 10 minutes: Good balance of data and battery efficiency
  • Manual only: Only measures when you request it—maximum battery savings

For general wellness tracking, measuring every 10 minutes provides sufficient data while meaningfully extending battery life. Switch to continuous monitoring only when you need precise workout data.

Did You Know?

During workouts, your watch typically switches to continuous heart rate monitoring automatically, regardless of your general setting. You won't miss important exercise data by using a less frequent setting for daily wear.

Blood Oxygen Monitoring

If your watch includes SpO2 (blood oxygen) tracking, consider whether you genuinely need 24/7 monitoring. Many users enable this feature during initial setup but rarely check the data. Disabling continuous SpO2 monitoring can add hours to your battery life.

Managing Connectivity

Wi-Fi Settings

Many smartwatches use Wi-Fi to sync data and download updates when Bluetooth range is limited. If you always have your phone nearby, you can often disable Wi-Fi entirely without losing functionality. Your watch will simply use Bluetooth instead, which consumes less power.

Cellular/LTE

If you have a cellular-capable smartwatch, the LTE radio is a significant battery drain. Only enable cellular connectivity when you actually need to leave your phone behind. Most users can keep it disabled 90% of the time.

Bluetooth

While Bluetooth is essential for phone connectivity, ensure your watch isn't constantly searching for disconnected audio devices or other accessories if you don't use them.

Notification Management

Every notification that lights up your screen and vibrates your wrist uses battery. More importantly, excessive notifications diminish the smartwatch experience by creating constant distractions.

  • Disable notifications from apps you don't need to see on your wrist
  • Use "Do Not Disturb" schedules during sleep or focused work time
  • Consider disabling vibration for less important alerts
  • Group notifications when possible to reduce wake-up frequency

Spending 10 minutes curating your notification settings pays dividends in both battery life and mental peace.

GPS Best Practices

GPS tracking is power-intensive, but there are ways to minimise its impact:

  • Pre-download maps: If your watch supports offline maps, downloading your regular running routes prevents battery-draining data fetching
  • Use connected GPS: Some watches can use your phone's GPS signal, which is often more power-efficient than the watch's internal GPS
  • Lower GPS accuracy: For casual activities, lower-frequency GPS sampling still provides good route tracking with reduced battery impact

Key Takeaway: Priority Order for Battery Savings

  • Disable or schedule always-on display (20-30% improvement)
  • Reduce heart rate monitoring frequency (10-15% improvement)
  • Manage notification volume (5-10% improvement)
  • Disable unused connectivity features (5-10% improvement)
  • Adjust screen brightness and timeout (5-10% improvement)

Charging Best Practices

How you charge also affects long-term battery health:

  • Avoid extreme temperatures: Don't charge your watch in direct sunlight or freezing conditions
  • Don't drain completely: Modern lithium batteries prefer partial discharges over full drain cycles
  • Establish a routine: Consistent charging habits (like every morning during your shower) ensure you're never caught with a dead watch

When to Expect Battery Replacement

All rechargeable batteries degrade over time. After 2-3 years of regular use, you may notice your smartwatch doesn't hold a charge as long as it once did. This is normal—lithium-ion batteries typically retain 80% of their original capacity after 500 charge cycles.

Some manufacturers offer battery replacement services. If your watch battery degradation becomes significant, this can be more cost-effective than purchasing a new device, especially for premium models.

With these optimisations in place, most users find their smartwatch battery concerns disappear. The key is finding the right balance between the features you value and the runtime you need.