Apple Watch Bug Shifts Time by 1 Hour After Fall-Back Change

Q: Why does your Apple Watch's Always On display hide a secret time glitch that vanishes the moment you raise your wrist?

It happens because the bug is in the Apple Watch’s Always On display layer, not in the watch’s actual timekeeping. After the daylight-saving time change, some Apple Watches keep showing the pre-change hour on the dimmed, wrist-down screen. But when you raise your wrist or tap the display, the watch wakes into its active display mode and reloads the correct, updated time. That is why the “wrong” time seems to disappear instantly. Apple’s support note says alarms and normal timekeeping are not affected. The problem is limited to what the Always On face renders while the screen is dimmed. That fits how the feature works: the wrist-down display uses a low-power, simplified version of the watch face that updates differently from the fully active screen. In this bug, that low-power face appears not to refresh properly after the daylight-saving switch. Apple has not publicly given a technical root cause or named specific models or watchOS builds. But its fixes point to a display-refresh problem: restarting the watch or switching to another watch face and back forces the face to reload, which usually restores the correct hour. Apple also says the issue should correct itself by midnight after the time change. So the “secret glitch” is really a daylight-saving rendering error on the Always On watch face, hidden as soon as the watch switches to its fully awake display.

Q: Could a deceptive display glitch on your smartwatch trick you into panicking over a perfectly safe morning alarm?

Yes, it could briefly make you think something is wrong, but it should not endanger your morning alarm. Apple says the daylight-saving bug affects only the Apple Watch’s Always On display when the wrist is down. In affected cases, the dimmed home screen can show a time that is about one hour off after clocks change. But when the user raises the wrist or taps the screen, the active display shows the correct time. That matters because Apple says alarms are not affected. The watch is still keeping correct time internally, so an alarm should ring when it is supposed to. The problem is a display glitch, not a full timekeeping failure. So the realistic risk is confusion, not a missed wake-up call. A user glancing at the dimmed screen could think they overslept or that an alarm failed, even though the watch itself is operating normally. That could certainly trigger a moment of panic, especially early in the morning. Apple’s advice is straightforward: restart the watch, or switch to another watch face and then back to the original one. If users do nothing, Apple says the glitch should correct itself by midnight after the daylight-saving change. The practical takeaway is to verify the time by waking the screen before assuming the watch is wrong. If the bright screen shows the correct hour, the alarm system should still be safe.

3 articles · Updated · Tom's Guide · Nov 3

Some Apple Watches are showing the wrong time by one hour after the weekend fall-back daylight-saving change, despite normally updating automatically.
Apple says a restart may fix the issue; if not, switching to a new watch face and then back to the original one corrects the display.
The workaround requires adding any new face through the iPhone Watch app, then resetting the preferred face as current.
The bug does not appear widespread, but it could still disrupt alarms and create confusion for users relying on the watch for timekeeping.