How to get your Apple Watch to tell you the time out loud or chime on the hour

Your Apple Watch offers a few ways to let you know the current time without looking at your watch. It’s a nice feature if you can’t look at your watch or don’t want to.

With all of the things Apple Watches can do these days, it’s almost too easy to forget that the Apple Watch is a watch, and telling the time is one of its most essential functions!

So let’s review some of the ways that your Apple Watch can let you know the time without ever looking at its screen.

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Get your watch to announce the time using its speaker

Yes, your Apple Watch can speak the current time, making it easy to track time without looking.

You have to first set it up, then perform a simple gesture anytime you want to know the current time.

1. On your watch, open the Settings app.
2. Tap Clock.
3. Toggle on Speak Time.
4. Choose if you want it always to speak the time (Always Speak) or to mute when you turn on silent mode (Control with Silent Mode.)
5. Now check your alert volume by going to Settings > Sounds & Haptics. Verify that silent mode is off and that your alert volume is set somewhere in the middle.
   1. Adjust the volume by tapping the speaker icons or the current alert volume and adjusting via the Digital Crown.
6. To hear the current time, wake up the watch by tapping once on the screen or pressing the Digital Crown (if you don’t use an Always On display) and holding two fingers on your watch face.

Unfortunately, if your watch is locked (the screen is black), it won’t work. You need to tap from the watch face.

You can also adjust this setting on your iPhone using the Watch app.  Open the Watch app > My Watch tab > Clock app > Speak Time.

And if you want Mickey Mouse or Minne Mouse to tell you the time instead of Siri, use the Mickey Mouse or Minnie Mouse watch face.

Then place two fingers on your watch face, and Mickey or Minnie tells you the current time. 

Ask Siri!

Another option is to ask Siri to tell you the time by saying, “Hey Siri, what time is it?”

Siri speaks the current time and displays it on your watch screen.

Get your watch to chime on the hour using its speaker

Your Apple Watch can also chime each hour, just like an old-fashioned clock! 

For those that want their watch to chime every half hour or fifteen minutes, your Apple Watch can also do this using an accessibility setting.

Have your watch chime on the hour

1. Open the Settings app on your watch.
2. Choose the Clock app.
3. Toggle on Chimes.
4. Just underneath chimes, tap Sounds and choose either Bells or Birds.
5. Check your alert volume by going to Settings > Sounds & Haptics. Verify that silent mode is off and that your alert volume is set somewhere in the middle.
   1. Adjust the volume by tapping the speaker icons or the current alert volume and adjusting via the Digital Crown.

You can also adjust this setting on your iPhone using the Watch app.  Open the Watch app > My Watch tab > Clock app > Chimes. Don’t forget to choose your preferred sound (birds or bells.)

Have your watch chime every half hour or every 15 minutes

1. Open the Settings app and tap Accessibility.
2. Scroll down and tap Chimes.
3. Turn Chimes on.
4. Tap Schedule and choose if you want the chimes to play hourly or every 30 or 15 minutes.
5. Tap Sounds and change the chime to Birds or Bells.
6. Now check your alert volume by going to Settings > Sounds & Haptics. Verify that silent mode is off and that your alert volume is set somewhere in the middle.
   1. Adjust the volume by tapping the speaker icons or the current alert volume and adjusting via the Digital Crown.

You can also adjust this setting on your iPhone using the Watch app.  Open the Watch app > My Watch tab > Accessibility and turn on Chimes.

Then, set your preferred schedule (hourly, 30 minutes, or 15 minutes), and don’t forget to choose your desired sound (birds or bells.) 

Don’t want any sound? Feel the time with Taptic Chimes

If you don’t want your Apple Watch to use its speaker to chime the time, you can set up what Apple calls a taptic chime, which taps your wrist instead.

Taptic time is also an excellent option for people with hearing or vision limitations.

Admittedly, it takes some practice to get used to the taptic feeling and recognize the watch’s taptic pattern of vibrations on your wrist. But once you do, it’s really easy to know the time without looking at your watch.

1. On your watch, open Clock.
2. Either turn off Speak Time or select Control with Silent Mode. 
   1. When you select control with silent mode, you only feel the taptic time when silent mode (mute) is turned on.
3. Scroll down, select Taptic Time.
4. Toggle Taptic Time on.
5. Choose what taptic time option prefer:
   1. Digits: the watch taps out the 24-hour clock time in this pattern: every 10 hours is a long tap, and every hour is a short tap, followed by a long tap for every 10 minutes and a short tap for each minute.
      1. For example, 6:15 pm would be a pattern of one long tap (10 hours), 8 short taps (8 hours), one long tap (10 minutes), and five short taps (5 minutes)–remember 6:15 is 18:15 in the 24-clock.
   2. Terse: the watch taps in this pattern: a long tap for every 5 hours and a short tap for each additional hour, followed by a long tap for every 15 minutes.
      1. For example, 7:30 am would be a pattern of 1 long tap (5 hours), two short taps (2 hours), and two long taps (30 minutes.)
      2. With Terse, you get an approximate time within 15 minutes of the actual time.
   3. Morse Code: the watch taps the time out in Morse code digits.
6. Now check your haptic alert setting by going to Settings > Sounds & Haptics.
   1. Turn on Haptic Alerts.
   2. Adjust the haptic strength by tapping Default or Prominent.
7. To feel the current time by taptic touch, wake up the watch by tapping once on the screen or pressing the Digital Crown (if you don’t use an Always On display) and press and hold two fingers on your watch face.

You can also adjust these settings from your iPhone. On your iPhone, open the Watch app > My Watch tab > Clock and choose Taptic Time.

Although it might seem unnecessary, there are times when you don’t want to (or can’t) look at your watch’s screen–like when in a meeting, at the movies, at a live performance, or other times when looking at your watch isn’t appropriate or would be distracting to others.

Final thoughts

I find having my watch speak (or tap) the time quite convenient, especially when I’m in meetings, with friends, or in other professional and social environments where I don’t feel comfortable looking at my watch.

Speaking the time or tapping it is also a great option for folks with vision or hearing limitations.

The downside is that the watch must be on its watch face, either by using an Always On display or waking it up.