watchOS 10.5 fixes the battery drain bug: update your Apple Watch now

About a month ago we wrote about our observations of Apple Watch users running watchOS 10.4: The then-latest update could quickly bring even a relatively new Apple Watch or its battery to its knees, which is why the smartwatch only lasted a few hours on a single load.

We were also able to prove the battery problems in practice with an Apple Watch Series 9, that is, only six months old, but under certain conditions: if I recorded a workout, the smartwatch consumed about one percent battery per minute. As a result, I had to briefly charge the watch at least several times during a walk of several hours.

Last week, Apple released watchOS 10.5 along with other systems. As is often the case, release notes were rather sparse: Apple promoted a new watch face for Pride Month and fixed undefined bugs.

I’ve now put it to the test and observed the Apple Watch battery under the same scenario last weekend. Neither during a 6.5-hour walk nor during a slightly longer 7.5-hour walk did the watch warn me in the middle of the day that it was 10% full, as was the case under watchOS 10.4.

Based on these observations, I assume that unusually fast battery drain has been resolved with watchOS 10.5, so update your Apple Watch to this version as soon as possible.