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Watch burned my skin

I received my Apple Watch 3 new in January 2019. I had no issues with the watch until the end of April. Then I noticed the area under my watch face starting to get red. I did not take pictures when I first noticed it but included pictures from its development. The first one was taken on April 26 and the second on April 29. I have moved the watch from the left arm to the right arm and now the skin on my right arm is just beginning to develop a similar circle. I am seeing comments about this potentially being a rash but the skin looks clearly burned.


I submitted a request to Apple Support on Apr 26 but they never replied. I have scheduled a call with them tomorrow. What is apple telling others? Has anyone seen a doctor to verify if they have a burn or skin irritation?

April 26



April 29



Apple Watch Series 3, watchOS 5

Posted on May 5, 2019 10:57 PM

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Posted on May 6, 2019 4:16 AM

It is completely irrelevant what anyone else did, or what their doctor might have said. Every case is different, every human is slightly different. The best a advice (and I think you already know this) is to stop wearing the watch until you have a solution, and consult your doctor to start finding a solution. You and your doctor might find the list of potential skin sensitively issues useful in Wearing your Apple Watch - Apple Support

4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

May 6, 2019 4:16 AM in response to rein-lm

It is completely irrelevant what anyone else did, or what their doctor might have said. Every case is different, every human is slightly different. The best a advice (and I think you already know this) is to stop wearing the watch until you have a solution, and consult your doctor to start finding a solution. You and your doctor might find the list of potential skin sensitively issues useful in Wearing your Apple Watch - Apple Support

May 6, 2019 12:01 PM in response to rein-lm

I've had this happen before to a milder extent, and cleaning the watch seemed to do the trick. Keep in mind that receiving a thermal burn from an iWatch is an extremely rare occurrence. To me that looks like mild contact dermatitis, which has been reported before by some wearers. Your doctor/dermatologist would need to confirm what it is, especially if it persists or worsens. Contact dermatitis isn't uncommon if someone wears their watch too tightly, loose, or if they do not clean the watch regularly. I don't even wear mine in the shower, since moisture can get trapped beneath, and I easily get dyshidrotic eczema from that sort of thing. Sometimes irritation can be from a nickel allergy caused from traces within the metal.


Without knowing how frequently your watch surface is cleaned, frequency of wear, and such, I don't want to give advice based off of assumption. If it were me personally, I'd try cleaning my watch (I use Zeiss lens wipes) & moisturizing the skin regularly, since dry skin can worsen dermatitis and make your skin more susceptible to injury overall. But if the skin is very painful, or if you literally feel the watch heating up beyond what feels normal, I wouldn't wear it again and take the issue up with Apple as you already have been trying to do.

Watch burned my skin

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