Apple Watch sudden battery drain?

What are people's actual usage and standby times? I get about 14 hours of standby and 1:30 minutes of actual use before the % goes to zero. And that is with zero apps, Siri off, no notifications and just using the watch to tell time.

Can people post their actual usage and standby times?

Good news, everyone. My series 4 watch is back to excellent battery performance. I have no idea why and nothing on my side has changed. Im running 6.1.1 and iOS 13.3 on my XR. I do use Siri (a bit) and workouts and a few other things. I hope others experience improved performance too. It’s only been a few days for me and I’ll report back if anything changes.

Same here. Noticed the improvement Friday night. Had a few days over the past month where things seemed to be better so I didn’t want to assume it was fixed, but since Friday evening watch has functioned as normal. Losing approximately 1-2%/hr as opposed to to 10% for the last month. Assuming it was something on Apple’s end as I didn’t make any changes over the weekend. Hope everyone else is seeing the same improvement!

I posted a few weeks back that my series 4 battery issue mysteriously disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared. However, my experience since has been as random as DaveH described. I quit posting about it because I'm so frustrated. At least I can get through “my” day, about 15-18 hours with minimal use. Now I am about to replace my bluetooth earbuds and while the AirPod Pro looks amazing, I’m reading their last firmware update caused mysterious problems that Apple has yet to acknowledge, let alone fix. Fool me once, Apple...

Started using my AW 5 Nike edition on New Year's Day, so I couldn't opt to stick with a previous WatchOS version as it updated automatically to 6.1.1 upon activation. In the beginning I had about 14-15 hours with minimal to moderate use. However, as I was not happy with such performance (still too short of advertised 18 hours), I followed all suggested workarounds including factory reset and re-pair as new. After this, I have about 12 hours only, with the same use and with no third-party apps added (only the native ones). Discharge rate is at 8% per hour (I check every hour) -previously it was at 6%, still too much. I even tried switching off AOD, noise detection and Siri raise-to-speak, to no avail.

I really wonder what is happening, and when will Apple address the issue. I don't want to return to 14-15 hours, but at least reach the advertised battery life. My three-years-old AW 2, with the same OS (6.1.1) and same use was lasting at least 20 hours even until I stopped using it.

Update: last night I charged my watch to 100%, then switched it off immediately. I switched it on about 13 hours later, and the battery gauge was showing 89%. Is it a battery fault (hardware), or a gauge fault (software)?

I probably didn't make my point clear. I don't mean it was "just sitting there" (which means I took it off the charger and left it on a desk). I mean that I SWITCHED it OFF when it reached 100% of charging, and when I switched it on again after 13 hours, the gauge was showing 89%. How normal is it, while my three-years-old AW 2 showed 98% (from 100% charge) after having been switched off for 20 days?

I still consider losing 11% being switched off, not normal at all. Thank you for your advice, but what do you mean "dictation"? I had switched off "Siri raise to speak" (and still keep it off) if you mean that, but the result was the same, if not worse.

It is clearly not an issue of third party apps, as I had not installed any third party apps after the re-pair (with Setup as new) that I did, and the problem was even worse than before (with third party apps installed).

My 3-years-old Series 2 has not had this issue either, even on 6.1.1. I was planning to give it to my wife, but as I notice the problem on my Series 5 worsening day by day, I am thinking seriously to revert back to my Series 2 and leave Series 5 in the drawer until the next WatchOS update. And God only knows if Apple will -or can- address the issue in the next update, or if we have to wait for five more months.

Yesterday evening (before going to bed) I installed iOS 13.3.1 and WatchOS 6.1.2 (both official releases). Started using the watch this morning, and so far (for the first three hours) the results are even WORSE: the watch battery drains about 10-11% per hour...

Also did update, installed on watch and no improvement. My main concern now is, IF apple ever sort this problem out, how much damage would have been done to the battery already? And will apple admit to the cause then of the damaged battery? It is overall a very big inconvenience.

Signed out of iCloud on my iPhone, left it for an hour, and then signed back in. Same watch use (as usual daily use), no difference while signed out of iCloud. Still at 10-11% after yesterday's iOS/WatchOS updates.

I do not possess, or use, any MacBook, however. So, in my case (and in the case of many other people), there must be another reason for the drain. So far, I have stopped using the watch because it would run out of power at about 6 p.m., rendering itself useless. I wonder if iOS 13.4 and/or WatchOS 6.2, whose Betas have been given to the developers, will address the issue or not.

Today, after coming back from work, I decided to switch on the watch again, after having switched it off (from fully charged) for five and a half days. Guess what: it was completely "dead", it needed to be put on the charger again. I think this can't be a software issue anymore, can it? When I bought it and activated it for the first time, it still had more than 60-70% power, and it was there unused since construction.

Could you please support your opinion that it's not a battery defect? How do you assess then, that my 3-years-old AW 2 lost only 2% after being switched off for 20 days? Or that even this AW 5, when bought, was sealed in its box (probably for weeks or even months after construction) and still had more than 60% power upon first activation?