Apple Watch "Always On" only shows time

The screenshot that you provided rings a bell to me! It seems to do that to all of us.

You have an app open in the background. I can't tell what app it is but what's in the background is NOT your home screen.

The home screen is where you'd be seeing all of your complications.

From that screen that you're on in your screenshot, press the Digital Crown to return to your home screen.

You can change this setting and I believe that it will automatically take you back to your home screen when you're not actively using your watch:

From the paired iPhone, open the Watch app and click on General. Scroll down to and click on "Return to Clock". Change it to "Always" (you might have it set to "After 1 Hour" right now).

I followed first hint in this article (https://www.payetteforward.com/my-apple-watch-only-shows-the-time-heres-the-real-fix/) and it resolved issue with only showing time when wrist is down. Mentioned button is the one that you need to hold to get into sos or shutdown menu, not the crown. Once you are in the menu just press cancel and watch face starts behaving as expected again. Seems like something chashes on the watch and it gets stuck in power saving mode of some sort.

Thanks for getting back to us Talywkr, it’s appreciated.

Do you use your Apple Watch to track your sleep? Track your sleep with Apple Watch - Apple Support

If you do, on your Apple Watch go to Settings > Sleep, and make sure “Sleep Screen” isn’t on.

If your Apple Watch only shows the time after that, please reach out to Apple Support: Get Support

All the best.

As of firmware 9.4 this issue seems to be solved. Now the screen just dims as it should, not blurred and covered by a digital clock.

I had the same issue on my Ultra that started after a full restore. What I did that worked was to hard reset the watch: press and hold both the crown and right button for at least 10 seconds until the Apple logo appears, then release. I hope this works for you too! Cheers.

Solution: turn the watch off and on again. Got this annoying behavior a few days ago. I think after the watch was out of battery once and came back on when charging. I checked the discussions at the Apple Forums but so far people seem to just accept it or blaming it in “old” code of Complications. However, since Apple’s own complications were effected as well, I could not believe the reasoning. Just did what anyone should do first if an electronic device acts up. Turn it off an on again.

Hi, I have similar issue, indeed return to clock was set to 2 minutes, without me doing it. So now I have changed to 'always', but the time overlay still appear. I've click the crown to exit the app and return to home screen. Wrist down and the time overlay still there 🤔🤔

Update:

Opps it works after a restart of the watch.. Thanks

I read that an app may be hung, and that restarting the watch (off, then on) would fix.

It worked for me!

I was seeing this exact same thing. I shut down the watch completely for a few minutes. booted it back up and it seems to be working as normal now. In wrist down mode, it just fades the regular clock face instead of the simple digital time face.

I came here because of the same

issue and nothing working. I kept going through settings, and turning ON Background App Refresh made it all work again.

This didn't immediately work for me, but after restarting my Watch, it did fix the issue, thank you!

Hi folks, I faced the same issue for a few days. I have a series 7. I power cycled my watched and the issue is fixed…at least for now. Give it a shot! Let me know if it worked for you.

Try simply holding the power button on your watch until the screen where you can emergency call/siren pops up. That fixed mine. Apparently whenever you do that it toggles Reserve Battery mode on and off and when that is on, only the digital clock shows.

Hello Talywkr,

Thanks for the update. If you haven't already, make sure both devices are running the latest software versions. This can sometimes sort out unexpected issues like the one you're experiencing:

Update your Apple Watch - Apple Support

Update your iPhone or iPad - Apple Support

Should the issue persist after that, or if you are already running the latest software, try unpairing your Apple Watch and setting it up again. When you unpair, a backup of your Apple Watch is automatically created.

You can find steps for unpairing your Apple Watch and setting it up again here:

Unpair and erase your Apple Watch - Apple Support

Set up your Apple Watch - Apple Support

We hope that helps.

Take care.