Smartwatch test - screen, touch and sensors

Most of this is manual, and the page says so

A smartwatch is the hardest device here to test from a browser, and the honest answer is that most of it cannot be. Watch browsers are limited or absent — the Apple Watch has no general-purpose browser at all — so this flow is designed to be run beside the watch rather than on it.

That means nearly every result is recorded as a user confirmation. It is still worth doing: a structured checklist with a graded report is what a buyer needs, and a checklist that pretends to have measured things it did not is worse than no checklist.

What to check

Display colours and touch response, the crown or rotating bezel, the side buttons, charging on the correct puck, Bluetooth pairing to a phone, the heart-rate sensor, wrist detection, and the state of the crown and strap.

Pairing and account lock

A watch still paired to somebody else's phone or account is close to worthless. Have it unpaired in front of you. On an Apple Watch, unpairing through the iPhone is what removes Activation Lock — a factory reset from the watch itself does not.

Straps and water resistance

Straps are cheap and replaceable, so a worn strap is a small deduction. Water resistance cannot be verified at all: a watch that has been opened for a battery or screen replacement has usually lost its seal, and no test short of a pressure rig will tell you.

Related tools

Touchscreen test, vibration test, dead pixel test.