Is Your New Apple Watch Flickering or Turning Pink? It’s Not Just You

It seems that many more folks than usual are experiencing birthing pains with Apple’s fall 2023 product lineup, leaving the company scrambling to work on software updates to resolve issues.

First, we heard of users experiencing overheating problems with some of the new iPhone 15 Pro models, no doubt driven by their more powerful A17 Pro chip. While at least one analyst blamed this on “thermal compromises” in the design, Apple was able to address it in software, both in an iOS 17.0.3 update and by recommending fixes to third-party developers for apps like Instagram that were triggering whatever it was causing Apple’s flagship iPhones to heat up excessively.

Sadly, that doesn’t seem to have been the end of problems for iPhone 15 users, with some folks reporting “screen burn-in” — an issue that’s more likely image persistence rather than permanent burn-in that Apple claims will be fixed in iOS 17.1, slated for release next week.

Now, it looks like owners of the new Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 are having their own share of issues. In addition to problems with Weather Complications — a watchOS 10 issue that seems to be more frequently occurring on the new models — users on the MacRumors Forums, Reddit, and Apple Discussions have been reporting an odd flickering from their Apple wearables whenever they raise their wrists.

Thankfully, like the iPhone 15 issues, this doesn’t appear to be a hardware problem — or at least Apple doesn’t think so. In an internal service memo obtained by MacRumors, Apple acknowledges the issue and tells its Authorized Service Providers (AASPs) not to repair or replace watches affected by this issue.

Instead, Apple is telling providers to advise customers to “keep their Apple Watch software up to date.” While the flickering problem persists in watchOS 10.0.2, the latest version that’s publicly available as of this writing, it’s possible that Apple may have already addressed this in watchOS 10.1, which should arrive next week alongside iOS 17.1.

Notably, Apple doesn’t say which Apple Watch models are affected. However, all the reports we’ve seen are from users of the new 2023 models — the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 — suggesting that it may be related to the new S9 chip or brighter screen technology that Apple has added to this year’s models.

The problem also appears to be specific to the Apple Watch Always On display, so if you’re encountering this and find it annoying, you can always head into the Settings app on your Apple Watch and turn that off under Display & Brightness.

The memo also adds that Apple is investigating an issue where the Activity rings on the Apple Watch may “temporarily turn pink,” a problem that’s been reported by some Apple Watch Ultra 2 users. It’s unclear if this is in any way related to the screen flickering issue, but it’s something else that will likely be resolved in a future watchOS update.