An update to watchOS 10 has been released with bug fixes, which address the excessive battery drain seen by some Apple Watch users.
Following the release of watchOS 10.1 on October 25, 2023 — which introduced Double Tap — some users experienced significant battery drain. This isn’t unusual when a device has first been updated, but in this case the drain didn’t improve.
It’s not clear what caused the problem, but reportedly it affected some number of users with Apple Watch Series 5 or later, and Apple Watch Ultra. Apple acknowledged the problem on November 6, 2023, and committed to fixing it with a forthcoming software update.
To update to the latest version of watchOS 10, users should first open the Watch app on their iPhone. Then on the My Watch tab, choose General, Software Update.