{"id":422422,"date":"2026-01-22T07:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T07:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/422422\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T07:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T07:24:09","slug":"taptic-time-get-the-time-without-looking-at-your-apple-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/422422\/","title":{"rendered":"Taptic Time: Get the time without looking at your Apple Watch"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Pro<\/a> You can get the time without even looking at your Apple Watch using a little-known feature called Taptic Time. Simply hold two fingers on the device\u2019s screen, and the watch will tap out the time on your wrist.<\/p>\n

This is handy if you\u2019re in a meeting and need to know the time, but you don\u2019t want to look rude checking your watch. Or maybe you\u2019re in the middle of a presidential debate<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Whatever the situation, turning on this little-known Apple Watch feature \u2014 and familiarizing yourself with how it works \u2013can come in handy.<\/p>\n

Taptic Time: How to get the time without looking at your Apple Watch<\/p>\n

The Apple Watch<\/a> has always been about knowing the time at a glance. But what if you never had to look at your watch at all? Taptic Time turns the sleek smartwatch into a subtle, tactile timepiece. With a simple two-finger press, the watch\u2019s Taptic Engine vibrates out the hour and minutes in a pattern you can feel on your skin.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s part accessibility tool, part discreet status update \u2014 and it\u2019s perfect for meetings, movies or other moments when a glowing screen would seem gauche. Good luck getting your Casio<\/a> or Rolex<\/a> to do that for you.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how to turn on Taptic Time (and how to decode those taps on your wrist).<\/p>\n

Enable Taptic Time
\n\"Two<\/a>Apple buries many advanced Apple Watch features in the Settings app.
Screenshot: D. Griffin Jones\/Cult of Mac<\/p>\n

On your Apple Watch, go to\u00a0Settings and scroll down to\u00a0Clock. Scroll down past Chimes and Speak Time<\/a>, and you\u2019ll see another option for Taptic Time. Tap that and turn it on.<\/p>\n

You can choose one of three haptic patterns:<\/p>\n

Digits will tap out the precise hours and minutes in long and short buzzes. Tens are represented by long buzzes, and ones by short taps. If it\u2019s 12:35 p.m., for example, the taps will be \u2014 \u00b7 \u00b7 \u2014 \u2014 \u2014 \u00b7 \u00b7 \u00b7 \u00b7 \u00b7.
\nTerse will produce a long buzz for every five hours, a short buzz for every single hour, and a long buzz for the nearest 15 minutes. If it\u2019s 6:47 a.m., for example, you will feel these taps: \u2014 \u00b7 \u2014 \u2014 \u2014.
\nMorse code will tap out every number in the current time using Morse code<\/a>. (If you don\u2019t know Morse code, you can learn it here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Digits feels like the most intuitive option to me, so I stick with that. After you\u2019ve enabled Taptic Time and picked your pattern, press the Digital Crown (the dial) to go back to your Apple Watch\u2019s face.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>Hold down on the Apple Watch face to feel the time.
Photo: D. Griffin Jones\/Cult of Mac<\/p>\n

Now that you\u2019ve got Taptic Time running, you can activate it by holding two fingers on your Apple Watch screen anytime it\u2019s on.<\/p>\n

I actually wish this feature worked while the watch face was off, too. That would make using Taptic Time even more discreet. And that would enable it for a bunch of other useful situations: watching a movie in a theater or riding an airplane on an overnight flight, where the bright screen might bother people next to me.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think it would take any extra battery life to enable it. And I can\u2019t imagine there would be many false positives for such a weird gesture that requires you to hold your fingers on the screen.<\/p>\n

More Apple Watch how-tos<\/p>\n

How to use Water Lock on Apple Watch<\/a>
\nHow to silence your Apple Watch, use Do Not Disturb and theater mode<\/a>
\nEasy Apple Watch hack will keep you on time, even if you\u2019re always late<\/a>
\nHow to track your Apple Watch activity rings and pause your streak<\/a>
\nHow to connect Apple Watch to a Planet Fitness treadmill<\/a>
\nHow to find your lost iPhone with Apple Watch<\/a><\/p>\n

We originally published this article on Taptic Time on July 19, 2023. We updated it with the latest information on September 25, 2024, and January 21, 2026.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

D. Griffin Jones is a writer, podcaster<\/a> and video producer<\/a> for Cult of Mac. Griffin has been a passionate computer enthusiast since 2002, when he got his first PC \u2014 but since getting a Mac in 2008, he hasn\u2019t turned back. His skills in graphic and web design, along with video and podcast editing, are self-taught over 20+ years. Griffin has a bachelor\u2019s degree in computer science and has written several (unpublished) apps for Mac and iOS. His collection of old computers is made up of 40+ desktops, laptops, PDAs and devices, dating back to the early \u201980s. He brings all of these creative and technical skills, along with a deep knowledge of Apple history, into his work for Cult of Mac.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You can get the time without even looking at your Apple Watch using a little-known feature called Taptic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[516,201515,166,74,452],"class_list":{"0":"post-422422","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gadgets","8":"tag-apple-watch","9":"tag-apple-watch-how-to","10":"tag-gadgets","11":"tag-technology","12":"tag-top-stories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}