Can You Charge An Apple Watch Without The Apple Charger?

While wearables like the "benchmark" Apple Watch have made our lives easier, allowing us to stay connected at all times of the day and night, they also have a big problem — they tend to have a short battery life. Apple designed its watch to be worn all day, and the battery should last about 18 hours after an overnight charge. However, as anyone who's ever worn one knows, life happens, and it's not uncommon to lose the charger that came with your watch, leave home without charging the battery, or forget it at the office. In these situations, you may find yourself staring down an Apple Watch with a battery on its last legs.

If that's happened to you, you know how quickly those 18 hours can fly by, threatening to leave you without access to all the features that help you get through the day. If you have your Apple charger with you, this isn't much of a problem, though — all you have to do is find a power outlet and charge it. Questions start to arise when you don't have a charger, and there's no one around who can lend you one. The good news is you don't have to endure hours with a dead watch or rush out and buy a new charger. As long as you have the magnetic charging cable, you can charge your Apple Watch without its brand charger.

If you've bought Apple products in the past few years, you've probably noticed they ship with the bare minimum. Whether you ordered an Apple Series Ultra 2 Watch or the iPhone 15 with its evolving benefits, you probably noticed it didn't come with a wall charger or headphones — the things that used to come standard with many Apple devices. Your first thought may be the brand is just trying to make extra money by forcing users to buy these items separately, but the company says it has done so as a part of a larger effort to become carbon neutral by 2023.

Not including a charger reduces the size of the box your Apple product ships in and encourages users to reuse existing accessories, which could reduce electronic waste. Apple has received a lot of praise from environmentalists about its move. Still, some have questioned whether these changes will result in an actual reduction in greenhouse gas emissions or if Apple's claims are overstated. Whatever the case may be, there are no signs Apple is planning to change its stance. As much as consumers may dislike this policy, if they want to remain in the Apple ecosystem, they have to make do without wall chargers or purchase them separately.

Knowing the differences between a charging cable and a power source is key to understanding how your Apple Watch is charged and why you can charge it without an Apple Charger. When you order an Apple Watch, it comes with a magnetic charging cable, which allows you to transfer power from a power source to your device. However, no power comes from this charging cable. Instead, you need to connect it to a power source that provides electric energy to charge your watch.

You can use the power source of your liking to achieve this goal. A USB port on a computer, a portable battery pack, or a wall charger plugged into an outlet are all power sources that can juice your Apple Watch. It's important to remember that you need both the magnetic charging cable and a power source to charge your watch, because the wearable's cable uses magnetic inductive charging and is specially designed to align with the watch's interface. Without it, there's no way to transfer power from the power source to the device.

Even if you don't have an Apple charger, you still have a lot of options for charging your Apple Watch. Using your computer's USB port is an easy way if you don't have access to an Apple charger. All you have to do is connect the magnetic charger to your watch and plug the other end into the USB port. Your watch may charge more slowly with this method than with an Apple charger, but if you're working on your computer, this can be a convenient way to charge your watch without using a power outlet. 

If you'd like to say goodbye to cables, you also have the option of using wireless charging with your Apple Watch. Options like the MagSafe Duo Charger let users charge their Apple Watch and iPhone at the same time. When you're on the road, you can power your watch with a car charger; just connect it using the magnetic charging cable. When choosing this method, you should only use an Apple or MFi (Made for iPhone/iPad/Apple Watch) certified charger. Doing so guarantees the product you're using meets Apple's safety and performance standards and will charge it efficiently without damaging your device.