Use Mark as Missing on Lost Apple Watch to Enable Activation Lock

Apple Watch includes a feature called Mark As Missing, which is similar to iCloud Lock for iPhones, and intended to be enabled if an Apple Watch is missing or misplaced. Once activated, an Apple Watch goes into an Activation Lock mode, which requires the associated Apple ID and password to be entered before the Watch can be paired and used again – even if the Apple Watch is erased. Enabling activation lock on Apple Watch also disables Apple Pay cards, so if you’ve setup the payment feature for the Apple Watch, you won’t need to worry about someone using it if you lose the device.

The simplest way to enable Mark As Missing on a lost Apple Watch is through the paired iPhone associated with the device, but you can do it through iCloud as well.

Enable Activation Lock on Apple Watch with Mark As Missing

1. Open the Watch app on the paired iPhone and go to “My Watch”
2. Under the My Watch settings, go to “Apple Watch”
3. Tap on “Mark As Missing” and confirm you want to unfair the Watch from the phone and lock it down requiring your Apple ID to use again

Locking & Unlocking Missing Apple Watch from iCloud

Mark As Missing can also be enabled from any computer or web browser by visiting iCloud.com from the “My Devices” section, similar to rremotely locking down an iPhone, Mac, or iPad this way. You can also remove the iCloud activation lock this way just like you can with a missing iPhone or iPad by using the associated Apple ID to remotely undo the lockdown.

Note that if you enable this lock feature, you can’t simply mark the Apple Watch as found to use it again, and instead you’d need to repair the Apple Watch setting it up as if it was new again. In that process the latest backup would carry over from the paired Apple Watch, however, and you’d be where you were when the apple Watch was marked as missing.

Note the Mark As Missing feature requires WatchOS 2 or later to be installed on the Apple Watch.