Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Just for the record, I don’t have this issue. I’ve owned many an Apple Watch including the Ultra that I now sport. No issues here. It must be something unique to these individuals. If it were me, I would seriously go to my doctor with the “burn” and ask WTF is going on doc?
I have the AW8 and have no issues with it. Hahaha about getting into seeing a doctor. Unless it’s an emergency, you wait months here.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Piscestg
The red mark on her wrist was within hours of putting on the watch.

That’s most consistent with an allergy. It still could be a bacterial infection. It’s certainly not the sensors.

The allergy isn’t necessarily from the watch materials; it could be something else that gets trapped between the wrist and the watch.

I have the AW8 and have no issues with it. Hahaha about getting into seeing a doctor. Unless it’s an emergency, you wait months here.

Alas, that’s an all-too-real problem in the States. I should probably refrain from political commentary, though.

Good luck …

b&
 
aaand.. I finally have a small mark also, however, I went swimming 3 nights in a row this week and if I don't put aqueous cream on my legs I get the same kind of marks from chlorine rash - the skin under the watch doesn't normally get this treatment because I don't want any creams near the speaker holes.

Switched to the other wrist (which feels a little odd), cream on that mark and I'll probably not wear the watch over night for a few days but I'm pretty sure this will sort mine.
 
aaand.. I finally have a small mark also, however, I went swimming 3 nights in a row this week and if I don't put aqueous cream on my legs I get the same kind of marks from chlorine rash - the skin under the watch doesn't normally get this treatment because I don't want any creams near the speaker holes.

Switched to the other wrist (which feels a little odd), cream on that mark and I'll probably not wear the watch over night for a few days but I'm pretty sure this will sort mine.

Just put on the thinnest possible schmear of the cream all ’round your wrist before putting the watch back on and you’ll be fine. The cream isn’t going to magically glob up and leap into the speaker hole. And if you’re extra paranoid, rinse the watch again a few hours later.

Don’t forget that these things are engineered to withstand snorkeling, or even (in the case of the Ultra) deep-sea diving — and seawater is at least as nasty on electronics and audio gear as pool water or anything you’d intentionally rub on yourself. Worst case, let the watch soak for a bit in a glass of water; anything water-soluble will dissolve enough for you to rinse it out.

You are, of course, rinsing the watch under tap water after swimming? You don’t want to have pool water trapped between the watch and your skin all day long.

b&
 
  • Like
Reactions: iamasmith
Just put on the thinnest possible schmear of the cream all ’round your wrist before putting the watch back on and you’ll be fine. The cream isn’t going to magically glob up and leap into the speaker hole. And if you’re extra paranoid, rinse the watch again a few hours later.

Don’t forget that these things are engineered to withstand snorkeling, or even (in the case of the Ultra) deep-sea diving — and seawater is at least as nasty on electronics and audio gear as pool water or anything you’d intentionally rub on yourself. Worst case, let the watch soak for a bit in a glass of water; anything water-soluble will dissolve enough for you to rinse it out.

You are, of course, rinsing the watch under tap water after swimming? You don’t want to have pool water trapped between the watch and your skin all day long.

b&
Hi Ben, yeah, I do rinse the watch well after a swim - I usually have it running under the tap and tend to focus more on making sure the buttons are pushed and the crown turned and pushed a lot though.

If the problem persists I'll try giving it a good soak as suggested too though as I can't do that at the pool - they have no plugs in the sink etc.

I've been wearing this watch since the beginning of November though with no issues whatsoever and also wearing it all night for sleep tracking. It has to be the chlorine and possibly that I've just overdone it myself with chlorine exposure having 3 days consecutive swimming.
 
Underneath the Watch can get quite moist, especially if you sweat. The bacteria on your skin love this, and so you can get a bacterial ulcer under the Watch.

if it was a “burn”, you would feel it. Burns hurt A LOT.

How to prevent? Well, if it’s bacteria, then an alcohol swab of your wrist and the Watch should kill the bacteria. Or try wearing the Watch on your other wrist until the skin flora on that wrist returns to normal.

It's 100% not Apple's fault (of course a Watch that gets so hot it causes a burn could be, if you had no feeling in your wrist).

Never had the problem myself, good luck everyone!

Also known as “watch rash”

From 2015, probs should have been called RashGate.
 
Last edited:
First, this is most emphatically NOT a radiation burn. There is zero ionizing radiation coming from the watch. You need to get at least to the far ultraviolet part of the visible spectrum for ionizing radiation, which simply isn’t happening.

Second, this is also most emphatically NOT a thermal burn. You’d need several minutes at 50°C / 122°F to cause a second-degree burn, and you wouldn’t be able to keep your hands in the sink that long if the water was that hot. There would be zero doubt in your mind that the watch was actually hot.

Also note that that’s past the temperature at which the watch will go into thermal shutdown mode. Further consider that your wrist naturally acts as an heatsink; even outdoors in full sun in Arizona with ambient temperatures of 50°C, your watch won’t reach that temperature. (It would if you took it off your wrist and left it in the sun.)

As so many of us have been repeating, including people who have identified as actual practicing board-licensed dermatologists, this is textbook contact dermatitis.

And, while it’s possible that this could be caused by an allergic reaction to the materials of the watch, those particular allergies are vanishingly rare in the general population. It’s all but certain that nobody who has posted in this thread is allergic to the watch.

Imagine if you never washed your underwear. In addition to being gross, you wouldn’t at all be surprised if you developed all sorts of nasty rashes, right? Would you then be complaining about how your underwear burned your privates?

That’s what’s happening here. All these people complaining about the watch burning them are neglecting to keep their watches clean.

Clean your gosh-darned watches, people!

It’s that simple.

At a bare minimum that’s probably inadequate, you should be cleaning your watch weekly, even if you’re a desk jockey. If you notice even the slightest hint of itchiness, that’s your flashing emergency warning siren that you’ve waited too long and that you’re about to break out in a rash.

And, if you’ve got a rash (or even just a bit of itchiness), be sure to apply a thinnest-possible schmear of over-the-counter first-aid antibiotic ointment (such as Neosporin) on your wrist before putting your (clean!) watch back on.

If keeping your watch clean doesn’t solve your problem, “see your doctor.” Your general-practice family physician (or nurse practitioner) is perfectly qualified for this sort of thing, and is more than capable of giving you a referral to a dermatologist if you actually do have something weird.

Which you don’t, unless you count wearing a dirty bacteria-laden watch as weird.

b&


Maybe it identifies as a burn?
 
I am someone who for the last 10 years has worn a watch 24/7, only ever taking them off to shower.

When I first got my Ultra I felt a burning sensation on my skin under the watch and I had what looked and felt like a small burn under where the sensor would sit on my wrist. I gave the watch and my wrist a good wash and it hasn’t happened again.

I have had patches of eczema and other irritations over the years before and this didn’t feel like those. It did feel like a burn. Luckily it has never happened again since.
 
Settlement from who? What watch? Did a doctor confirm it was a burn? I would imagine it would need to be established for any claim.
Settlement before we went to trial. Get a trial attorney. She got $1,000 I got $4,000. Was my sister but who’s looking.
 
  • Haha
Reactions: BugeyeSTI
Just an FYI. Many people keep trying to say these aren't burns. But, according to the Mayo Clinic it can be a "burn" by definition, especially if it is coming from these sensors that use a form of radiation (light). They also could be considered chemical burns.



Image of a radiation burn from the same link, credit Mayo Clinic:

ds01176_im04389_mcdc7_radiation_burnthu_jpg.jpg

Stop. My father is currently undergoing radiation treatments for cancer. None of the photos shown here are of radiation burns, no matter how badly you want them to be. It’s contact dermatitis, which can look like a chemical burn if it’s bad enough. Some people have extremely sensitive skin. My husband has to be careful what soaps and deodorant he uses because some of them irritate his skin to the point it blisters and peels. Keep your watch and skin clean and the skin under your watch dry and the chances of getting red spots like the ones shown here go way down. Some people are also very sensitive to silicone as well, so switching to a non-silicone band can help. If you wear your band too tight that can also cause issues because it prevents proper air circulation.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jackbequickly
This is so bad, Apple Watch Ultra with the highest specs and features causing this skin issue! The sensor may get heated up so much to cause this damage.
 
Stop. My father is currently undergoing radiation treatments for cancer. None of the photos shown here are of radiation burns, no matter how badly you want them to be. It’s contact dermatitis, which can look like a chemical burn if it’s bad enough. Some people have extremely sensitive skin. My husband has to be careful what soaps and deodorant he uses because some of them irritate his skin to the point it blisters and peels. Keep your watch and skin clean and the skin under your watch dry and the chances of getting red spots like the ones shown here go way down. Some people are also very sensitive to silicone as well, so switching to a non-silicone band can help. If you wear your band too tight that can also cause issues because it prevents proper air circulation.

It's funny that I said it CAN be a burn, not saying specifically that anyone or everyone here had a burn. You and others who are disagreeing, are making definitive blanket statements, without actual data. Again, if someone has a reaction to the light used in the sensors, it would likely be defined as a "burn" according to the definition I posted. If it is a reaction to the materials used, or a reaction to chemicals/dirt trapped between the watch and the skin then sure, it would be considered contact dermatitis.

But, because your father has radiation treatments, it means that it is impossible for a light emitting sensor to burn someone who is sensitive to light? Not sure I understand how that relates to this conversation.

By the way, my wife gets burns from UV light, it actually BURNS her skin. She has the same reaction as if someone gets sun burned, but it will happen in minutes instead of hours/days. I can go days at the beach without sunscreen without burning (we are both black), she has to wear UV blocking clothes or within an hour will have full burns. She also has contact dermatitis to most sunscreen, she has to use special sunscreen that won't give her a skin reaction and keep up with it when spending time outdoors.

We have a medical exemption for vehicle tint, so we have UV blocking tinting on all our vehicles (OEM car glass already blocks some UV bands, but not all) which drastically minimized her burns. Without it, she would get burns on the side closet to the window on car trips lasting more than an hour. We legally are allowed to tint every window, including the windshield to whatever level of tint we want.

Over time, the sensors have reproduced the same skin reactions as UV light (because obviously the amount of radiation is exponentially lower than the sun), it is not an issue with needing to clean, or trapping chemicals between the watch. She also has allergies to particular metals, which produces a different skin reaction, and she does not get the reaction from the AL AW I got her. We tested, she wore the watch for days with it off, vs with it on. She only gets the burns when the watch is on.

But I am done arguing. I just say it is POSSIBLE that an AW can burn someone according to the Mayo Clinic's definition of a burn.
 
  • Haha
Reactions: JoyfulPlantLady
It's funny that I said it CAN be a burn, not saying specifically that anyone or everyone here had a burn. You and others who are disagreeing, are making definitive blanket statements, without actual data.

Except, of course, the parts where … we give you actual data. See above for “ionizing radiation."

Again, if someone has a reaction to the light used in the sensors

Nobody has. We know this because physics. Visible light is not ionizing radiation. Infrared light is emphatically not ionizing. The watch only uses visible and infrared light in its sensors.

By the way, my wife gets burns from UV light

Ultraviolet light is ionizing radiation. The amount of exposure required to burn an individual varies greatly across the population, but there is some threshold amount of UV exposure that will cause a burn in any individual.

Non-ionizing radiation? Even direct sunlight (with UV filtered out, of course) is too dim to cause a burn; you have to significantly concentrate it, such as with a magnifying glass. The sensors are nowhere near as bright as the sun.

Look, it’s fine that you don’t understand basic physics. Everybody encounters these concepts for a first time.

And it’d even be okay for it to be too low a priority for you to spend time to get up to speed. All our lives are busy.

What’s not cool is to insist that your ignorance trumps everybody else’s knowledge.

For what it’s worth, “The sensors in my  Watch burned me” is scientifically on a par with “The Earth is flat” and “That woman a witch and she turned me into a newt” and “Things only move when something else pushes on them.” Once upon a time, those ideas were incontrovertible, but that time was centuries ago. They were incontrovertible because they made sense so long as you didn’t know better and didn’t push hard enough to see if they actually made sense — which is why they still persist at the fringes today.

Today they’re fringe because it’s trivial to know better and to push hard enough to see that they actually don’t make sense.

Your homework: Get a UV-cut filter from your local camera shop. Also get a good-sized magnifying glass, a shot glass full of water, and a thermometer. Put the thermometer in the glass outside on a sunny day and wait for the temperature to stabilize. Focus the magnifying glass on the water, but not on the thermometer. Note how the temperature of the water changes. Repeat the experiment with the UV-cut filter between the Sun and the magnifying glass. Repeat the experiment again in a darkened room with an  Watch’s sensors as the light source. Analyze and report your findings.

Extra credit: use the temperature data to calculate the increase in heat energy. Hint: you’ll need to know the volume of the water.

Bonus extra credit: calculate the rate of change of energy and create a model describing the relevant equilibrium states.

Cheers,

b&
 
I mentioned this to Apple!
They want a doctor’s certificate.

Before they will listen

As well they should, because the doctor is going to recognize it as contact dermatitis. Most likely, it’s poor hygiene; wash the watch, strap, and wrist and apply a very thin schmear of topical antibiotic (such as Neosporin). If it’s an open wound, don’t wear the watch on that wrist until the wound heals. If not from hygiene, investigate allergens; most likely is something in the spirit of hand soap (or another personal product) that’s getting trapped long enough to cause a reaction, with an allergy to the materials in the watch itself being possible but highly unlikely.

Even if you’re one of the one-in-a-million allergic to one of the materials in the watch, they’re not going to do anything other than offer you a refund.

b&
 

Attachments

  • 4C0241DE-BE15-4130-9FB6-6C1A1FA3F123.jpeg
    4C0241DE-BE15-4130-9FB6-6C1A1FA3F123.jpeg
    523.8 KB · Views: 68
  • FC9BD115-4F7E-44E1-A26A-5EE299941344.jpeg
    FC9BD115-4F7E-44E1-A26A-5EE299941344.jpeg
    427.7 KB · Views: 76
Last edited:
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.