Apple Watch Bricks with WatchOS 3.1.1 Update, Sees Update Delayed

By Edwin Kee
watchOS 3.1.1 bricks the Apple Watch
Apple has since pulled back watchOS 3.1.1 after it has been discovered to brick some Apple Watches. There has been no new release date cited yet, and neither do we know the cause of the bricking. Apple

When it comes to modern day timepieces, you can be sure that the smartwatch will be able to coexist with those high end, Swiss-made luxury watches after all. So much for the demise of analog timepieces! Apple Watch has certainly been an interesting device to own, especially if you already have a MacBook, an iPhone, and an iPad. Why not complete the whole shebang while you are at it? With Apple having introduced a new watchOS 3.1.1 update for their Apple Watch, it seems as though the update has not gone down well with some Apple Watch owners. These Apple Watches ended up bricked, which has since resulted in Apple delaying the update.

And when we say that the affected Apple Watches are bricked, we meant that they ended up unusable. It is not an isolated incident, and when approached by Mashable, Apple did confirm the situation was a such and they are certainly doing their level best to introduce a fix so that watchOS 3.1.1 will be able to get it right. An Apple spokesperson shared, "A very small number of Apple Watch customers experienced an issue while installing watchOS 3.1.1, so as a precaution we've pulled back the software update. Any customers impacted should contact AppleCare, but no action is required if the update installed successfully."

The affected Apple Watches will end up in one of two situations: first, there will be a red exclamation mark shown on the screen and is frozen, or the smart watch simply remains frozen with the Apple logo shown on the display. Apple Support has suggested that one will need to force reset the device, which is something that I am sure many of the affected Apple Watch users would have done instinctively in the first place, but to no avail. It remains to be known what is the bugbear that has caused this particular issue, since Apple has not shared any information on the situation’s development.

Well, we will simply have to sit tight and wait patiently for Apple to fix this particular watchOS 3.1.1 update bug. In the meantime, you might want to open up your drawers and rummage through them in a search for one of those, you know, analog timepieces from Swatch, or perhaps it is time to replace the batteries on your Casio G-Shock. Those ought to still work I guess.

This goes to show that most of the time, it would be great if you were an early adopter or have first mover advantage. However, the risk that comes with that would mean having to go through episodes like this if you are unlucky enough, having to wait around for a fix -- if it is even coming, of course. We do not know just how well Apple has performed in the market with its Apple Watch, as sales data of this device of theirs have never been shared with the masses. Hence, it is really difficult to pinpoint the possible number of affected Apple Watch users with watchOS 3.1.1.

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