Found during a short walk while visiting relatives in Arlington VA. On the back it identifies itself as an Apple Series 3, 38mm. No serial number is evident.
I’m not an Apple person, but I had the impression that Apple was very proud of their customer service, and thus it should be easy to locate the watch owner. But apparently it isn’t so.
I called a local Apple store (no shortage of these in an affluent area), but they wanted nothing to do with it. Googling the problem said the watch owner may (optionally) have put some contact info on the watch, but an Apple-savvy friend says there is none - and notes that the battery is dying.
Current best recommendation is apparently “Turn it in to local law enforcement” - which seems most unlikely to do any good. (Does a police station even have a lost-and-found department?)
I’m thinking that surely some SDMB expert knows what’s best here.
If you have any friends with Apple watches, ask them to charge it up for you. The owner can use the Find My app to find the location of the watch. If you have friends who own a business, leaving the watch charging at the business will be a convenient way for the owner to come by and pick it up versus at someone’s home.
You are supposed to turn lost items into the police department. They keep it for a period of time for the owner to come pick up. After that, you may be able to claim the item. But for Apple watches, it won’t do much good since they are locked to the account owner. The watch battery will probably die in a day. If you take it to the police department, make sure it’s charged up when you drop it off so that the last location of the watch will register at the police department in the Find My app.
I regularly see this type of thing posted to local community/town hall groups on facebook. Even if the person isn’t in the group, someone that knows them might be recognize it.
I’d say post it there and in a few days turn it over to the police.
The police may not do anything about it, but the person who lost it may contact them to see if anyone turned it in. Even if they don’t want to hold on to it, they can keep your contact info and put you in contact with the person if they call looking for it.
One thing you could try when you get there is seeing if it has a “find phone” function, and pressing that. If the owner has their phone, and is in range (if they lost it between their car and work, say, there’s a good chance they are), the phone will start chiming in a particular way that will alert them to the fact that the watch isn’t too far away, if they have been looking for it and despairing, because you had moved it to god knows where, they will know to be on the lookout again, or if the phone can track the watch, they can use that feature right away.
I have an Apple watch (gift), and an Android phone, and they paired pretty well, so that the mutual find functions work.
It doesn’t do everything it would do if I had an iPhone, but it will pair so that I can see whether it needs to be charged, select the face, and use the “find” function, and does some things it probably doesn’t need the phone to do, like check the temperature and weather. If I had an iPhone, it would do some complex tracking of my sleep. The sleep data I get is gibberish, and the other functions just don’t work. But it does keep time, I did need a watch, and it was a gift, so I didn’t have the heart to return it.
ETA: I have no explanation for why this happens. I assumed it wouldn’t pair, and didn’t try, but it paired itself so that I could so if it needed charging. I decided to try changing the face, because the default face is ugly.
FWIW, the battery drains a lot faster than it should.
nm - I really got confused with the type of watch. I agree it needs to be charged and not paired with someone else’s phone as it ought to have some phone/email contact info on it.
The owner can use the Apple Find My utility to find the watch, or set it to lost. When it is set to lost it may display a phone number or other contact information. If it starts beeping, that means the owner is trying to find it by playing a sound.
In order for the watch to relay its location to the Find My network it will have to be close to an iPhone or other Apple device. Probably in the same house is good enough. If you know a good samaritan with an Apple watch, give it to them so they can keep it charged and near their other Apple devices.
If you’re really feeling generous, go to an Apple store and hook it to one of their chargers. Perhaps while it’s charging it will receive the signal to go into lost mode, and will display the owners contact information. At an Apple store it will be out of range of its host phone, but might automatically connect to the store wifi.
The Apple Store will not be able to do anything. They cannot access the information on the watch by design. Bringing it there will be a waste of everyone’s time.
I’m not really sure what you are describing but an Apple Watch cannot pair to an Android phone. Since you say the battery drains really fast, I’m wondering if you actually have a knockoff and not a real Apple Watch.
Okay, the only thing I know is that when we found a iPhone on a bench in the mall, we took it to the Apple store there, and they said they’d take care of it. Like 5 years ago. Maybe they were not being totally truthful or things have changed, or they just happened to know that customer.
The Apple store may be able to help with a device if the serial number is evident. Older phones did have the number etched into the case or SIM tray. Since the store could get the number without unlocking, they could lookup who had it. But if recent devices need to be unlocked, then they can’t do anything.
If it’s a cellular model and if it’s still charged and if the owner had Siri enabled and if the owner has their parents listed in their contacts as Mom or Dad, you can say to the watch, “Hey, Siri, call Mom/Dad” and if it works then your golden. If “Hey Siri” doesn’t work, press and hold the Digital Crown until you see the listing indicator appear on the screen and then ask it to call Mom or Dad.
That is a very long shot, but it is also the season of miracles.