If you’ve been having trouble hearing your Apple Watch Series 10, you’re not alone. As spotted by 9to5Mac, reports of defective speakers have been piling up ever since the new Apple Watch model launched in September, without any updates from Apple.
This doesn’t appear to be a widespread issue but instead a hardware defect impacting a limited number of Apple Watch Series 10 units. Some users explain that they’ve been experiencing the issue ever since they unboxed the Apple Watch, while others say it sprung up weeks or months after buying the watch. Some of the users who have run into the problem say they’ve returned multiple watches in an attempt to find one that has a working speaker.
Reports of these defective Apple Watch speakers have been popping up on Apple’s Community Support site and Reddit in recent months, but the limited responses suggest a majority of Apple Watch Series 10 owners either haven’t noticed the problem or aren’t affected.
“I have an Apple Watch 7, and an Apple Watch 10,” said one user on the Apple Support forums this week. “Until I saw an article about the bad speaker possibility on the 10 I never would have noticed I had something wrong, but it appears I do! I recorded voice memos on both watches at the same time and playing them back, the 7 is loud and clear at max volume, while the 10 (also set to max volume) is quiet and sounds like it has a blown speaker.”
The defective speakers affect the volume across all apps and actions on the device, from music and voice notes to alarms and phone calls. If you always use headphones with the Apple Watch, you might not even know that your device is defective.
Apple has yet to acknowledge the issue or offer any potential solutions. If you are dealing with a defective speaker, your best bet is to visit an Apple Store ASAP.
