• News

The Apple Watch Reboot issue is affecting Series 12 and Ultra 4 units.
Photo: Apple

A new Apple Watch reboot problem is affecting Series 12 and Ultra 4 owners just days after launch. These watches are restarting without any warning, and currently there’s no way to fix it.

The reports span multiple online forums and communities, with several users posting matching crash logs. The consistency suggests it could be a hardware or software issue rather than just a handful of unlucky units.

So if your Apple Watch keeps rebooting, it’s not just you.

Inside the Apple Watch reboot problem

The Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 models reached customers just a few days ago, and within hours, owners started complaining about sudden restarts. They said the Apple logo just appears suddenly, followed by the watch returning to its normal screen.

Owners have described random reboots affecting these devices on Reddit and on Apple’s own support community.

What triggers the Apple Watch crashes

The problem is, the restarts don’t follow a clear pattern. Series 12 and Ultra 4 owners have reported reboots while using Siri AI, editing watch faces, opening Maps and even browsing the App Store. Others say their watches crashed mid-call or mid-workout as well.

Some even said the reboots happened while the watch was idle. The range of triggers is making the bug hard to isolate and could also take a while before Apple is able to reproduce it internally.

Diagnostic logs point to a Neural Engine timeout

Numerous Apple Watch 12 and Ultra 4 owners have shared panic-full diagnostic logs showing the same failure signature. In almost all cases, the Apple Neural Engine seems to be hanging for a second or two. This is followed by a firmware watchdog forcing a restart.

One log did show a specific error, an ANE Timeout in the Neural Engine hardware device. This was caused by a command reportedly waiting 2,020 milliseconds against a 2,000-millisecond unit before the watch rebooted. The log did confirm a timeout had occurred, but it did not explain what caused the Neural Engine to stall.

A software bug or an actual hardware defect could all lead to the same crash pattern. 

Some owners say resetting the watch and setting it up once again didn’t solve the problem. One Series 12 buyer claims he got a replacement unit but that suffered the exact same issue.

Apple is yet to publicly acknowledge the problem, and there’s no fix available yet. Still, bugs like these aren’t uncommon after a device launch, so a patch could still arrive soon.