The Apple Watch Series 10 launched in September as Apple’s latest flagship model, and there’s a lot to love about it. Since then, however, a growing number of reports have highlighted a potential hardware issue with some units that affects the built-in speaker. Here’s what you should know.
Users report Series 10 speaker volume is unusually low
As outlined by various Reddit and Apple Support threads, some Apple Watch Series 10 users have discovered they have a defective speaker.
Affected users say that they will set their Apple Watch to max volume and can still barely hear what’s coming from the built-in speaker.
In some cases, the issue seems to have come on gradually—their Series 10 speaker started off fine, but degraded over time. Others, however, seem to have had issues right from the start.
The speaker issue affects volume across all Watch functions, such as playing music or podcasts, making phone calls, and more.
You can find reports on Apple’s Support Community here and here, plus in various Reddit posts.
For example, this Apple Support thread includes the following replies to the original poster:
- “I’m having the same problem with my Apple Watch 10. It is my 4th apple watch and I never had a volume problem with the others.”
- “I have had an Apple Watch for YEARS and have had NO problems. Then I got a new Apple Watch Series 10 in November 2024 and by December the sound was so low you couldn’t hear it when it was on full volume.”
- “Same problem: My new Apple Watch 10 at maximum volume is nearly inaudible.”
- “Same here. Speaker is low playing back voice memos, too. I have the volume cranked. It’s insane how I can’t hear it at that setting.”
Apple has not yet officially acknowledged a hardware issue with the Apple Watch Series 10. But we’ll keep you posted on any further developments in this space.
Have you had issues with your Apple Watch Series 10’s speaker? Let us know in the comments.
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