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How to connect AirPods or Bluetooth headphones to Apple Watch
Updated 23 October 2026
Video and audio on Apple Watch play through Bluetooth headphones, not the watch speaker. Connecting them to the watch, not just the phone, is what lets you leave the iPhone at home.
Step by step
- AirPods: choose them on the watch. If your AirPods are set up with an iPhone that uses the same Apple ID as your watch, they're already available to the watch. Put them in, press the side button to open Control Center, tap the audio output button, and choose your AirPods.
- Other headphones: pair them in Settings. Put the headphones in pairing mode (see their manual). On the watch, open Settings ▸ Bluetooth, wait for them to appear, and tap their name.
- Play something. Open TubeWrist and play a video. Sound starts as soon as the watch has a Bluetooth audio device, and comes back on its own if they reconnect mid-video.
Why connect them to the watch, not the phone?
When your iPhone is in another room or at home, the watch has to talk to the headphones directly. Once they're paired with the watch, they work wherever the watch goes: on a run, at the gym, or in bed. To watch without your iPhone, this is the step that matters.
If the phone keeps grabbing the audio
Headphones usually connect to one device at a time. If audio jumps to your iPhone, choose the headphones again in the watch's Control Center, or switch Bluetooth off on the phone for a moment.
Bluetooth speakers work too
Anything that pairs with the watch as an audio device will play sound, including Bluetooth speakers.
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