3 Popular Smart Home Devices You Can Use With Apple Watch
Like most smartwatches, the Apple Watch does a lot more than just tell time. Like a common phone or something. It can also field calls and messages, help you navigate, monitor your health, and integrate with some smart home devices.
Not all smart home devices from manufacturers are compatible, but plenty of them do offer Apple Watch support — or at least they can connect with HomeKit, which can then be used with an Apple Watch. Security cameras, doorbells, speakers, lights — chances are if one of the devices you're looking at doesn't integrate with your Apple Watch, a similar item from another company will. It's just a matter of knowing where to look.
The examples below were all chosen via cross-referencing devices that are readily available for purchase from Apple and items that have been previously highlighted in SlashGear's own 2023 Best Of lists. Our picks were then narrowed down further to avoid any significant amounts of overlap with their intended functions.
Special delivery
Video doorbells are a handy way to see who's at the door, when packages are delivered, or figure out why said packages went missing. They're useful enough that Logitech's Circle View Wired Doorbell was considered one of our preferred video doorbells — and of course it will work with your Apple Watch.
This $199.95 device can be (or rather, needs to be) hooked up to your home's existing doorbell wiring and provides a 160-degree HDR view, complete with color night vision. HomeKit compatibility allows it to sync up with your Apple Watch, which you can use to receive notifications whenever somebody gets close enough. Additionally, you'll be able to use your watch Dick Tracy-style to speak with whoever's at the door.
It's worth noting that there's no built-in storage for video, however. Though if you have an iCloud+ account you can use your cloud account for video storage as an alternative.
Shining bright
Nanoleaf was designated one of our favorite smart lighting brands due to its popularity, prolificity, and a whole bunch of smart lights in a variety of shapes and sizes. These include light strips and LED light tiles for decoration or accent lighting, as well as more typical-looking smart bulbs for regular around-the-home illumination in 16 million colors.
The Nanoleaf Shapes assortment of modular light tiles is probably the more recognizable option. This collection of colorful triangles (nine for $99.95) can be arranged in a number of different ways and sync up to your screen, be used as a visualizer for your music, controlled with direct touch, and also remotely accessed with your Apple Watch.
If you're interested in something a bit more understated, there's also the Essentials Matter A19 Smart Bulb. A single $19.95 bulb can be controlled directly through the Home app or via Siri, and much like Shapes you can set it to mirror the ambiance of a screen or make the lighting conditions (brightness, color, etc) change on a specific schedule.
Keeping cool (or warm)
One of our picks for the best smart thermostats of 2023 also happens to be Apple Watch compatible. Go figure!
The $249.95 Ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium can pull double-duty as a smart speaker, but its main purpose is to help you regulate and monitor the temperatures in your home. It can find the hot and cold spots across numerous rooms, and keep track of your daily routines to offer suggestions on how best to schedule adjustments to keep everyone comfortable — without the need to manually change settings all the time.
An air monitoring sensor is included with this Premium set, which can monitor doors and windows as well as detect motion (sort of like a diet-home security system) and smoke. With an Apple home hub you can use Siri to adjust your settings or use features like the built-in intercom, but you can also use an Apple Watch to directly control temperatures from your wrist.
Why these home devices
There are plenty of examples of smart home devices that have Apple Watch compatibility. The reason for selecting these in particular is that they are available for purchase with Apple. Moreover, these items were selected after being previously rated among some of SlashGear's 2023 Best Of lists.