Apple Watch and Co.: Wearing a smartwatch in the sauna – is that possible?

• In general, it’s not a good idea to wear a smartwatch in the sauna. The high temperatures of up to 100°C can damage the device.
• Metal cases can heat up to high temperatures and even cause wrist burns.
• The devices often switch off when they overheat, meaning no data can be recorded anyway.

Smartwatches are very popular. They are the easiest way to record your health data such as pulse, steps and sleep quality. After all, they can be worn almost anywhere – chic models with leather bracelets even work in a professional environment. However, wearing a smartwatch in the sauna is not a good idea.

In a classic sauna the ambient temperature rises to up to 100°C, in Finnish sauna baths it can even reach up to 120°C. These are extremely high temperatures in which people can only stay for a certain amount of time. The situation is different for electronic devices such as smartwatches – you should not even enter a sauna with such watches. There are several reasons for that.

Hardware and users at risk

If you take it into the sauna, you run the risk of your smartwatch being affected. Similar to smartphones or tablets, such devices are usually made for ambient temperatures between -10° and +40°C. Temperatures below, but especially above, can quickly become dangerous for little everyday companions.

Apple, for example, says that its Apple Watch should not be worn in a sauna at all; The Apple Watch Ultra must not be worn in saunas at temperatures above 55°C. The situation is similar with many other smartwatch manufacturers. The risk of damaging the device’s hardware is too great.

Even if the device survives a single sauna session, it cannot be ruled out that long-term damage will occur, for example to the battery. But it’s not just the devices themselves that are at risk in saunas, you can also suffer damage – for example if the metal housing of the smartwatch heats up during a longer stay in the sauna and burns the skin on your wrist.

Many models switch off when they overheat

If you take a smartwatch with you to the sauna, contrary to our recommendation, to ensure that your fitness data is constantly recorded, this goal may be torpedoed very quickly. Many devices, including the Apple Watch, have a mechanism that allows the watches to switch off if they overheat due to excessive ambient temperatures. They will only record data again once the housing has cooled down.

It should also be noted that other visitors to the sauna could feel disturbed if a person with electronics on their wrist enters the room. Many publicly accessible saunas, such as those in fitness studios or indoor swimming pools, prohibit the use of any electronic devices in their terms of use. Smartwatches are also affected by this. So avoid taking your expensive smartwatch into a sauna and save yourself trouble and money.

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