Changing a smartwatch from Chinese to English is done through the watch’s settings or its paired phone app, with Apple Watch requiring the iPhone’s Watch app.
A watch stuck in Chinese is frustrating — every notification, menu, and health metric is a guessing game. The fix depends entirely on the brand you own. Apple Watch owners have a specific, documented path through the iPhone; owners of other brands usually dig through a gear icon on the watch itself or their companion app. Here’s what works, starting with the most common case.
Apple Watch: Change Language Through Your iPhone
Apple Watch does not have a direct language setting on the watch face. Apple’s documentation shows the change happens entirely on the paired iPhone, and the watch updates automatically.
Open the Watch app on your iPhone, then follow this exact sequence:
- Tap the My Watch tab at the bottom of the screen.
- Tap General.
- Tap Language & Region.
- Tap Custom.
- Tap Add Language and choose English from the list.
The watch may refresh or restart briefly as it applies the new language. This method works for any Apple Watch running a current version of watchOS — Apple’s support page describes the language and orientation settings that ship with the platform.
One detail that trips people up: your watch language does not have to match your iPhone’s language. The Custom option exists precisely so you can keep the phone in one language and the watch in another. If you only want English on the watch, leave the iPhone’s language alone.
Other Smartwatch Brands: Look for Settings or the Companion App
If you do not own an Apple Watch, the path is less standardized. Most watches from brands like Xiaomi, Huawei, Amazfit, and Samsung offer a language option somewhere in the watch’s own settings menu, but the exact wording and location differ.
On the watch itself, look for one of these routes:
- A gear-shaped icon — tap it, then search for a globe icon or a “Language” entry.
- Scroll to the bottom of the settings list; language options often sit near the “About” or “System” section.
- Some budget watches only expose language through the companion phone app, not the watch menu.
When the watch menu itself is in Chinese, try the paired app. Most companion apps (Xiaomi’s Mi Fitness, Huawei Health, Zepp for Amazfit) mirror the device settings and let you change language from the phone, where the buttons are still in your phone’s language.
Here’s the hard truth: if you bought an unknown Chinese-brand watch with proprietary firmware, there is no universal hidden menu. The language option may simply not be present on some ultra-budget models. If your watch’s settings list is short and shows no globe icon, check the app store listing for your watch’s companion app — that page usually states whether language options exist.
What to Do When You Can’t Find the Language Setting
If you’ve checked both the watch and the app and still see Chinese, you have two realistic moves left. First, factory reset the watch through its settings and set it up fresh — restoration screens often default to English as a first-run setup option. Second, contact the seller directly and ask whether your specific model supports English; this is especially worth doing for budget brands, since some genuinely do not.
When you’re ready to buy a replacement that actually supports English, our tested roundup of the best Chinese smartwatches focuses on models that work fully in English out of the box.
Why Your Watch Still Shows Chinese After the Change
The most common reason a language switch doesn’t take effect is that you changed the iPhone’s language instead of the watch’s. On Apple’s ecosystem, the Watch app’s Custom option is the only way to set a watch-specific language; changing the phone’s language alone may or may not cascade to the watch depending on how the watch is configured.
For other brands, a language change sometimes requires a restart to fully apply. Hold the side button until the power menu appears, then restart the watch and check whether the menus switched over. If the option was set but nothing changed, your model may require the companion app to push the updated language during the next sync.
Apple’s own documentation walks through the language and orientation options in detail. You can read the Apple Watch language and orientation guide on Apple’s site for the full breakdown of what each toggle does.
References & Sources
- Apple Support. “Change the Language and Orientation on Apple Watch.” Covers the Watch app path and Custom language options.