Confirmed: Apple Watch charges faster through secret port

Reserve Strap
The Apple Watch could be getting an unofficial battery boost

Battery life is the Achilles heel of the Apple Watch, but a third party accessory is setting out to improve matters.

The Reserve Strap, which we've written about before, is progressing nicely and not only can it charge the Apple Watch while you wear it, but the company has revealed in a new video that it can actually charge the Watch faster than Apple's standard charger.

The difference isn't huge, with a time-lapse in the video showing that the Reserve Strap brought it to 95% battery at the same time as the official charger juiced it up to 90%, but every little helps - especially as Apple's wireless charger is already slower than a wired solution typically would be.

All good things...

The company also noted less ambient heat radiated on the back of the Apple Watch when using the hidden charging port leveraged by the Reserve Strap. There's also no charging indicator displayed, which is handy, since it reduces screen clutter when you're wearing the watch.

The Reserve Strap sounds promising and is up for pre-order, but we'd be hesitant to buy it, as it makes use of a hidden port which Apple likely hid for a reason and may well disable via a future software update.

James Rogerson

James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.