How to turn on the LG G Watch

With no obvious power button, switching the G Watch back on can be a little tricky

The LG G Watch is designed to be an always-on device, whether it's on your wrist or resting on its charging cradle. But sometimes, for whatever reason, you might need to switch it off completely. Maybe you're traveling somewhere without Internet connectivity, or you're using a different watch and want to save the device's power. Switching the G Watch off is easy enough, but turning it back on again is a bit of a head-scratcher. With no buttons on the front or side of the smartwatch, it's not exactly obvious how you're supposed to return it to life.

Fortunately we've got everything you need to know down below.

Powering off the LG G Watch

First things first — shutting down the LG G Watch is easy, though the option is hidden beneath a few layers of menus in the Android Wear OS.

1. Tap on your watch face to get to the "Speak now ..." page.
2. Scroll down to "Settings," the second to last option.
3. In the Settings menu, scroll down to "Power off." (There's also a dedicated Restart option if you just want to power cycle)
4. Tap the check mark to confirm.

Switching the LG G Watch on — the easy way

If you're near your charging cradle, it's easy enough to power on the G Watch with the method you probably used when first taking it out of its box. Make sure the charging cradle is connected to a power source, for example a computer or power outlet, then place the powered-down watch onto it. It'll immediately wake and start booting up.

If it doesn't, double-check your power source, as it's the power that turns on the watch, not the charging cradle alone.

Switching the LG G Watch on — the slightly less easy way

If you're not near your charging cradle or a USB power source, you can still turn your LG G Watch back on — providing it still has a charge — using a tiny power switch on the back of the smartwatch. Take the watch off and look at the back — you'll see a small silver dot above the five gold charging contacts.

Using something like a SIM tool or paperclip, or even a sharp pencil, press this switch in for a couple of seconds and your watch will spring back to life and boot as normal. That's it — the silver dot works like a regular phone or tablet power button, albeit a really tiny one in a less than obvious location.

As we said, the G Watch and other Android Wear gadgets are a supposed to be always-on wearable accessories, so with any luck you won't have to deal with switching them on and off very often. But if you do, you might want to keep a SIM tool around to make things a bit easier.