If I purchase an Applewatch outside of the USA and then return home will I lose the oxygen function when I update it in the USA?
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
Original Title: Applewatch purchase outside of USA
Apple Watch Ultra 2
An Apple Watch will always install the country specific watchOS for the country of purchase, this can not be changed. So all features from this country will remain on the watch unless Apple changes the feature availability for this region/country.
watchOS - Feature Availability - Apple
Also remember, that the warranty can be restricted to the country of purchase as well. In case of a warranty claim, you will have to ship the watch back to the country of purchase.
An Apple Watch will always install the country specific watchOS for the country of purchase
The OS version for an Watch is determined by the current location of the device. For example, we know that this is true because folks report that they have bought a watch in the US with the ECG feature and after returning home with the watch to a country where the ECG function has not been approved as a medical device in that county, the first time they updated the watchOS in that country, the ECG capabilty was removed from the watch.
This has been reported here in this very forum many times through the years.
M1 Mac mini, macOS 15.6; Watch, series 10 GPS-only, watchOS 11.6.1; iPhone 16, iOS 18.6.1; TV 4th Gen, tvOS 18.6 HomePods, audioOS 18.6
This is now a moot point because the Blood Oxygen function has been activated in Watches Series 9 & 10 and Ultra 2 with the installation of iOS 18.6.1 and watchOS 11.6.1. It functions differently from the Blood Oxygen function on watches sold outside the US.
iOS and watchOS are determined by the location where the update is installed. The first time you update your watch and the paired iPhone, it will most likely switch to the new Blood Oxygen function current to the US.
Can I use a foreign Apple Watch in the US without losing features?
