Diver gets his Apple Watch back a year after losing it in the ocean – thanks to Find My

These days, smartwatches and smartphones offer a lot of technology under their hoods, but it's not always the latest processor or fastest charging speeds that make the difference in real life. Sometimes, it's the technology that we probably take a little for granted that performs the best. 

Apple's Find My service is by no means flawless – if you have a pair of AirPods Pro, you will probably already know the item left behind notifications are a little excitable at times. But when Find My works, it really does. 

I've found a single AirPod in a huge field before thanks to Find My, but that's nothing compared to Jared Brick, a diver who lost his Apple Watch diving when on a trip in the Caribbean back in June 2022.

Brick posted a video on YouTube describing his experience, which was picked up by 9to5Mac. The video sees Brick explaining that he bought new Apple Watches for himself and his son, and he went scuba diving twice a day with it on. When he returned from one dive he realised his Apple Watch was no longer on his wrist. 

Brick marked the device as lost in the Find My app, but given it was at the bottom of the ocean, you'd have thought the chances of ever seeing it again were pretty slim. Well, it probably won't come as much of a surprise to you given you're reading a story about it, those odds went in Brick's favour. 

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In December 2023, he received a voicemail from someone in the Caribbean informing him they had his watch.

It seems the Apple Watch was spotted by this other diver, charged back on land and a message appeared on it with Brick's phone number thanks to what the Find My technology does when a device is marked as lost. The Apple Watch was then shipped back to Brick and he was reunited with his smartwatch 18 months after losing it.

What's perhaps more impressive is that the Apple Watch still worked after 18 months at the bottom of the ocean. The regular Apple Watch is water resistant to 5ATM, which is 50 metres, while the Apple Watch Ultra is 10ATM, which is 100 metres. Brick must have had a regular model – likely the Series 7 if he had bought the latest given his trip was June 2022, and the Series 8 and original Watch Ultra didn't arrive till September 2022.

You aren't supposed to keep any Apple Watch submerged for a huge length of time though, and we'd imagine 18 months is well over what Apple Watch models have been tested to, not to mention the salt in the water having an impact.

Still, this is a happy story with a happy ending, so you're welcome for the Monday lift.