How to fix a Pixel Watch with the black screen of death

This morning, I woke up to a bit of a troubling situation. Right as I was ready to leave the house, I went to my bedside table as I do every single day and I grabbed my earbuds, my phone, and my watch. As I situated my things in my pockets and onto my wrist, I noticed something a bit out of the ordinary: my watch had nothing on the display.

After turning my wrist over and back a few times, I was convinced that the black screen now looking up at me was a product of a night with no charging. I checked my plug and the charger and everything looked to be in good shape. I slapped the Pixel Watch charger on the back of my Pixel Buds Pro and saw the charging LED illuminate, too, so the power deliver overnight wasn’t the issue.

To this point, I was freely assuming the black screen on my Pixel Watch meant the device was not powered on. Trying to hold the crown button for 10+ seconds didn’t work either, and I was becoming convinced that my watch might have suffered some sort of software issues that bricked it completely as it was totally unresponsive.

But then I turned the watch over in my hand and saw the green light on the back side blinking rapidly and quickly realized that my watch wasn’t off at all: it was just stuck and unresponsive. I tried a few other button holds and clicks to no avail, and then I realized what I needed to do was find a way to perform a hard reboot. There had to be a button combo, right?

How to hard reboot your Pixel Watch

Turns out there is, and in a Google Support thread, I found out how to do it. First, you need to remove the watch from your arm. For me, this wasn’t an issue, but the hard reboot won’t work unless the watch is locked. Removing it from your arm will do the trick.

After you’ve done this, simply hold the digital crown button and the recent apps button (the other button on the watch right above the crown) for about 15 seconds. When you’ve held this long enough, you’ll see the Google ‘G’ appear on the screen and you’ve accomplished the hard reboot sequence! Whether your Pixel Watch is locked up or you are facing a black screen of death in your future, keep this tip handy as it could save you a lot of time!