Apple Watch OS Update
Customer Tomoyoshi Fujimura sets up his Apple Watch, which is to be paired with his iPhone, after buying it at an electronics store in Tokyo. Reuters

Apple has released its first update for the Apple Watch nearly a month after its release. The software update, Watch OS 1.0.1, is now available for Apple Watch users through the companion app on the iPhone.

The 51MB update comes with a number of “performance improvements and bug fixes,” according to Apple’s update notes. It also adds support for the over 300 emoji characters first added to iOS 8.3. Apple says the update improves performance for:

  • Siri
  • Measuring stand activity
  • Calculating calories for indoor cycling and rowing workouts
  • Distance and pace during outdoor walk and run workouts
  • Accessibility
  • Third party apps

Additional language support has been added to the Apple Watch for Brazilian Portuguese, Danish, Dutch, Swedish, Russian, Thai and Turkish.

Apple Watch owners can download the update by launching the Apple Watch iPhone app and tapping “General > Software Update.” The Apple Watch update also requires battery life of at least 50 percent, a connection to the magnetic charger and has to be close to a paired iPhone during the installation process. Expect the process to last at least ten minutes for the initial download and a few more minutes for the update to fully complete.

Though this update focuses mostly on bug fixes and performance tweaks, future Apple Watch updates are expected to be more substantial with the addition of native third-party app support and “Find My Watch” feature, similar to the Find My iPhone feature built into iOS, according to 9to5Mac.