Book Tracker has a native Apple Watch app that lets you keep tabs on what you’re reading from the wrist, start and stop the Reading Timer, log progress with the Digital Crown, and put a complication on your watch face for instant access. It’s perfect for the moment you’ve just closed a book and want to log a few minutes without picking up your iPhone.
The Watch app is part of the iOS purchase, there’s nothing extra to buy.
Requirements
- watchOS 10 or later on your Apple Watch.
- The Book Tracker iPhone app installed and signed into the same Apple ID.
- The iPhone needs to be nearby and unlocked at least once after a restart for the Watch app to communicate. The Watch app talks to the iPhone for every action.
What the Watch app shows
The Watch app has three screens.
1. Currently Reading
The starting screen. It lists every book that has an active Reading status, with the cover, title, author, and a progress bar showing the current percentage.
If a Reading Timer is currently running, an Active session banner appears at the top with the book’s title and the live elapsed time. Tap it to jump straight to the timer screen.
2. Book detail
Tap a book to see its detail page on the Watch:
- Cover, title, author.
- Progress section with the percentage, pages remaining, total reading time so far, and an estimated completion date.
- Actions — Start reading timer, Pause / Resume, Stop & save, and Add progress (manual entry).
3. Active reading session
The timer screen, shown full-screen while a session is running.
- Big elapsed time.
- A small status indicator: green dot + “Reading” while running, orange dot + “Paused” when paused.
- Three buttons:
- Pause / Resume — toggles the timer.
- Stop & save — opens the progress input sheet to record what you read, then ends the session.
- Cancel timer— ends the session without saving any progress.
Logging progress with the Digital Crown
When you tap Add progress or Stop & save, a sheet appears with a single big number, your current page, percentage, or listening time depending on the book’s tracking type.
Rotate the Digital Crown to change the value, then tap Save to log it. It’s the fastest way to type a number on the Watch.
You can use the Digital Crown for both manual progress entries (with no timer running) and for the progress you log at the end of a timed session.
What you can do, and what you can’t, from the Watch
The Watch is intentionally simple: it gives you the actions you actually want to do while you’re reading, and nothing more.
| Action | From the Watch? |
|---|---|
| See your currently reading books | ✅ |
| See progress, reading time, estimated completion | ✅ |
| Start, pause, resume, stop the Reading Timer | ✅ |
| Add a manual progress entry | ✅ |
| Enter the value with the Digital Crown | ✅ |
| Add a new book to your library | ❌ — use iPhone / iPad / Mac |
| Edit a book’s metadata | ❌ |
| Change a Reading Status manually | ❌ (but completing 100% progress updates it for you) |
| See notes, quotes, statistics | ❌ |
| Read offline without an iPhone nearby | ❌ — the Watch needs to talk to iPhone for actions |
Audiobook caveat
The Reading Timer from the Watch works for books tracked by Pages or Percentage but not for Audiobooks (Time tracking type). For audiobooks, you can still use the Watch to add a manual progress entry, just tap Add progress on the book and dial in the new listening time with the Digital Crown.
Complications on your watch face
Book Tracker provides two complications you can add to your watch face. They cover all four watchOS complication families (Circular, Inline, Corner, Rectangular).
“Automatic” complication
This is the smart default. It automatically shows:
- The book whose timer is currently active, if any.
- Otherwise, the first book in your Currently Reading list.
You don’t need to configure anything, it follows your reading life automatically.
“Select Book” complication
This complication is locked to a specific book that you pick during configuration. It will always show that book, useful if you have a long-term read you want to keep at a glance (a textbook, an ongoing series, a slow read).
What each complication shows
| Family | Without active timer | With timer running |
|---|---|---|
| Circular | Progress gauge with percentage + play icon | Same gauge with live elapsed time overlay |
| Inline | Book icon + title + percentage | Book icon + live timer |
| Corner | Book icon + title in the corner label | Book icon + live timer |
| Rectangular | Title + progress bar + percentage | Live timer + title + progress bar |
Add a complication
- Long press the watch face you want to edit.
- Tap Edit, then swipe to the Complications page.
- Tap one of the complication slots.
- Scroll to find Book Tracker and pick Automatic or Select Book.
- If you picked Select Book, choose the book from the list.
- Press the Digital Crown to save.
Tapping the complication opens the Watch app:
- If a timer is running for that book → jumps straight to the active session screen.
- Otherwise → opens the book’s detail page.
Sync between iPhone and Watch
The Watch app talks to the iPhone via WatchConnectivity, not directly with iCloud. This has practical consequences:
- The iPhone must be nearby for the Watch to load the currently reading list or to send timer commands.
- After your iPhone restarts, it needs to be unlocked at least once before the Watch can communicate with it. If you see “Your iPhone needs to be unlocked after restarting before it can communicate with Apple Watch”, just unlock the iPhone and try again.
- The Watch caches the last known list locally, so even with the iPhone temporarily away, you can still see the list of books, but actions (start timer, save progress) will fail until the iPhone is reachable again.
- The complications keep their last cached state, so they remain readable even when the iPhone isn’t nearby.
For long sessions on Always-On Display, the Watch waits up to 3 seconds for the iPhone to respond before showing a “try again” message, meaning you don’t need to wake the Watch screen for actions to work.
A typical reading session, in 3 taps
- Raise your wrist, tap the Book Tracker complication → opens the book you’re reading.
- Tap Start reading timer → timer starts, the screen shows the active session.
- When you stop reading, raise your wrist again → tap Stop & save → rotate the Digital Crown to enter your current page → Save.
That’s the whole loop. No need to open the iPhone app at all.
Best practices
- Add the Automatic complication to your most-used watch face so the current book is always one tap away.
- If you forget to start a timer, don’t worry, use Add progress on the Watch at the end of the session to record what you read, just without the time component.
- Keep your iPhone unlocked at least once after a restart before relying on the Watch, it’s the only thing that can confuse the Watch app on a fresh boot.
Related
- How to use the Reading Timer + Live Activity + Dynamic Island — the iPhone counterpart of the timer.
- How to use Reading Status — set up the Reading Status the Watch needs.
- How to track detailed reading progress
- How to customize your app with Widgets
- Which platforms is Book Tracker available on?