Deploy Apple Watch
If an Apple Watch using watchOS 10 or later is paired with an iPhone using iOS 17 or later, the watch can be enrolled into and managed by mobile device management (MDM). In this way, the watch supports use cases that not only improve the user’s productivity, but also support their wellness and offer them extra safety benefits.
For more information, see the WWDC23 video Meet device management for Apple Watch.
Enable MDM management
To enable the enrolment, the declarative configuration com.apple.configuration.watch.enrollment must be applied to a supervised and managed iPhone. After the configuration is applied, any Apple Watch using watchOS 10 can be enrolled in device management when paired. The user can cancel and opt out of management by terminating the pairing flow. If an Apple Watch is already paired, it must be removed and paired with the iPhone again to be enrolled.
When the Apple Watch successfully enrols into MDM (like the iPhone its paired with), it’s supervised. MDM can then perform actions like configuring settings, retrieving device information, clearing the passcode, and locking or erasing the Apple Watch.
Install, remove and update Apple Watch apps using MDM commands
App Store apps, Custom Apps and proprietary in-house apps can be installed, removed and updated using existing MDM commands on Apple Watch. An MDM solution can also use the bundle ID of apps that can run on Apple Watch as part of app installation, configuration and removal commands.
Apple Watch supports the following types of apps:
Paired apps: Apps that share data between itself and its paired iPhone app, but the Apple Watch app can function on its own in the absence of the iPhone app.
Dependent apps: Apps that require the iPhone companion app to be functional.
Standalone apps: Apps that exist only on Apple Watch and have no iPhone companion.
Paired and dependent apps must be managed together across both devices. When installing paired and dependent apps, the app should be installed and managed on the iPhone first, then the Apple Watch app can be installed.
Note: During this process, the iPhone must be within range of the Apple Watch.
Updating and removing paired and dependent apps must be done individually for each device.
To install proprietary in-house apps that don’t have an iPhone version, the following steps must be completed:
1. Change the.ipa suffix to .zip and uncompress the archive.
2. Locate the Apple Watch .app file inside the uncompressed directory, then move it to a directory named Payload.
3. Compress the payload directory and rename the .zip file AppName.ipa.
Note: If the .ipa file created by Xcode is left wrapped in an empty iPhone app wrapper, the installation will fail.
Unenrol Apple Watch from MDM
Apple Watch can be unenrolled from MDM either manually or using MDM commands independently from the host iPhone. If the host iPhone is unenrolled from MDM, the paired Apple Watch is also unenrolled. Unenrolling from MDM causes the Apple Watch to unpair, reset and erase all content and settings.