Some Apple Watch SE Owners Experiencing Issues With Overheating [Updated]

There may be an issue with the new Apple Watch SE, which some users have found is overheating after a few hours of usage. Several ‌Apple Watch SE‌ owners in South Korea have run into problems, as noted in a Reddit post chronicling the complaints.

There have been six reports from ‌Apple Watch SE‌ owners in South Korea who have had their Apple Watches get hot and malfunction, with a yellow spot appearing in the upper right corner of the watch.

All of the owners who have experienced issues were wearing the watch when it got hot on the wrist or when charging and then it later exhibited the display issue. As described on Reddit:

The owner received the product on October 8. The owner slept with the watch on the wrist on October 9 night. Woke up on October 10 just to find the wrist is very hot. The owner quickly took off the watch to find the red wrist due to heat. No power signals from the watch, but the sound plays well when the watch is searched with the Find my Watch feature. The owner exchanged the device with a new product on October 16.

There has been no teardown of the ‌Apple Watch SE‌ so it's unclear what might be causing the problem, but as noted on Reddit, if it is similar in design to prior models, this could be the display connectors near the Taptic Engine.

It is not clear why this problem seems to be limited to South Korea, but we have not found other reports about the issue on the MacRumors forums, the Apple Support Communities, or social media networks. There may be a problem specific to watches manufactured in a certain area and shipped to South Korea, or it could be a more widespread issue and reports just haven't come in yet.

Update: MacRumors has also heard from an ‌Apple Watch SE‌ owner in the United States who experienced the same overheating issue. When charging, the ‌Apple Watch SE‌ got hot on the charger and then had a burned patch at the top right corner of the screen.