If you wear an Apple Watch, it is possible to have your watch speak the time out loud. I offer this tip partially for those of you who want to use this feature. But I also consider this as much of a warning as anything else — if you are in court or some other situation in which it is a bad idea for your Apple Watch to make a noise, you should understand how this feature works so that you don't trigger it accidentally.
You can use this feature when your Apple Watch is displaying the clock (i.e. you don't have another app running). Hold down two fingers on the screen of the watch for about a second. Your watch will then speak the time out loud. This is a nice feature when you trigger it intentionally. But I can easily imagine someone placing one hand on the wrist of another hand and triggering the feature by mistake and then not realizing what caused their watch to start talking.
There are two ways to turn the feature on or off. First, you can open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone, tap the "My Watch" button at the bottom left (if it is not already selected), and then scroll down to "Clock" and tap it. There, you will see a Speak Time option that you can turn on or off.
Note that even with the option turned on, you can decide whether you want the two-finger gesture to always make the clock speak the time or have it only speak the time if Silent Mode on the Apple Watch is turned off.
A second way to turn this feature on or off is on your Apple Watch. Open the Settings app, and then select Clock. From there, you will see the same options that are shown in the iPhone app.
I rarely find a talking clock to be all that useful — I can always just look at the clock to see what time it is — but I'm glad that I know how it works. Having said that, if you are going to use this feature, I recommend doing so with the Mickey Mouse watch face. When that clock is displayed and the Speak Time option is turned on, a tap with either one or two fingers will cause your Apple Watch to speak the time in a Mickey Mouse voice, often with a laugh or other comment from Mickey. Having Mickey speak the time is far more entertaining than the generic voice you get with other watch faces. And you can customize that watch face to display Minnie instead of Mickey, and you will hear her voice instead.
