I am developing a watch-only bedside clock for an Apple Watch running watchOS 27.0.1. The user needs to remove the watch in hot weather and still see the time without having a charger available.
The requirements are: wrist detection remains enabled; the watch is off wrist and unplugged; the app is opened manually on the watch; the clock remains visible without periodic touches or any Mac/developer connection. Covering the screen should turn it off. The UI contains only the time, date, and battery level. It does not need protected data, HealthKit access, or programmatic unlocking.
Independent physical testing still ends in the app transitioning to the background and the display turning off. Always On configuration and background runtime are not sufficient in the tested off-wrist state. Experimental idle-display requests either have no visible effect or extend the visible period to approximately 60 seconds. Updating the native scene's requested idle duration every 20 seconds does not renew the observed display deadline, despite the local readback showing the requested values.
Is there a supported public API or system-owned presentation surface that can keep a nonsensitive clock visible in this situation while preserving wrist detection and authentication? If this requires an approved entitlement or a platform capability, is one available to third-party developers for this use case? Please distinguish keeping the process alive, retaining the frontmost app, and keeping the physical display visible after removal from the wrist.
I have not claimed additional entitlements or changed the watch's authentication settings. I would appreciate clarification of the supported platform boundary before undertaking further device experiments.