If you wear an Apple Watch, AlcoLog runs there too. The Watch app gives you a full session timer, a one-tap drink logger, and the same alerts you set on iPhone, all without reaching for your phone. This tutorial walks through launching the app, the home view, logging a drink from your wrist, and how syncing works.
# Step 1. Add a complication and launch the app
Long-press your watch face, tap Edit, swipe to Complications, and pick a slot. Scroll until you see AlcoLog. The app ships 15 complication variants:
- 5 circular (Units, Drinks, Calories, Cost, AlcoScore)
- 5 corner (same five metrics)
- 1 rectangular
- 1 inline text
- 3 controls (Start Session, Add Water, Add Favourite)
Tap any to add it. The complication updates whenever you log a drink on iPhone or Watch. To launch the full Watch app, tap the complication, or open it from the watchOS app launcher.
# Step 2. Read the idle home
When no session is running, the Watch home shows a frozen 00:00:00 timer at 40% opacity, a big green Start Session button, and a row of two smaller buttons below: Meds and Alerts.
If you ended a session within the last 60 minutes, a Resume countdown label appears between the timer and the button telling you how many minutes are left to resume. Otherwise, the Last Session card below the buttons shows your most recent finished session.
# Step 3. Start a session and log a drink
Tap Start Session. The timer starts running and the layout switches to active mode: live timer at the top with rolling-digit animation, stats line below it, hourly timeline chart, and a row of action buttons.
The action row has three primary buttons: + Add (full Add Drink flow), + [icon] (quick repeat of your last drink type), and 💧 Water. Below that, the Meds and Alerts buttons stay visible, and the red End Session is at the bottom.
Tap + Add. The Watch Add Drink sheet appears with a familiar layout: favourites at the top (if you have any), then a TYPE grid (Beer & Cider / Wine & Champagne / Cocktail & Liqueur / Spirits & Seltzers), then subtype, brand, and size pickers in turn.
# Step 4. Pick a brand from recents
Tap a type tile. The brand picker shows two sections: Recent [Beers/Wines/etc.] at the top (your last few brands logged on iPhone or Watch), and Generic [Beer/Wine/etc.] plus 0% / Alcohol-Free rows below.
Tap a brand. The size picker appears. Tap a size. Confirm with the Log [Type] 🍺 button. The drink is logged, the sheet dismisses, and your timeline + stats line update on the Home view.
If you can’t see your brand, scroll back to the iPhone for a wider catalog. The Watch picker shows recents plus generic only; the iPhone has the full search and full catalog.
# Step 5. The Score, Meds, and Alerts views
From the Home view, the Meds button opens the seven-medication list (same set as iPhone: Naltrexone, Acamprosate, Disulfiram, Nalmefene, Topiramate, Gabapentin, Recovery Supplements). Tap a medication to log a dose or set a redose timer. Pro users see location reminder controls.
The Alerts button opens a stack of toggle cards covering Log Reminder, Water Reminder, Motivational Alerts, Auto-Stop, and Consumption Alerts. The same toggles you set on iPhone surface here so you can switch behaviour on the fly.
The AlcoScore view is reachable via complication or via the watch app launcher; it shows the same dial as iPhone with a slightly compressed band layout. Same data, same calculation, same six pillars.
# Step 6. Syncing without iPhone nearby
If your iPhone is on the same network as your Watch, every action syncs in real time via WCSession. Add a drink on Watch, the iPhone Home updates within seconds. End a session on Watch, the iPhone reflects it.
If your iPhone is out of range (e.g. you’re at the gym with just the watch), the Watch logs locally and syncs on reconnect. There’s nothing extra to do on your part.
In rare cases where you tap + Add on the Watch but the iPhone isn’t reachable, you may see an Open on iPhone Smart Stack card prompting you to fall back to the phone. Tap to dismiss and try again, or tap to open the iPhone-side sheet.
That’s the whole Watch app. Complications for at-a-glance, full session timer, drink logger, meds, alerts, and AlcoScore. Everything that matters about the iPhone experience, on your wrist.
# What’s next
If you mostly use the Watch, building your favourites list makes Watch logging a one-tap operation per drink. For Watch alerts specifically, setting up alerts and notifications covers the toggles that drive Watch notifications too.