Thieves can easily reset a stolen Apple Watch

Hold on to your Apple Watch, because if you lose it, you may never see it again.

With the introduction of iOS 7, Apple rolled out a new feature called Activation Lock to iPhones, iPads and iPod touch devices that prevented a thief or malicious person (or a prankster) from wiping your device and resetting it back to factory condition.

This one feature has been very effective in reducing iPhone and iPad thefts since most people won't want to buy an iPhone or iPad that's locked and clearly belongs to someone else. It has also made recovering a lost iOS device much easier since it also prevents anyone from disabling the Find My iPhone feature without knowing the user's iCloud password.

However, it turns out that the Apple Watch has no such protection mechanism, making it easy for anyone to wipe it and return it to factory condition, and then pass it off to an unsuspecting third-party.

Here's a video showing just how quick and easy this is to pull off.

It took Apple six years to bring Activation Lock to the iPhone. Let's hope it doesn't take that long to make it available to Apple Watch owners, because without it, Apple's latest product could become a big target for the bad guys.

See also:

Accessories for the Apple Watch

• Apple Watch: Leave that diagnostic port alone!
• The $9 Computer: What do you get?
• The real reason why micro SD card slots are disappearing from smartphones
• Windows 10: What you need to run it