How To Get On The Challenge

Achievement badges are a funny thing. You know they're just a simple little bit of visual flair, they don't even do anything, and yet for some reason you just have to collect them. Achievements are great motivators, and the achievement badges for the activity tracking on the Apple Watch have inspired many users to get more exercise.

If you want to maximize your badge count, you're going to want to chase down as many activity achievements as you can. Most are available year-round, but there are also some time-limited special events to grab, too. Here's a list of all the activity achievements for the Apple Watch and how to unlock them.

Updated 10/26/21: The next limited Apple Watch activity badge will be in honor of Veterans Day, which you can earn on November 11.

Standard achievements

Most of the achievements can be earned year-round. If you open the Activity app on your iPhone, then head over to the Achievements tab, you'll see some of them listed even before you earn them (in which case they will be represented by a grey outline).

However, there are some achievements that are not shown until you earn them. Past and future monthly challenges, for example, won't show up, nor do all the various individual exercise workouts.

Here is a list of all the standard badges you can get.

First [exercise] Workout

The first time you perform a new exercise for at least 5 minutes, you'll get a achievement badge. Every workout type that does not fall under the "Other" category is eligible for this badge: from walking to yoga to HIIT to hiking and more.

Activities with both indoor and outdoor variants, like Cycling and Walking, are bundled together; you can do either activity to get the badge, and can only get it once.

[exercise] Workout Record

Every time you beat your previous best record for calories burned in any of the exercises listed above, you get this badge.

There is one caveat: You must complete five workouts of that type first. If you want to game the system, make sure your first four workouts of each type are short and easy, so it won't take much effort to beat them.

activity exercise challenges — You get a badge the first time you do each major exercise type, and when you break a record.

7-Workout Week

Simply complete any workout of at least 15 minutes every day of the week. Note that the week is Monday-Sunday, and you have to do a workout on each of those days (you can't simply do any seven days in a row). If you start a walking workout whenever you walk outside, you can achieve this easily.

New Move Record

Any day that your Move ring goes further than ever before (meaning you burned more calories in a day), you'll earn this award. There's one catch: you have to use your Apple Watch for 10 days before you can complete this.

New Exercise Record

This is just like the Move Record achievement, only for the green ring. This one is based on minutes of exercise, not calories burned, so it's really easy to get. Just like the Move Record achievement, you have to use your Apple Watch for 10 days first.

Move Goal 200%, 300%, 400%

You earn this when you exceed your calorie target (the red Move ring) by 2x, 3x, or 4x, respectively. In other words, it's given for making the red activity ring go around two, three, or four times in a day. It's easy to get if you just set your Move goal very low.

activity move percent challenges — Double, triple, and quadruple your Move ring goal. Reduce your goal if you're having trouble.

New Move Goal

Every time you change your daily Move goal, and then exceed that new goal, you get this achievement. You can change your Move goal by opening the Activity app on your Apple Watch and force-pressing the screen.

Longest Move Streak

When you hit your Move goal (close the red ring) several days in a row, that's a "streak." You get this award when your streak finally ends, if it's longer than your previous best streak.

Perfect Week

This is given out for four categories: Move, Exercise, Stand, and All Activity. For the first three, simply close the rings (red, green, or blue) every day of the week. To get the Perfect Week (All Activity) badge, close all three rings every day for an entire week. You can earn this multiple times, though it only shows one badge.

Remember, one week in the Activity app is from Monday-Sunday!

activity weekly challenges — Close those rings every day from Monday to Sunday to earn a handful of badges.

Perfect Month

Unlike Perfect Week, there are not multiple different Perfect Month badges for the different color rings. The lone Perfect Month achievement is for closing the red Move ring every day of the month.

There's a separate Perfect Month badge for every month and every year, though. So you can earn this in February and again in March, and again in February in the next year.

Monthly Challenge

Each month has its own unique fitness challenge. If you have notifications set for the Activity app on our Apple Watch, you'll see the goal presented at the beginning of the month, but you'll also see the current month's challenge in the Achievements tab of the Activity app on your iPhone. It will be a grey outline before it's completed, but you can tap on it to see what the challenge entails.

The monthly challenge may task you with burning a specific number of calories, working out a number of times, or traveling a certain distance. There's no telling what each new month will bring, you just have to look!

activity monthly challenges — There's a different challenge every month, so check your Activity app.

100, 365, 500, 1,000 Move Goals

When you hit your daily Move goal (close the red ring) 100 times, you get an achievement badge. You get another for hitting it 365 times, 500 times, and 1,000 times. These do not need to be in a row; it's just the total number of times you've ever hit the goal.

activity move challenges — Close the Move ring often to unlock a series of badges. Set the Move goal low if you want to make it easier.

Limited Achievements

Apple offers multiple one-off challenges per year that are only available for a limited time. Often, they're only around for one day or one weekend. Some are limited to the U.S. because they're based on U.S. holidays.

You'll get a notification on your Apple Watch when one of them is coming up (make sure you have notifications enabled for the Activity app, using the Watch app on your iPhone).

activity special badges — Apple makes a number of special time-limited badges available throughout the year.

Veterans Day (November 11, 2021)

Apple

Apple says, "Earn this special award on November 11 by doing any workout for 11 minutes or more. Record your time with the Workout app or any app that adds workouts to Health."

As Veterans Day is a U.S. holiday, it's likely that this badge is only for those in the U.S. region.

National Parks (August 28, 2021)

Earn this award by recording a hike, walk, run, or wheelchair workout of a mile (1.6K) or more with any app that adds workouts to Health. In the past, this was a U.S.-only badge meant to celebrate the anniversary of the U.S. National Parks, but this year it's a worldwide event to "appreciate the beauty of national parks all over the world."

You'll be rewarded with an Activity badge and several animated stickers for use in Messages.

Apple

Yoga Day (June 21, 2021)

Do a yoga workout of 15 minutes or more on that day, you'll get this badge. You don't have to use the Workouts app; any app that syncs with the Health app and specifically adds Yoga workouts will work fine.

International Dance Day (April 29, 2021)

Apple

Now that the Apple Watch has dance workouts (added in watchOS 7), Apple's celebrating International Dance Day with a new challenge. Complete any Dance workout of 20 minutes or more on April 29 to earn the badge.

Earth Day (April 22, 2021)

Apple

The yearly Earth Day challenge went on hiatus last year, probably due to the then-new COVID-19 pandemic. It's back this year—just complete any workout of 30 minutes or more to get your badge and animated stickers.

International Women's Day (March 8, 2021)

Simply complete any workout of 20 minutes or more on March 8 to earn the limited-edition award and a set of animated stickers.

Unity (February, 2021)

Apple's first activity challenge to recognize Black History Month (February in the United States) is the Unity award. To earn it, simply close your Move ring seven days in a row between February 1 and 28. You'll earn a badge and a set of stickers (some of which are shown above).

Ring in the New Year (January, 2021)

For the fifth year in a row, Apple's "Ring in the New Year" badge will be obtainable during January.

As with prior years, you'll be tasked with closing all three rings (move, exercise, and stand) each day for seven days. This is similar to the perpetual Perfect Week badge, except it can be obtained during any seven consecutive days in January 2021 ("Perfect Week" is always a Monday-Sunday week).

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I have written professionally about technology for my entire adult professional life - over 20 years. I like to figure out how complicated technology works and explain it in a way anyone can understand.