Skip to main content

Hebcal for Apple Watch

Hebcal Hebrew Calendar provides watch face complications with today’s Hebrew date and this week’s Torah portion or holiday. The watch app displays a year of Torah readings and upcoming Jewish holidays. No frills, no gimmicks, no notifications, just an easy way to glance at the date and parsha.

Hebcal Hebrew Calendar app for Apple Watch®

The Hebrew date and weekly Torah portion can be displayed as transliterations in Sephardic (e.g. “Shabbat” or “Sukkot”) or Ashkenazi (e.g. “Shabbos” or “Sukkos”) or in Hebrew (e.g. “שַׁבָּת” or “סוּכּוֹת”). Select Israel from the settings if you are based in Israel and want to see the Israeli Jewish holiday & Torah reading schedule. The default setting is for Diaspora (outside of Israel).

Sunset and candle-lighting times. Hebrew days begin at sundown, and the app rolls over to the next Hebrew date at 8:00pm on the device local timezone. Turn on Use Location in Settings and it rolls over at sunset instead. Friday and holiday candle-lighting times, Havdalah, and Chanukah candles then appear in the app and on the watch face. Tap a day with candle times to see the details on a Zmanim card. You can adjust the candle-lighting minutes and the Havdalah setting. The default follows local custom, such as 40 minutes before sunset in Jerusalem. Your location stays on the watch and is used only for these calculations.

The Omer. During the Omer, tap the day to open the new Omer card. It shows the evening the count is said, the count itself, the Sefirah, the word and letter of Psalm 67, and the Ana BeKoach words, with Hebrew set in the SBL Hebrew typeface.

The app requires an iPhone with iOS 15 or later and an Apple Watch® with watchOS 10.6 or later. The app requires an iPhone to install, but there is no companion iPhone app. It runs only on the watch.

iPhone and Android apps will come eventually. If have an iPhone but no Apple Watch, you can still get Hebcal holidays on your device via our download/subscribe process.

Hebcal (pronounced HEEB-kal, as in Hebrew calendar) provides Jewish calendar and holiday information. Our mission is to increase awareness of Jewish holidays and to help Jews to be observant of the mitzvot.