Apple Watch Family Member

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Apple Watch Family Member - eSIM

JonoNZ

274 posts

Ultimate Geek

#302732 15-Dec-2022 15:17

I already have an iPhone and Apple Watch with active eSIM. I'm looking to add a family member on my phone with a new Apple Watch - so essentially two watches managed on my phone.

With Spark you can only have one "One Number" add-on, which is already in use. Has anyone tried to connect a second Apple Watch by just provisioning a standalone eSIM connection using the just the EID of the Watch, provisioned on the Spark side?

boosacnoodle

963 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3010404 15-Dec-2022 16:27

Yes. It doesn't work as the eSIM needs to be pushed to the Watch with special entitlements from Apple.

No providers in NZ support Family Sharing either, unfortunately. It is available in Australia through TruPhone, albeit without roaming.

JonoNZ

274 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3010412 15-Dec-2022 16:54

How does the push work?

For my Apple Watch, my One Number was all done by my Spark Digital rep, as it could not be done on my iPhone or Watch directly, it just activated and works fine. Not saying it's that simple, but it does not need to be initiated/setup by the phone.

JonoNZ

274 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3025865 23-Jan-2023 16:39

A quick follow up on this. We were in Australia for a few weeks so I decided to setup the Truphone (https://www.truphone.com/consumer/esim-for-watch/) Apple Watch Family Setup on my sons Apple Watch. I did this before departing NZ. Worked perfectly, super slick setup, and worked flawlessly when in Australia he had great connectivity everywhere we went.

And yes, unfortunately it does not support roaming so does not work when outside Australia (or one of the other countries you can create the eSIM for), which is a shame. Would be great if Truphone offered this service in NZ. I logged a support query with Truphone as Apple does now support roaming on Apple Watch (if the carrier supports it), but they said they have no immediate plans to change that.

If you've got a need for a Family Setup Apple Watch eSIM whilst in Australia I can highly recommend this.