The watch, the music, and the locked screen, the three things people ask about before they trust a metronome to survive an hour in a pocket.
Yes. On the watch there's a Sound from setting with two modes. Leave it on iPhone and the watch acts as a remote, you drive the tempo from your wrist, the phone makes the sound. Switch it to This Watch and the watch generates the click itself, through AirPods or its own speaker, with no phone needed anywhere. Leave the phone at home and go run.
Switching stops playback on the other device, only one of the two ever makes sound, so you never end up with a phone and a watch ticking slightly out of phase with each other. Start it again on whichever device you just moved to.
No, it just means your iPhone is out of range while the watch is in iPhone mode, so there's nothing to drive. Either bring the phone back into range, or switch Sound from to This Watch and keep going without it. When the phone comes back, the watch reconciles its state on its own; you don't have to fix anything.
Yes. That's the whole point, dial in the tempo, lock the phone, put it in a pocket or a jersey, and the tick keeps perfect time for as long as you're running. It survives the screen going off, other apps opening, and your phone bouncing around.
Yes, and you choose how. Mix keeps your music at full volume with the click layered on top. Duck dips the music briefly on each tick so the beat cuts through. There's a separate click-volume slider too, and it's independent of both your music and your phone's volume, so you can get the balance right without touching either.
With headphones on, the click leans left on one beat and right on the next, bouncing between your ears in time with your feet. Some runners find it locks in the rhythm far better than a centred click. Turn it off and you get the same tick in both ears.
Several ways. There's a Lock Screen Live Activity and a Dynamic Island presentation with play/pause and ±BPM, a Control Center toggle that starts and stops the metronome without opening the app at all, a Home Screen widget (the medium size has tap-to-control), and the watch's own Smart Stack widget. Every surface stays in sync with all the others.
The range is 40 to 240, so it covers most of what anyone needs. Runners working on stride rate usually aim somewhere around 170-185 steps per minute, but the honest answer is that it depends on your height, your pace, and your legs. Start near your current natural cadence and nudge it up by a few beats at a time rather than leaping.
Completely. No account, no sign-up, no subscription, and no network needed to make a sound.
One small banner in the iPhone app, none on the watch, none on the Lock Screen, none in Control Center. Where the law requires it you'll see a consent prompt the first time, and Settings → Manage Privacy Choices lets you change your answer.