New extension
.watches domain name
What you need to know about .watches: who can register it, which details are required and how transferring works.
Specifications
The key details of .watches
- Registry
- identity.digital
- Registration period
- 1 to 10 years
- Renewal period
- 1 to 9 years
- Domain name length
- 1 to 63 characters
- Time to registration
- immediately
- Transfer time
- 5 days
- Renewal on transfer
- yes, transferring renews the domain
- Transfer lock available
- yes
- Number of nameservers
- 1 to 13
- Renewable after expiry date
- 35 days
- Quarantine after deletion
- 30 days
Features
- DNSSEC: yesYou can secure your domain name with DNSSEC.
- IPv6: yesThe nameservers for this extension can also be reached over IPv6.
- Special characters: yesDomain names with letters such as é, ü or ø (and sometimes other scripts) are possible.
- Whois privacy: yesYour details can be hidden in the public Whois.
- Trustee: no
Requirements
Who can register a .watches?
- The registry Donuts may not provide services to individuals or organisations from countries or regions subject to United States sanctions. The country and province or region you provide are checked against this.
- The check looks at the combination of region and country. An address in Crimea, for example, is rejected whether you enter Ukraine or Russia as the country.
Additional details for registration
- For a premium name, you need a special code issued to you by the registry.
- Have you bought a reserved name directly from Donuts, for example through a pioneer programme? Then Donuts will give you a code that lets you register the name after all.
Good to know when registering
- After registration, the registry places a 60-day transfer lock on your domain name.
- You can only register premium names with a code you receive from the registry.
- Names that Donuts has reserved for a buyer remain reserved until that buyer registers the name with the code they received, via a registrar of their choice.
Transfer
Transferring a .watches
- First check in WHOIS that there is no transfer lock on the domain name.
- Has your current registrar set a lock? Then, as the registrant, ask for that lock to be removed.
- Once the transfer has been submitted, the registry notifies your current registrar.
- Your current registrar sends an email to the registrant, and possibly also to the administrative contact. In some cases, you can approve or reject the transfer in that email.
- If you neither approve nor reject the transfer, it is completed automatically after 5 days.
- You cannot transfer the domain name during the first 60 days after registration.
The transfer code
- You need a transfer code to transfer a domain. The registrant or administrative contact requests it from the current registrar.
- The code is 8 to 32 characters long and contains at least one letter, one number and one special character.
Owner
Change of registrant
- When the registrant changes, ICANN's transfer rules apply.
More information
Registry rules and links
- Registry website identity.digital
- Registry whois whois.donuts.co
- Dispute resolution policy identity.digital
- Registry terms and conditions identity.digital
Related extensions
View all domain extensionsCompiled from the registry's rules. Registries sometimes change their rules; if in doubt, the registry's terms take precedence. Updated on 11/11/2026.