A gesture based power management method for a wearable device is provided. The method includes establishing a mapping relationship between a set of pre-defined gestures including at least a lookup gesture and a set of power management functions including at least a function for turning on a display screen of the wearable device. The method also includes receiving motion information from a plurality of sensors and determining whether the display screen of the wearable device is on. Further, the method includes counting down a timeout counter when the display screen of the wearable device is on, determining whether the motion information indicates a specific pre-defined gesture when the display screen of the wearable device is off, and performing a power management function corresponding to the specific pre-defined gesture when the motion information indicates the specific pre-defined gesture.