Lynch is making it a tech issue which it is not. Otherwise, the same could be said about apps and APIs on iPhone, Watch, etc. This is a holdover from Jony Ive's influence on Apple Watch and the way it caters more to fashion and design than to tech enthusiasts and developers. In a way I do agree that a bunch of ugly watch faces suddenly hitting the public eye could hurt the Apple brand. On the other hand, Apple fights all of this things for years and eventually caves partially or fully just as the hammer (regulators, competition, etc.) is about to hit them. So I predict that in about 2-3 years Apple will allow selected developers to put watch faces in the App Store for sale and it will grow from there.![]()
A common request from Apple Watch users over the years has been the ability to use third-party watch faces, but watchOS 10 still does not support this. In an interview with Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger published today, Apple's VP of Technology Kevin Lynch and product marketing employee Deidre Caldbeck explained why.
The interview was spotted earlier by 9to5Mac's Benjamin Mayo, and the quotes below are machine translated from German.
Lynch said Apple puts a "huge amount of effort" into every watch face to ensure they work "uniformly and simply," and said Apple needs to plan ahead to make sure watch faces continue to work "if we want to change something or add new possibilities."
Caldbeck added that developers are able to create complications for their watchOS apps, which adds a layer of customization to watch faces by allowing for glanceable information to be displayed, such as a CARROT Weather forecast. Starting with watchOS 10, the new Smart Stack widgets feature offers space for up to three complications.
That's everything Apple had to say about the lack of third-party watch faces in the interview, which touches on several other watchOS 10 details.
watchOS 10 will be released later this year for the Apple Watch Series 4 and newer, and is currently available in beta for users with a free Apple developer account. A public beta is coming in July for users who do not wish to use the developer beta.
Article Link: Apple Explains Why Third-Party Watch Faces Still Aren't Supported on watchOS 10
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Apple Explains Why Third-Party Watch Faces Still Aren't Supported on watchOS 10
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Love this concept! Agree we need more options. But also think we don't have to turn to 3rd party devs to make that happen...
That’s dope! I also think it should be allowed, but I’m also content with the variety they have.
The real reason is Apple doesn’t want “ugly” faces that they didn’t approve to be seen on their devices.
Well if they won’t allow it at least let people submit ideas to apple and have people vote on them
Same. 3rd party faces that cause problems over time and crash, etc., isnt the experience I want.
This is probably the real reason. There's no other good technical reason as to why.
So in other words, developers are too stupid in Apple's opinion to be trusted with making watch faces that work properly? I'm not buying it....
It’s a shame then that Apple don’t even ensure their Activity Digital face shows the full six digits of the time properly, without part of it sometimes slightly disappearing off the right edge of the Ultra display.
Actually, they have. I've had apps where their complications disappeared from my watch faces because they didn't comply with the new standard, and then had to wait for the 3rd-party apps to update to the new standard before I could add them back.
If Apple allowed 3rd-party watch faces, whenever Apple made changes to watch face standards, we'd have to wait for the 3rd-party face to update, AND wait for any 3rd-party complications to update. It might take a while before we get the broken watch faces back to where they used to be. Some 3rd-party face developers might not bother updating their faces, causing people to lose their preferred face forever. Many users would blame that on Apple, rather than the 3rd-party dev. So I can see why Apple doesn't want to allow 3rd-party faces.
Any argument you try to put forth about "incompatibility" or "ugliness" or "copyright" or "complications" or... whatever can just as easily be said about ... complications themselves, or widgets, or watch apps, or even iOS or macOS apps
There
is
no
technical
reason.
None
nada
nein
nilch
There
is
no
technical
reason.
None
nada
nein
nilch
THIS exactly. I've wanted this for years and it's so frustrating that we can't have it.
If Apple is really going to stick to this position then at least give us more flexibility to customise the faces it does provide.
1 - Allow us to select from a few different hand styles. There are a few faces that I really like but the fact that the hands are wire-frame rather than solid ruins them for me. If Apple would at least allow us to choose between solid and wire-frame for any given face that would be a big plus for me.
2 - At least give all of the most minimal traditional watch faces the ability to have a date complication just inside the 3-o-clock or 6-o-clock position. People who didn’t want that could set those complications to “None” but some really nice simple faces aren’t candidates for me because so I want to have the date on the face.
Yes, I’d like to see third-party watch faces but just those 2 changes above would go a long way for me to have more of the stock faces that could work for me.
1 - Allow us to select from a few different hand styles. There are a few faces that I really like but the fact that the hands are wire-frame rather than solid ruins them for me. If Apple would at least allow us to choose between solid and wire-frame for any given face that would be a big plus for me.
2 - At least give all of the most minimal traditional watch faces the ability to have a date complication just inside the 3-o-clock or 6-o-clock position. People who didn’t want that could set those complications to “None” but some really nice simple faces aren’t candidates for me because so I want to have the date on the face.
Yes, I’d like to see third-party watch faces but just those 2 changes above would go a long way for me to have more of the stock faces that could work for me.
What I want is the option to have a watch face that does not show the time.
The watch has many useful functions that aren’t about telling the time. I’d like to be able to use those without having to have the time on display.
(I get that I’m in a very tiny minority on this, but I find having timepieces around me distracting. I set alarms when I need time markers, but other than that clocks are annoying.)
The watch has many useful functions that aren’t about telling the time. I’d like to be able to use those without having to have the time on display.
(I get that I’m in a very tiny minority on this, but I find having timepieces around me distracting. I set alarms when I need time markers, but other than that clocks are annoying.)
I mean we are about to enter iPhone 15 and we still can’t put our app icons anywhere on the screen. It’s almost like android has a patent on it or something
People already partly blame Apple when watchOS gets updated but their favorite app does not. Same on iPhone. Same on iPad. What's the difference here?
Besides, a lot of app makers are dropping support for the Apple Watch anyway. Watch faces might revitalize the watch app market.
I'm not happy about it either, but I can understand Apple wanting control over what ultimately sets the "look" of their product. They've been like this forever. Maybe there's room for middle ground. Kinda like at Disneyland where the kids drive the little cars. They can steer and step on the gas pedal, but the rail in the middle prevents them from doing any real damage. 
Perhaps Apple can also promote quality design by featuring selected faces in the store.
Perhaps Apple can also promote quality design by featuring selected faces in the store.
I think the main reason they won’t allow them is that they want to be in control of how the watch looks, and this is especially important given they now have always-on displays.
Now whether users agree with this is another matter, but I can understand that Apple doesn’t want their nicely designed hardware to be paired with (potentially) junk watch faces, copyright issues or imitations of classic faces that look ridiculous on a smart device.
Now whether users agree with this is another matter, but I can understand that Apple doesn’t want their nicely designed hardware to be paired with (potentially) junk watch faces, copyright issues or imitations of classic faces that look ridiculous on a smart device.
They seem to be really pleased with that Smart Stack widget but it’s just the Siri watch face with less visible information. I hope the Siri watch face will be able to benefit from these widgets rather than it be confined to just this new face.
Putting aside Apple’s explanation, we really need lots of additional watch face options, whether they come from Apple or third parties. It continues to amaze me that there are so few elegant and professional options this many years after the Watch was introduced. Metropolitan was a huge addition, but it’s only one face.