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Do you think Apple will ever open up the watch face design to developers?

The Cockney Rebel

The Cockney Rebel

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jul 17, 2010
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As it stands, they are all so stale.

What do you think?

Is there a face you really like? Or are you also bored with the current faces?
 
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No.

I can’t begin to imagine the carnage that would result from that. From super ugly potentially brand damaging faces to gross copyright violations, it seems like a terrible mistake waiting to happen.

The closest they might come is to allow a curated selection of approved third party faces. That I could see potentially happening.


I’m happy enough with the current selection but certainly would not be opposed to new ones being made available.
 
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No, as then you get Carmen connect - a haphazard collection of mostly tasteless faces - Apple have a brand and design reputation to keep (which is of great value to their perception) so they will keep that to themselves in order to maintain standards
 
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Howard2k said:
No.

I can’t begin to imagine the carnage that would result from that. From super ugly potentially brand damaging faces to gross copyright violations, it seems like a terrible mistake waiting to happen.

The closest they might come is to allow a curated selection of approved third party faces. That I could see potentially happening.


I’m happy enough with the current selection but certainly would not be opposed to new ones being made available.
Click to expand...
What’s your go-to face?

I tend to revert to Modular Compact.
 
thr33stones said:
No, as then you get Carmen connect - a haphazard collection of mostly tasteless faces - Apple have a brand and design reputation to keep (which is of great value to their perception) so they will keep that to themselves in order to maintain standards
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I see your point.

Maybe they should make some new ones on a fairly regular basis, then.
 
Excitement and boredom are not the attributes I think about when selecting watch faces. If a particular watch face meets my needs, I'm probably going to keep using it until I find one that I like better.

For me it's all about getting the information I need in a brief glance, ideally without the need to first put on a pair of reading glasses to see a tiny complication. Obviously I want it to display that information in a way that doesn't look hideous, but to me function is far more important to me than form on a smartwatch.
 
jz0309 said:
no, they will want to own the "look and feel".
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I would have bought this argument years ago, before there were dozens of different watch faces and thousands or millions of possible combinations of customizations and complications that change the look and feel of the watch face.

Despite that, I still can't find one that I like. One that just displays a large and readable digital time and one or two complications, without wasting space. If Apple opened up the watch face to developers, I would develop one immediately just so I could have one that I'm happy with using.
 
The Cockney Rebel said:
What’s your go-to face?

I tend to revert to Modular Compact.
Click to expand...

Infograph all the way. The more complications the better for me. I had it set to one color at first, but eventually went with the "rainbow" our whatever it's called (red/yellow/blue/green/white/orange).

-dan
 
It seems highly unlikely. Im a big fan for the Mickey Mouse, World Time, Lunar, California and GMT watch face depending on what band I use. I have been recently been using the Snoopy watch face elusively, it just gets everything right. It is such a joy to look at my watch and the random Snoopy animation.
 
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SilvioInfante said:
Despite that, I still can't find one that I like. One that just displays a large and readable digital time and one or two complications, without wasting space. If Apple opened up the watch face to developers, I would develop one immediately just so I could have one that I'm happy with using.
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SAME. In the name of all that is good in this world just give me bloody watch faces with a large digital time in the center with complications above and/or below.
 
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MisterSavage said:
SAME. In the name of all that is good in this world just give me bloody watch faces with a large digital time in the center with complications above and/or below.
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The closest option might be the Modular faceplates? You can try between the Modular, Modular Compact and the Modular Duo. It's not the magic answer you want but it seems to come close to what you would like with a big digital time option and complications.
 
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SilvioInfante said:
I would have bought this argument years ago, before there were dozens of different watch faces and thousands or millions of possible combinations of customizations and complications that change the look and feel of the watch face.

Despite that, I still can't find one that I like. One that just displays a large and readable digital time and one or two complications, without wasting space. If Apple opened up the watch face to developers, I would develop one immediately just so I could have one that I'm happy with using.
Click to expand...
Why don't you just make your own? https://beebom.com/best-apps-create-set-custom-apple-watch-faces/

I have an Android watch and these same apps work amazingly. They clearly exist for Apple Watches, so why don't people talk about them?
 
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izzy0242mr said:
Why don't you just make your own? https://beebom.com/best-apps-create-set-custom-apple-watch-faces/

I have an Android watch and these same apps work amazingly. They clearly exist for Apple Watches, so why don't people talk about them?
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They don‘t.


They’re either a template such as an image and set of customizations, which you can do yourself without an app, or they’re an app that appears over the top of the watch face.


You cannot create your own watch face outside of Apple‘s boundaries, you can just fake it to a limited extent.
 
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Howard2k said:
They don‘t.


They’re either a template such as an image and set of customizations, which you can do yourself without an app, or they’re an app that appears over the top of the watch face.


You cannot create your own watch face outside of Apple‘s boundaries, you can just fake it to a limited extent.
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Wow, that's awful. I genuinely didn't realize you guys had it so bad. I have watch faces I've manually designed from the ground up via apps like Facer and Watchmaker and I can't imagine being forced to hunt down something that vaguely matches what I want/need.
 
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Bichon said:
Excitement and boredom are not the attributes I think about when selecting watch faces. If a particular watch face meets my needs, I'm probably going to keep using it until I find one that I like better.

For me it's all about getting the information I need in a brief glance, ideally without the need to first put on a pair of reading glasses to see a tiny complication. Obviously I want it to display that information in a way that doesn't look hideous, but to me function is far more important to me than form on a smartwatch.
Click to expand...
Pretty much same for me. I have 3 watch faces I customized with what is important to be shown on display. Rarely go outside those, mostly it’s one watch face that gets max use, other for activities.
 
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