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Missing watch faces

dotnet

dotnet

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Apr 10, 2015
1,688
1,424
Sydney, Australia
The word around town is that Apple will either tightly curate new watch face offerings, or provide them itself, exclusively. I don't think Apple wants to see knock-offs of classic mechanical watch faces, or themed faces (à la Star Wars, Dr Who, Pokemon, My Little Pony, you name it).

With that in mind, what would you like to see in a new watch face that the current ones don't have?

My biggest wish: Roman numerals (with IIII as 4, of course ;) ).
Second biggest wish: Better hands.
 
Now you know why Romans used a 12 hour clock. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII was such a pain to write on iClay tablets.



(Disclaimer: I have no idea about roman time keeping
 
lagwagon said:
Ummm 4 in Roman numerals is IV not IIII. LOL!
Click to expand...

"There is a story that a famous clockmaker had constructed a clock for Louis XIV, king of France. The clockmaker had naturally used IV for four. When the clock was shown to the king, he remarked that IIII should have been used instead of IV. When it was explained to him that IV was correct, he still insisted, so that there was nothing to do but change the clock dial. This introduced the custom of using IIII for four. This is probably only a story, however, as IIII occurs long before the time of Louis XIV. And this same story is also told in connection with other monarchs. There is one reason why IIII is preferable to IV, and it may have caused the change. On the other side of the clock dial the VIII is the heaviest number, consisting of four heavy strokes and one light one, as it is usually made. It would destroy the symmetry to have the IV with only two heavy strokes on the other side. Thus IIII with four heavy strokes is much to be preferred. The change may therefore have been made for reasons of symmetry."

From Time & Timekeepers, W. I. Milham, The Macmillan Company, New York, 1947, p. 196
 
Tomloes said:
On the other side of the clock dial the VIII is the heaviest number, consisting of four heavy strokes and one light one, as it is usually made. It would destroy the symmetry to have the IV with only two heavy strokes on the other side. Thus IIII with four heavy strokes is much to be preferred.
Click to expand...

This.

There are famous watch faces that use IV instead of IIII (Big Ben is the most cited example), but most watch makers seem to prefer IIII, and so do I.
 
More animated objects along the lines of the flowers, jellyfish, and butterflies. Such as planets, nebulas, or even when you wake it from sleep it would start painting an abstract painting before fading to black.
 
Oppressed said:
More animated objects along the lines of the flowers, jellyfish, and butterflies. Such as planets, nebulas, or even when you wake it from sleep it would start painting an abstract painting before fading to black.
Click to expand...
In the September introduction, they did have a time-lapse face (and I believe a photo face), but they weren't released. People on the forum theorized that they were battery hogs because they used more pixels than the rest of the faces — also the released faces look better because they don't go all the way to the edge of the display.
 
I'd like to see one like the Pebble face on the right.

The words slide out to the left and the new word slides in from the right as the minutes change.

DSC_0145-640x426.jpg
 
lagwagon said:
Ummm 4 in Roman numerals is IV not IIII. LOL!
Click to expand...

Tomloes said:
"There is a story that a famous clockmaker had constructed a clock for Louis XIV, king of France. The clockmaker had naturally used IV for four. When the clock was shown to the king, he remarked that IIII should have been used instead of IV. When it was explained to him that IV was correct, he still insisted, so that there was nothing to do but change the clock dial. This introduced the custom of using IIII for four. This is probably only a story, however, as IIII occurs long before the time of Louis XIV. And this same story is also told in connection with other monarchs. There is one reason why IIII is preferable to IV, and it may have caused the change. On the other side of the clock dial the VIII is the heaviest number, consisting of four heavy strokes and one light one, as it is usually made. It would destroy the symmetry to have the IV with only two heavy strokes on the other side. Thus IIII with four heavy strokes is much to be preferred. The change may therefore have been made for reasons of symmetry."

From Time & Timekeepers, W. I. Milham, The Macmillan Company, New York, 1947, p. 196
Click to expand...

Cuyler said:
I'd never noticed that some clock faces use IIII instead of IV — doing an image search for "roman numeral clock face" shows how common it is. And King Louis is right — it looks better because it's more balanced.
Click to expand...

I always thought the (much more utilitarian) explanation was that clock makers then just had to cast four sets of 'XIIIIV' to get the numerals for every number on the clock face.

But I prefer the - more poetic - Louis XIV explanation!
 
samiznaetekto said:
I know it's not that hard. I asked how long.
Click to expand...

I have a round binary IO watch. I haven't worn it in several years, but when I used to wear it, it was no slower to read then, say, a digital clock in military time. Just takes a moment to process.

Apple will never release a watch face like this… If we have any chance of these sorts of individual tastes we will definitely need third-party developers.
 
I'd like to see some new watch face options, but I love the simple face and I like the color option as well. Currently rocking simple and loving the look.
 
Definitely bigger hands or hands that stand out more.

Ability to have the date be a different color (such as white) compared to the second hand (keep as red).

Also display of timer when it's set.
 
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