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More Apple Watch Faces?

jeffreyk

jeffreyk

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 28, 2007
192
25
Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
I don’t know if anyone has the answer for my question but here it is…Why doesn’t Apple release more watch faces and/or hire in-house watch face designers to make more watch faces to give AW users more variety? It would be nice if Apple would release, let’s say, 4-6 new watch faces every month. I get that they don’t want third-party watch face designers to design faces but I sure wish Apple would release more watch faces. Thanks!
 
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You can download Facer's app. It will have loads of watch faces to choose from, and you can even do a search in there :). Also another app is Watch Faces. A black icon with a watch that has a color screen on it.
 
StumpyBloke said:
Barely/infrequently let’s be honest
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Exactly. I just wish Apple would release more watch faces, not only every year, but more on a monthly basis. The Apple Watch, when it was launched, was touted as the most personal Apple Product to date (I think it was said to be that by Tim Cook). The watch works great of course but, without more official watch faces and/or third party watch faces to really make the watch one’s own, to me it feels like it falls short of that promise just a bit.
 
mavis said:
While I agree that there should be more options/variety/customization with watch faces, it's also worth mentioning that the Apple Watch had ten watch faces at launch. Now there are 44, many with significantly different variants.
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The first Apple Watch was released in 2014. Over a 6-7 year period, Apple has only released 34 extra watch faces. I just wish Apple would release way more than what they already have.
 
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jeffreyk said:
The first Apple Watch was released in 2014. Over a 6-7 year period, Apple has only released 34 extra watch faces. I just wish Apple would release way more than what they already have.
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The first Apple Watch was released on April 24, 2015. I remember the date because that's when I got my first one. Lol

So 34 faces in seven years. About five new watch faces per year. More, if you include the variations (many of the newer faces have dramatically different variants). Still, I agree that it would be nice to have more. Personally, I can't stand 90% of them (for various reasons, which I'd love to explain to Apple's designers and horologists) ... 😭
 
mavis said:
The first Apple Watch was released on April 24, 2015. I remember the date because that's when I got my first one. Lol

So 34 faces in seven years. About five new watch faces per year. More, if you include the variations (many of the newer faces have dramatically different variants). Still, I agree that it would be nice to have more. Personally, I can't stand 90% of them (for various reasons, which I'd love to explain to Apple's designers and horologists) ... 😭
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My bad, the Googlelizer Machine listed it as “Introduced” in 2014 and it was, indeed, released in 2015 (like you said).
 
I feel you on this one, I had a FitBit before my AppleWatch and I feel that the choice of watch faces was much better there and you could find the ones you needed a bit easier. I have only recently found a watch face that I really like, called StressFace, it's simple - colourful and easy to use, it also shows me my daily stress levels which I desperately need, but I have found going with external WatchFace developers is probably best.
 
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BettyS said:
I feel you on this one, I had a FitBit before my AppleWatch and I feel that the choice of watch faces was much better there and you could find the ones you needed a bit easier. I have only recently found a watch face that I really like, called StressFace, it's simple - colourful and easy to use, it also shows me my daily stress levels which I desperately need, but I have found going with external WatchFace developers is probably best.
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I originally started out on the Apple Watch for a few years, switched to three iterations of the Galaxy Watch from Samsung, and then about two months ago I switched back to Apple Watch. I really wanted to get back to the simplicity of the Apple ecosystem as it was tiring having to work within two mobile platforms. I was running two mobile platforms -- Samsung with the Watch and Galaxy Phone along with my iPhone as everything here (besides my 2-3 year Samsung experiment) was Apple.

In my honest opinion it's sort of (okay, very) embarrassing for Apple that Apple has so few watch face options as compared to (at least) Samsung. Even Garmin has many, many more than Apple. Yes, some may argue that there's enough watch faces and variations so I should be happy with the Apple Watch selection but c'mon 44 total watch faces with some variations in about 6 years? Some also argue that they like a few watch faces but aren't interested in more. That's fine but just because someone doesn't like one watch face that doesn't mean many others won't like that same watch face.

I really believe Apple should 1) release new, inventive, and engaging watch faces every month (maybe 6-12 new ones each month) or 2) finally open up the platform to third party watch face designers. Hire some new very creative in-house watch face designers so at least everything stays in-house if you don't want third party watch face designers to do anything. When you look at the variety of watch faces on just the Galaxy Watch platform (hundreds and hundreds of watch face options by Samsung Third Party Watch Face developers and that doesn't even include Watchmaker and Facer) it's quite disappointing that Apple has just 44 in-house designed watch faces (as it was pointed out earlier in this thread). Maybe one day it'll change but I want so many watch faces to choose from to take advantage of Apple's really great and outstanding Watch to make it as extremely personal of a tech gadget can be for me (and I'm sure, many others).

With that all being said, what is your opinion of external watch face developers like Facer and Watchmaker for the Apple Watch? Do they work well on the Apple Watch or are they hampered by not being able to do some things? How is battery life affected? Thanks!
 
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Yep, we badly need more. And many of the ones Apple has done over the last few years are of the fun/novelty variety rather than ones that many of us would find more useful (i.e., faces with traditional and/or sophisticated watch elements but which allow multiple complications).
 
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svenmany said:
I really want more face choices which are digital time with digital seconds. I've only found a single face with that.
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This is probably what I‘d like to see more of, in particular.

To the OP, just out of curiosity, can you draw or describe us what face(s) you are looking for in particular? I would also welcome more choices… meanwhile, I mostly enjoy what is available.
Also, if you haven’t already, check out the other threads “Show off your apple watch” and another “sticky” one in the apple watch forums list — personally I am pretty stoked about the new faces and options that seem to be coming quite soon with the next OS update!
 
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ndouglas said:
This is probably what I‘d like to see more of, in particular.

To the OP, just out of curiosity, can you draw or describe us what face(s) you are looking for in particular? I would also welcome more choices… meanwhile, I mostly enjoy what is available.
Also, if you haven’t already, check out the other threads “Show off your apple watch” and another “sticky” one in the apple watch forums list — personally I am pretty stoked about the new faces and options that seem to be coming quite soon with the next OS update!
Click to expand...

The watch faces that I’m interested in on Apple’s platform would include, at a minimum, a much larger display of digital time (including seconds), step count, battery percentage, Apple fitness rings or other ways to display the info, and heart rate number (not just a heart icon). I do understand that many variations on the Apple Watch include some of these items already but they aren’t displayed in a bold way like the watch faces I’ve highlighted below.

Apple needs to let these type of designers create fun, colorful, and bold watch faces for the Apple Watch. The current watch faces are okay on the Apple Watch as they do a good job but the watch faces should resemble more data in more interesting ways. It’s a smart watch and there should be much, much more variety of watch faces for Apple Watch users.

For example, here are four watch face designers for the Galaxy Watch. They show many of the same functions that are found on the Apple Watch but they offer more pinache and options within each watch face to really personalize the watch face experience to each user.

play.google.com

Android Apps by HMKWatch3 on Google Play

https://play.google.com/store/apps/dev?id=6624907067685453951
play.google.com play.google.com
play.google.com

Android Apps by Samtree on Google Play

SamWatch beautifully decorates your smartwatch.
play.google.com play.google.com
play.google.com

Android Apps by Matteo Dini MD ® Watch Faces on Google Play

OFFICIAL MD WATCH FACES - ð Award Winning Designer - SDC USA - Best developer - â Top Seller - ð¥ Premium Design - Â®ï¸ Registered Trademark
play.google.com play.google.com
play.google.com

Android Apps by BALLOZI Watch Faces on Google Play

Crafting very detailed and high quality watch faces for Wear OS. Included in the Best Watch Faces 2018 and 2019 in the Galaxy Apps Store
play.google.com play.google.com

Of course these watch faces are made for a round watch face but, when you have creative watch face designers out there like these four — and over a hundred more — I’m sure they can be adjusted to Apple’s rectangular format watch face.

I would love to see this type of creativity on the Apple Watch. Maybe one day.
 
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Good call, I would definitely like that stuff too, especially showing step count and heart rate numbers, and similar data! I found only recently the “infograph” face can show heart rate, “X minutes ago”, which is useful, but like you said, it’s far from being displayed in a bold / clear way. Thanks for the links and examples, I agree it would be great to have some of that kind of customized watch faces!
 
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No problem, my pleasure, thank you. After a few years and three versions of the Samsung Galaxy Watch, it was time to get back to the Apple Watch especially seeing what the new WatchOS will have. I really like the Apple Watch and I’m thrilled to be back with the Apple Watch. The Galaxy Watch was a very nice watch but, after a few years, I think that the Apple Watch is the superior watch. The one thing I do miss is all the watch face options that were available on the Galaxy Watch. I think the most watch faces I downloaded on my Galaxy Watch was about 70. It was so nice having so many different varieties of watch display choices. Apple can match that if they wanted to as they have (I think) nearly $300B in cash reserves and they have the superior watch.

I just gave you four examples of what watch face designers could accomplish but, if you want to see the breadth of what many watch face designers could do on a watch platform, check out…

https://www.reddit.com/r/GalaxyWatchFace/comments/tewo6t

I think they have about 130 designers listed with links to their designs. Also, no Intellectual Property was infringed upon (like taking advantage of licenses and properties) as all these designs are original designs. Some have had concerns that if third-party watch face designers were allowed to design such things, the designers would infringe on IP. That’s really not the case if Apple oversees such designs. Additionally, not all of the designs are winners but that’s up to each individual to decide. It was nice to have all the choices and options though.

I really want the Apple Watch to give users more personal options. The Apple Watch — as great as it currently is — could be so much better in my opinion with a better variety of watch faces from which to choose. If Apple wants to deliver “the most personal product the company has ever offered” as Tim Cook said when the Apple Watch was introduced (I may be paraphrasing as it was many years ago), they have to step up their game and offer many, many more watch face options to thier users.
 
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mavis said:
While I agree that there should be more options/variety/customization with watch faces, it's also worth mentioning that the Apple Watch had ten watch faces at launch. Now there are 44, many with significantly different variants.
Click to expand...

That to me suggested the watch was launched with a poor variety of faces and with just 44 seven years later, it remains poor. It wouldn’t be too much effort for them to have built up a wider library of faces by now.

Like Siri, I get the impression Apple have done the bare minimum and it’s another disappointment amongst their users.
 
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jeffreyk said:
My sincerest apologies for the long list, I was just trying to post the Reddit Link only. Oh my. I had no idea the whole list would be displayed.
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I think you fixed it, the link only is shown now. Thanks again, good info, certainly shows the huge disparity between what could easily be possible for Apple Watch, and what’s already there for Samsung users. : - /
 
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The-Real-Deal82 said:
That to me suggested the watch was launched with a poor variety of faces and with just 44 seven years later, it remains poor. It wouldn’t be too much effort for them to have built up a wider library of faces by now.

Like Siri, I get the impression Apple have done the bare minimum and it’s another disappointment amongst their users.
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I agree, it reminds me of how I walk over to the laundry room often in my apartment, and I can’t ask Siri to set a specific timer, because I left my phone just a short distance away back in my apartment. A small thing, but frequently used, and more frustrating to imagine how it _could_ be done without much effort, but they just don’t for some reason. Same with some very basic omissions in watch faces and watch face info. Sigh!

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I posted a version of the above to www.apple.com/feedback —> Watch … maybe they’ll get enough requests eventually to make some improvements.
 
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ndouglas said:
I agree, it reminds me of how I walk over to the laundry room often in my apartment, and I can’t ask Siri to set a specific timer, because I left my phone just a short distance away back in my apartment. A small thing, but frequently used, and more frustrating to imagine how it _could_ be done without much effort, but they just don’t for some reason. Same with some very basic omissions in watch faces and watch face info. Sigh!

—-
I posted a version of the above to www.apple.com/feedback —> Watch … maybe they’ll get enough requests eventually to make some improvements.
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Thank you for posting that to Apple Feedback as I forgot I could do such a thing. That’s very cool of you to do that. I hope you have a great day!
 
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