Apple Watch faces are great fun. The Apple Watch Series 8 is the latest Apple Watch offering and is heralded as the most feature-rich smartwatch on the market today. Whilst the watch is attractive on its own, you can take it further and make it your own with the countless personal touches you can add.
We’ve divided Apple’s Built-in Watch faces into the following categories:
- Best for Work
- Best for Fitness Tracking
- Cool Apple Watch faces
New Watch Faces in OS 9
Watch OS 9 brings 3 new watch faces out of the box. These are Lunar, Metropolitan and Playtime.
Lunar
This is a Lunar phase watch face allowing for in-depth information relating to all the well-known calendars including Gregorian, Chinese, Islamic or Hebrew.
Metropolitan
A very cool watch face that enables lots of customizations of the look and feel of the number and tick selection. Choose your favorite color and background. The Watch face allows for 4 nicely positioned around the corners of the watch.
Playtime
A very cool watch face for adults who like to play with their watch and time and also for children who want to have some fun and learn.
Watch OS 9 also updates many existing watch faces and complications to allow for a smoother operation and greater functionality. Portraits watch face add the ability to use pet faces as the subject of the portrait for example which is quite cool and useful at times. Other updates also include the new features on the Watch 8 which can be used as complications such as skin temperature, or women’s health.
We will review some of the best watch face options in more detail below.
All of Apple Built-In Watch Faces
Listed visually here for your convenience. Click for a description and in-depth review.
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How Apple Watch faces work
If you’re on OS 7 and above, simply long-press and tap on ‘edit’ when it pops up. Next, swipe left and tap to access the feature you want to customize and use your digital crown to choose your favorite color, shape, complication and anything else your heart desires.
If you want to remove a watch face, press down on the face then swipe up. After that, tap ‘remove’ and it’ll delete.
To share a face, press and hold, this will access the controls where you’ll find the ‘share’ button. You can then either verbally dictate or write a message, choose your recipient and send it.
To make a new face, all you have to do is swipe left until you see the word ‘New’. Now, use the digital crown to scroll your choices and tap the one you like. You could also long-press any active watch face to change your current watch face.
Selecting Built-in Apple Watch Faces in Watch App
Back to Watch Faces list
Free Backgrounds – Click individually to Download
One of the easiest and most fun ways to download watch backgrounds to your watch is to save those images on your phone and use Apple Watch App Face Gallery to select up to 24 photos to use and change every time you raise your wrist.
For a world of possibilities, use Facer for a vast variety of designs from many artists. Many will be free of charge. Feel free to share and like. Join the community of like-minded Facers.
Facer Giveaway – 10 Watch Faces you should Try
Artist
Just tap a watch face you like and click the icon that sends the watch face directly to your watch. It’s as simple as that and also safe to use.
Creative (Based on Inforgraph)
Visit our Facer profile for a selection of completely Free Apple Watch Faces.
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New Faces in Watch OS 8
You can modify the majority of the watch faces that come with your Apple Watch. To learn more, go to Customize the watch face. The introduction of Watch OS 8 allows us to remain connected to the people and things we care about. View your images, operate your house, and even start your car in new and exciting ways.
Portrait/Faces
One of the most exciting new options is using your photos. Change the face of your watch using your iPhone images taken in portrait mode and get dynamically updated photos of your loved ones.
Place your favorite images of friends and family in the center of your Apple Watch. This new watch face leverages Portrait mode images from your iPhone to offer the people you care about a starring role. It has a dynamic, multidimensional feel.
We really love the way you can bring the object in focus closer by turning the watch’s digital crown and changing the photo every time you raise your wrist.
To activate, select Portrait watch face on your apple watch and choose up to 24 photos. You can also create a watch face directly from your iPhone’s photos app by selecting the photo and choosing “Create Watch Face” from your sharing options.
Back to Watch Faces list
Memories
Photo highlights from your Memories and Featured Photos can now be automatically synced to your watch face; bringing you something new every day.
Your Memories picture collection is presented in a unique mosaic grid, giving you a more complete view of your library.
You have more control than ever over your watch face! Customize yours for a truly unique smartwatch.
To activate dynamic memories on your Apple Watch – Use the Watch App on your iPhone, tap Face Gallery at the bottom (middle), choose the Photos watch face and make sure to select “dynamic”. The dynamic watch face will display your recent memories and is dynamically updated.
Watch OS 7
Contour (Apple Watch 7)
A beautiful face that uses the extra screen depth of the new Apple Watch 7 and goes around the contour of the watch. This stylish, elegant, classic design gives the Apple Watch an edge and is unique to the S7 which is also kind of a statement.
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Typograph
This is a beautifully uncomplicated watch face designed for minimalists. No complications to speak of, just four large numbers taking up the real estate on the face. However, it’s still highly customizable. For instance, you can change the fill color so you can match it to your outfit, mood, or whatever you like! More, you can keep the four numbers or opt for a traditional dial with modern, classic or rounded styling with Arabic, Arabic Indic, Roman or Devanagari symbols.
Hermes Paris
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California
The California Apple Watch face has been around since Watch OS 6. It’s clean and simple with an abundance of elegance. It resembles a more traditional watch face. You have the option to pack it with features or leave it uncluttered. So, it’s totally up to you what you choose.
As for the time, you can alter the shape and numerals and add complications around the dial. This is a superb alternative to the rounded Infograph. It’s particularly advised for the Apple Watch 3 users.
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Gradient
Gradient came along with the Series 4 and is a sophisticated choice. There are shaded areas, denoting the hour and minute markers, and a second hand that sweeps. You can strip this all back to just a single second hand, plus change the colors. This can be a full screen or a circular face, with or without complications.
Back to Watch Faces list
Stripes
Stripes is new to Wear OS 7 and is really fun, making it one of the best Apple Watch faces for 2021. It’s wonderfully customizable. You can amend how many stripes there are, between 2 and 9, for starters. Pick and re-order the colors in a sequence of your choice.
Rotate the stripes in any angle you like from 0 – 345 degrees, including horizontal and vertical. There’s a full-screen version that does not like complications, but the rounded version does.
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Photos
If you like the personal touch, you can use photos from your library for your background. This is super easy to configure. Open your Apple Watch app on your iPhone, and head to Face Gallery. Next, scroll down to photos. Now go to favorites and sync that album, and pick up to 10 photos for the carousel function. Then go back to your Apple Watch to change the face. You can still use complications if you’re using photos.
Back to Watch Faces list
The Best for Work
Perhaps you’re looking for something that will help you gt through your workday.
We’ve picked a couple here.
Siri
The Siri watch face presents tailored data throughout your day. It rolls through data that it picks up from your Reminders, Alarms, Calendar, News, Weather, heart rate, sound levels, and more. If you need it, it’ll remind you at the times you need it to take a deep breath. You can turn any of these off if you want, using your iPhone. Once you’re set-up, you can use the face like any other, including adding complications.
Back to Watch Faces list
Modular
If you need advanced data beyond what Siri can offer you; Modular is one of the better Apple Watch faces you’ll find. This is an especially flexible face, offering up to five complications, with a digital screen. It’s tidy, which is a miracle considering how much information gets crammed into it.
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Utility
The Utility face is another flexible option with up to four complications, four dials, and your choice of colors. If you like a simple Apple Watch face that’s legible, Utility is one of the best options for you. You get important information without crowding.
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Meridian
Another sleek and uncluttered offering that’s perfect for data at a glance. You can add complications like news, weather, the date, activity, and air quality index. The dial is either black or white with many different accent colors to pick from.
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GMT
This isn’t the most popular choice, and you can only get it on the SE and 6. This is mostly a great one for people who travel a lot or have colleagues in different time zones.
It has two dials, with the inner being a 12-hour one showing your local time. The outer dial is 24 hours, and you can set this to another place. You can select from a list of given cities or add one from your World Clock on your iPhone. You can choose the colors and customize it to your liking.
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World Time
If world time is your thing then this is the face for you. Work can revolve around the world and with this watch face you always know where you stand. It’s great looking too so you can wear it for any occasion.
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Fitness Watch Faces
Activity
Activity is a go-to face for those into fitness and works using your Activity rings. The Move (red) ring shows your calories burned; blue shows your standing movement and green indicates your activity. But you can configure this to whichever goal you’re most interested in, including a special ‘roll’ ring, for wheelchair users. You can add up to three complications. What’s more, you can also see the data in more depth in the Activities and Health apps on your iPhone.
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Chronograph Pro
Tap your bezel on the 12-hour dial, and it’ll turn into a chronograph! This face has incredible detail, including a tachymeter timescale, which measures speed based on either fixed distance or time travel. Cool, huh? This face is only for users of the SE and 6 who love a complication.
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Count Up
If you have an SE or 6, you can track the time elapsed. As above, tape the 12-hour dial and align your marker on the outer bezel to the desired minute hand. Turn the digital crown to set the length of time then tap your dial to start it. You can add up to five complications, and you can choose from a lot of color options.
Back to Watch Faces list
Most Cool and Fun watch faces
Vapor
This comes in four bold colors and demonstrates how colors combine. Pick from blue and green, black and white, orange and pink or a combination of all of the above. Opt for a rounded or square screen.
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Emoji/Animoji/Memoji
Featuring Animoji and Memoji too! Choose from your favorite characters and colors. A dynamic and interesting face, though less informative. But who cares when you see your loveable face in Memoji form?
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Kaleidoscope
Kaleidoscope is another of the better Apple Watch faces for beauty. It shows mesmerizing patterns that entwine with one another to give you a sense of relaxation. When you turn your digital crown, the designs will move too. The faster you turn it; the patterns move following the speed. If you find yourself having a bad day, this is a really neat feature for calming yourself down.
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Motion
Motion is a glorious app that is reactive to your touch. It has three to choose from. Butterfly has 25 different species that fly around like the real deal. Each time you raise your wrist, you’ll be served a different butterfly. The Flower has 9 different animated flowers. Finally, Jellyfish has six species that show themselves when you move. Much like the above, it’s incredibly soothing to watch.
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Pride
If you’re part of an ally of the LGBTQ+ community, you’ll love the rainbow flag. To date, there’s one per year from 2018, so there are 3 to choose from.
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Numerals
If you like minimal features, this will definitely be one of the coolest Apple Watch faces for you. Numerals has a minute and second hands. The hour is displayed in the top left corner. You’re able to select the color and font, and that’s about it, apart from the one complication you can add, so pick wisely.
Back to Watch Faces list
X-Large
The Apple Watch is for users of all ages. If you want to get one for someone who needs larger text, this is the best face. It’ll display in bold and/or extra-large font that takes up the whole display. You can add a single complication; however, it does take up most of the center of the display, which can be bothersome.
Back to Watch Faces list
Timelapse
See the time go by with this animated watch face that changes as you touch it. Cool watch face to have. Choose from a variety of available scenes.
Back to Watch Faces list
If you’ve got particular questions relating to watch faces – head over to our Apple Watch faces FAQ guide.
Use Facer App for Even More Apple Watch Faces
Facer is a must-have for Apple Watch users. It’s a premier watch face modification platform that will help you get the most out of your Apple Watch. You can get the Facer App here. If you’re interested in a review of the most updated, next-gen Star Trek watch faces – see this article.
Choose from thousands of stunning images and designs for the perfect face on your Apple Watch! Don’t be satisfied with those bog-standard, unimaginative watch faces and backgrounds—improve it! It’s like receiving a new smartwatch every day with Facer.
You can personalize complications in “create mode only” in the Facer app on Apple Watch. Also, you can connect to Health Kit to see your steps and heart rate statistics displayed through a variety of designs.
Create Unique designs With Facer
Facer brings you the most stunning and dynamic designs accessible by curating selections of the finest unique designs from companies and skilled watch face artists.
Make your own photo or watch face background
With our powerful and easy-to-use web-based editor in your computer’s browser, you can even create your own unique watch faces or picture backgrounds for your Apple Watch.
Also, Facer works with a variety of smartwatches, too. So not only does it work with an Apple Watch, it’s compatible with Wear OS, Tizen, and a slew of other smartwatches
Currently trending on the Facer charts are, naturally, the Black Widow face with the recent release of the latest Marvel film. But if you’re looking for something more original…
Personally, I love this Activity Chrono, designed by an official Apple Architect. This face was inspired by mechanical chronograph watches, which monitor your activity during the day with 3 subdials, each displaying your progress on one of the Apple Watch’s stands, exercise, or move activity rings.
By default, the emblem at the top will be your initials; to change this, go to ‘clock,’ ‘monogram’ in your phone’s watch app and either write in new letters or copy and paste in Unicode symbols.
This Hud B face is also awesome with an infographic gauge-style.
There are different measures to use, but this example shows:
Your daily steps, your miles (or kilometers). Or, you may also view the calendar at a glance, as well as the current day, weekday, and month. At the bottom, there are three gauges. On the left, you’ll see a calorie-counting gauge, the measurement of your Apple Watch’s remaining battery is in the center. Finally, your heart rate.
Facer Alternative – Watchmaker
As an alternative to Facer, you may wish to try Watchmaker at – https://getwatchmaker.com/. They have many thousands of free Apple Watch Faces and allow you to design your own. We really like the quality of watch faces offered by Watchmaker but seem to have a more aggressive marketing policy compared to Facer so expect more ads and more paid-for designs.
Explore some Apple Watch 7 deals here:
| Product | Supplier | |
| Apple Watch 7 | Amazon | View Offer |
| Apple Watch 7 | eBay | View Offer |
| Apple Watch 7 | Apple | View Offer |
| Apple Watch 7 | Target | View Offer |
New Faces for OS7
With the introduction of Watch OS 7, Apple offered seven new watch faces with custom settings. All you have to do to create a new face is swipe left till you see the phrase ‘New.’ Now, navigate through your options using the digital crown and press the one you want.
There was also a new function that enables you to share your facial expressions!
Apple added 7 new watch faces with bespoke options along with the release of Watch OS 7.
- Typograph
- Chronograph Pro
- GMT
- Stripes
- Memoji (including Animoji)
- Artist
- Count up
How do faces work on the Apple Watch?
Just long-press and choose ‘edit’ from the menu that appears. Swipe left and press to reach the feature you’d want to customize, then use your digital crown to choose your favorite color, form, complexity, and anything else your heart desires.
Remove a watch face by pressing down on it and then swiping up. Then tap ‘remove,’ and it will be deleted.
To share a face, press and hold; this will bring up the controls, where the ‘share’ button can be found. After that, you may either dictate or compose a message, choose your recipient, and send it.
Conclusion
Hopefully, we’ve opened up a huge selection of watch faces for you so you know where to start! Your Watch face options now include lots of Apple offerings and a world of possibilities with the Facer App. While you’re here though, why not take a look at the some awesome Apple Watch cases available to personalize your watch even further?
Now, if you’re wondering what Apple Watch is going to be best for you, we recommend you look at our Apple Watch comparison.
If you have your Apple Watch, why not check out the best apps for Apple Watch in our article?
With the advent of Apple Watches came a wide variety of watch faces you can choose from, personalized to your unique style and requirements. With successive updates, this aspect of Apple Watches has become even more advanced, with so many different faces to select whether you use your device for work or play.
Here we’ll answer some of the most frequently asked questions concerning Apple Watch faces, so you’ll always have the best solution for you when you glance down at your wrist. We’ve also covered the safety of Apple Watch faces in a separate post if you’re interested in reading more about this.
Apple Watch Faces Frequently Asked Questions
Which Apple Watch Face Shows Steps?
There’s no easier way to keep track of your steps than with an Apple Watch, but if you want to hit your 10k daily steps and see how close you are to achieving that, you need to open the Activity app to view them. This is good but not ideal; you can actually download an app that will allow you to see your daily steps right there on the watch face as a complication.
The first app which lets you track steps on the Apple watch face is Pedometer++. Once downloaded (it’s free), simply click on My Watch and then select which watch face you desire to have to display the complication – you can have it just about anywhere you want. Then you just add the Pedometer selection to it, making sure to choose ‘Steps & Distance’ to get a complete analysis.
The Duffy app also works similarly, adding various data such as Flights Climbed and Steps as a complication. Just go to the Face Gallery, choose which face you need, and then just add any complication you need to swap out with the total number of steps.
Which Apple Watch Face Uses The Least Battery?
Although Apple Watches have a life of around 18 hours, there are always things you can do to extend this time. An excellent way to use the least battery is to choose a watch face that is energy efficient. But which watch face actually uses the least amount of battery?
Any face that has an animation will drain your battery fast, so always stick to the basic ones. Also, a black face uses less energy than one with colors due to the OLED display. Remember to turn the brightness down to a more comfortable level too.
Examples of such minimal designs include:
- The round version of California is mostly black with white time arrows.
- Numerals for a sleek yet basic style
- The Simple design only shows white hands (don’t use any complications for the most energy-efficient option)
- Gradient when used in Dark Mode.
Which Apple Watch Face Has The Most Complications?
Looking to discover a hundred different metrics from a single glance at your wrist? Then you need an Apple Watch face that can display lots of complications. Most Apple faces allow you to display around 3-5 complications, which is enough for most, but if you’re a multitasker, you really need to check out the Infograph Apple Watch face, which boasts eight complications.
Not only will you be able to tell the time, but you can also check your blood oxygen, know the date, use a compass, select your messages quickly, start a timer, open maps, see your heart rate and even know which phase of the moon it is!
Which Apple Watch Face Shows Seconds?
Most Apple Watch faces show just the minutes and hours. However, if you frequently need to know the time spent in seconds, then there are a few official faces you can choose from, such as:
Activity Analog, Activity Digital, California, Chronograph, Contour, Count Up, GMT, Infograph, Liquid Metal, Meridian, Numerals, Simple, Stripes, Typograph, Utility, Vapor, World Time
Which Apple Watch Faces Have Roman Numerals?
While many analog watches have Roman numerals, surprisingly, only two official watch faces support them: California and Numerals Mono.
However, if you want to be extra creative, you can choose a picture as the background of your watch face, which has Roman numerals circling around, so when the hands are displayed, they actually point to the correct numerals.
Which Apple Watch Face Is Without Hands?
Sometimes it can be tricky to determine the exact time when the hands aren’t pointing exactly where they should be, leaving it difficult to discern between the hours. The alternative is to go fully digital, and you can choose a regular or 24-hour clock to be displayed.
A handful of official faces have digital, including Activity Digital, Artist, Astronomy, Memoji, Modular Duo, Motion, Numerals Duo, Photos, Portraits, Siri, Timelapse, Toy Story, and X-Large.
Which Apple Watch Faces Are Without Numbers?
Suppose you prefer the sleeker style of watch face that isn’t cluttered with numbers surrounding the frame, leaving you more room for additional complications. In that case, you should be considering the following awesomely simplistic styles of official watch face such as:
Color, Fire and Water, Gradient, Infograph, Kaleidoscope, Liquid metal, Meridian, Numerals, Simple, Stripes, Toy Story, Vapor
Which Apple Watch Faces Display Weather?
Wondering if it’s sunny or cloudy outside? Just take a look at your watch, which has the Weather complication added.
There are many Apple faces where this is displayed alongside other information; it’s practically on every face, including: Activity Analog, Astronomy, Breathe, California, Chronograph, Color, Contour, Count Up, Explorer, Fire and Water, GMT, Gradient, Infograph, Kaleidoscope, Liquid Metal, Memoji, Meridian, Mickey Mouse, Modular, Motion, Numerals, Photos, Portraits, Simple, Siri, Solar Dial, Solar Graph, Stripes, Timelapse, Toy Story, Utility, Vapor, World Time, X-Large
Which Apple Watch Faces Come With A Compass?
A highly popular complication, especially for those who need to find their bearings quickly, whether navigating the big city or the open wilderness, is the compass.
The compass complication, which can also display elevation as well as direction, is available on the following Apple Watch faces:
Activity Analog, Activity Digital, Astronomy, Breathe, California, Chronograph, Color, Contour, Count Up, Explorer, Fire and Water, GMT, Gradient, Infograph, Kaleidoscope, Liquid Metal, Memoji, Meridian, Mickey Mouse, Modular, Motion, Numerals, Photos, Portraits, Simple, Siri, Solar Dial, Solar Graph, Stripes, Timelapse, Toy Story, Utility, Vapor, World Time, X-Large.
Which Apple Watch Face Is Like Casio?
Just love the retro feel of a classic Casio watch? Then relive those glory days when Casio was the big name on the digital watch scene by getting an Apple Watch face that looks exactly like it.
Unfortunately, none of the current Apple Watch faces can mimic this unique style. Still, you can download a third-party app such as Clockology, which lets you head back to the past in seconds with its Casio Space face, or Jingwatch, which can give you the beloved Casio style as well as a more modern G-SHOCK version.
Which Apple Watch Face Is Like Rolex?
Want the look and expensive style of a top watchmaker on your smartwatch but without the price tag? While Apple has partnered with Hermès in the past, it has yet to team up with Rolex. But suppose you’re looking to change your Apple Watch into a sophisticated timepiece. In that case, you’ll have to download a third-party app such as Clockology or Jingwatch, both of which will let you mimic the high-end fashionable watch faces loved the world over.
Hopefully, this has answered some of your questions. However, if you have more, just drop them in the comments.
Last Updated on January 21, 2023
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