Whether you’re managing tasks, staying active, or tracking time zones, the Apple Watch offers a variety of faces to enhance your daily work routine.
In September 2023, Apple introduced “watchOS 10”, the latest version of its Apple Watch operating system, packed with critical updates. These include “Smart Stack widgets”, Bluetooth support for cycling accessories, and new “Mindfulness app” features. It also introduced fresh watch faces like Snoopy, Palette, Solar Analog, and Nike Globe.
Apple Watch users can access a diverse selection of faces, each highly customizable with options to modify styles and colors and add “complications” — small widgets that display information such as weather, calendar events, or activity levels.
Specific Apple Watch faces allow for personalization and creativity, while others focus on health, sports, or work efficiency. Switching between faces in your collection is quick and easy with a tap and swipe, ensuring you have the right face for every task.
For professional use, a watch face that presents valuable data at a glance is invaluable. If you prefer minimalism, faces like California, Simple, Typograph, or Numerals provide a clean, distraction-free display. Alternatively, if you’re working across time zones, the GMT and World Time faces help you keep track of multiple locations simultaneously.
Top 16 Apple Watch faces
Metropolitan
The Metropolitan watch face is a refined, type-driven design emphasizing custom typography. Its unique feature is the dynamic numeral style: as you adjust the Digital Crown, the numbers morph from classic digits into pill-shaped indicators when your wrist is down.
This versatile face also supports a wide range of complications, allowing you to personalize it with useful widgets. Available complications include Activity, Alarms, Astronomy (Moon Phase), Audiobooks, Calendar, Remote Camera, Compass (Compass, Elevation, and Level), Compass Waypoints, Contacts, News, Phone, Reminders, Sleep, Stock, Workout, World Clock.
These options ensure that the Metropolitan watch face can be tailored to meet your specific needs and preferences, whether for health tracking, time management, or staying informed.
Astronomy
The Astronomy watch face offers a captivating and dynamic display of celestial and planetary features. The latest version includes a new star map and current cloud data, providing a continuously updated 3D model of the Earth, Moon, or the Solar System.
You can customize this watch face to suit your preferences by choosing from various views:
Earth: Get a detailed, real-time look at our planet.
Moon: Observe the lunar surface and phases.
Solar System: Explore the planets and their positions.
Additionally, you can set a random view for a constantly changing perspective and adjust the style to match your aesthetic preferences. This watch face is ideal for those interested in astronomy or who enjoy a touch of cosmic wonder on their wrist.
Numerals
The Numerals watch face is designed for simplicity and clarity, featuring a large, bold number that displays the current hour. This face is accompanied by three hands—hour, minute, and second—providing a straightforward and easy-to-read time display.
To set up the Numerals watch face:
Open the Watch app on your iPhone.
Scroll down the Face Gallery until you find Numerals.
Select the color and style that suits your preference.
The Numerals face offers a single complication slot, allowing you to customize it with helpful information such as today’s date, weather, reminders, or other relevant details. Once you’ve selected it, tap Add to set it as your current Apple Watch face.
Lunar
This face is perfect for those who prefer a minimalist design while still having essential information at a glance.
The Lunar watch face offers a unique perspective by illustrating the relationship between the Gregorian calendar and various lunar calendars, including Chinese, Hebrew, and Islamic. This face bridges the gap between traditional and lunar timekeeping methods.
Customizable features for the Lunar watch face include:
Color: Choose from a range of colors to match your style.
Calendar: Select from different lunar calendars—Chinese, Hebrew, or Islamic—to display alongside the Gregorian calendar.
Time: Customize how time is presented, integrating both calendar systems.
Add Complications: Place up to four complications in the corners, allowing you to access additional information such as weather, reminders, or health metrics.
This face is ideal for those interested in cultural and traditional timekeeping or who need to track multiple calendar systems simultaneously.
California
For those who appreciate simplicity and elegance, the California watch face delivers a classic and clean design. It features a traditional analog time display with a choice of numeral styles, including Arabic, Roman, or other classic styles. This face emphasizes straightforward readability and timeless design.
The California watch face offers several variations:
Simple: Provides a minimalist, primary analog display focusing on clarity.
Typograph: Showcases large, easily readable numerals for quick and precise time-telling.
Whether you prefer a classic analog look or a more streamlined and modern display, the California face offers a refined choice for a straightforward and functional Apple Watch experience.
Portrait
The Portraits watch face lets you directly feature photos from your iPhone’s photo library on your Apple Watch. You can select up to three different styles and choose up to 24 images for a dynamic and personalized display.
Key features include:
Dynamic Photo Display: A new photo appears each time you raise your wrist or tap the display, ensuring a fresh view.
Depth Effects: Apply depth effects to your images, creating a visually engaging bokeh effect where the time can be layered before or behind your photo’s subject.
Both faces are perfect for personalizing your Apple Watch with cherished memories, whether you prefer the classic photo slideshow or the modern, depth-enhancing Portraits face.
Playtime
The Playtime watch face, created in collaboration with artist Joi Fulton, brings a playful and artistic touch to your Apple Watch. This dynamic face features a series of cartoon-like characters that display the time whimsically and engagingly.
Key features include:
Animated Characters: The time is shown through a sequence of artistic characters that change with each passing hour. These characters interact when you tap on them, adding a fun, interactive element.
Background Animation: Rotating the Digital Crown animates the stars and streamers in the background, enhancing the playful ambiance.
Unfortunately, the Playtime face does not support complications, focusing solely on its unique and entertaining display. It’s perfect for those who enjoy a bit of artistry and animation on their watch face.
World Time
The World Time watch face is designed for those who need to simultaneously track time across multiple time zones. It provides a comprehensive view of global time zones with intuitive visual indicators.
Key features include:
24 Time Zones: Monitor the time in up to 24 different time zones simultaneously, making it easy to keep track of international schedules.
Sun and Moon Icons: These icons represent sunrise and sunset in your current location, while the global light and dark zones illustrate the progression of day and night worldwide.
Customizable Dials: The inner dial displays the time in your current time zone, with analog or digital format options. The outer dial shows the time in military or 24-hour format for each selected global time zone.
To set up the World Time face, first of all, ensure you are running the latest version of watchOS. Next, open the Watch app on your iPhone and navigate to the Face Gallery. Then, find the World Time face under New Watch Faces at the top of the screen or in the alphabetical list toward the bottom. Finally, choose your preferred color and style, and customize the four corners with up to four complications for additional information.
Nike Analog, Bounce, and Globe
Since the watchOS 9 update, all Apple Watch users, not just those with Nike models, can enjoy a range of Nike-themed watch faces. Here’s a look at three notable options:
Nike Analog: This face features a traditional analog design with large numerals, offering a classic and easy-to-read time display.
Nike Bounce: This dynamic face displays digital numerals that react to your movements, such as steps or wrist motions. You can also tap the display or use the Digital Crown to activate animations.
Nike Globe: This face showcases a stylish globe graphic, blending sporty design with global timekeeping functionality.
These Nike watch faces combine aesthetic appeal with interactive elements while integrating Nike’s distinctive style., offering both functionality and fun for Apple Watch users.
Infograph
The Infograph watch face was introduced with the Apple Watch Series 4 in 2018 to fully use the larger screen and display a wealth of information. It supports up to eight complications and subdials, making it ideal for users who need to keep track of multiple details at a glance.
Key Features:
Multiple Complications: Display up to eight rich, full-color complications. You can choose from a variety of data such as weather, temperature, elevation, mail, reminders, stock activities, and more.
Subdials: These include small dials in the center of the face for additional details like the calculator, camera remote, compass, stopwatch, timer, or voice recorder.
To set up Infograph on your Apple Watch, first, go to the Face Gallery. Second, swipe down and select the Infograph face. Third, choose your preferred color. Fourth, tap each complication to select the information or tools you want to display. Finally, add the face to your Apple Watch.
Adding and Customizing Watch Faces
You can add and customize watch faces on your Apple Watch either directly from the watch itself or via the Watch app on your iPhone. Each method offers unique benefits for managing your watch faces.
Using the iPhone Watch App
Open the Watch App: On your iPhone, open the Watch app.
Go to Face Gallery: Select Face Gallery from the main options at the bottom. This view provides a comprehensive look at all available watch faces.
Select and Customize: Choose any face you like, customize it by selecting color, style, and complications, and then tap “Add” to send it to your watch.
Directly on Your Apple Watch:
Access Watch Face Selection: Press and hold your current watch face. This action will display a horizontal list of all your saved watch faces.
Edit or Add Faces:
Edit an Existing Face: Swipe to the face you want to edit, then tap “Edit”. Customize the face by swiping left or right to adjust color, style, and complications. Swipe up or down, or use the Digital Crown to select.
Add a New Face: Swipe left or turn the Digital Crown upward until you see “New”. Tap the big “Plus” button to enter the gallery of watch faces. Browse through the options, select the one you want, and customize it before adding it to your watch.
Delete the Watch Face:
Press down on any face to enter the edit mode.
Scroll to the left or right to find the face you want to delete.
Swipe up on the face and select “Remove” to delete it.
These methods give you flexibility in managing your watch faces, whether you prefer the convenience of your iPhone or the hands-on approach directly from your Apple Watch.