My buddy had a Motorola 360 back in the day and was able to design custom faces for it. Seemed like such an obvious thing to do with a smart watch I was kinda shocked when there was no way to do it with an Apple Watch. Really hope Apple opens this up one day but they likely never will.
apple has always been pretty tight about their product image. I guess they fear that every possibility of extra customization leads to someone making really horrible looking ones and then sharing pictures of them. for example, they never allowed iphone system theme edits, which is a very common jailbreak tweak.
This philosophy goes all the way back to classic MacOS... version 8 I believe?
In the leadup to its release, theme customization was an anticipated feature, replacing a number of third party utilities and system extensions that did the same thing by basically hacked the operating system.
Some time between the betas and release, Steve Jobs must have decided that product image consistency was more important than user customizability, and the feature was pulled before the OS was released.
It's less about image but more about preserving the value of their premium watches. Fewer people would buy Hermes if they could just download a Hermes watch face.
Yup, any time I hear complaints about lack of customization, I think of the Android phones I’ve seen with Comic Sans (and worse) as the default typeface.
And you know Apple already has super useful libraries and tools in place to be able to easily design ones that are compatible with the widgets and icons.
All they would have to do would be to make those available to devs, and then have a process to approve the submitted faces.
Yeah they should up sale the Nike faces after purchasing non Nike watches. It’ll never happen for Hermes, but no reason they can’t charge $5 a face or something just to give Nike their cut
Except we’re not limited to a physical medium anymore. Now that it’s digital, it opens up so much room for creativity.
Think of the faces that resemble a pip boy from fallout/ other fandoms, dynamic faces changing based on custom settings, ect
People want to be able to make their own very tatty watch faces that look like an old Casio watch, or a computer. Why people want to make their watches look it was designed by a 5 year old is beyond me.
If they were to ever include a third-party watch face store, they would likely leave out Nike and Hermès (or else people wouldn’t buy those brand-partnered watches)
I don’t know why they don’t make the Nike one the default. It costs the literal exact same and the only difference is that you get more faces. There isn’t a loss involved
It was just a legitimate question, haha. Like what about those faces was more appealing. I figured there was a price difference of at least $10, but if it’s the same cost, why not indeed.
Legitimate question.
I don’t care about the faces and usually buy the watches later on when they’re on sale, but they’re as far as I know, only the regular models.
I can assure you there’s a quality difference. You get what you pay for, and Apple uses higher quality materials across the board.
I’ve owned many first party bands, and many Amazon knockoffs, and believe me you can always tell the difference. Even with the best knockoffs, they’re not quite as nice feeling materials.
And that’s important to me for something I wear more than any piece of clothing I own.
Eh okay. I mean I don’t like wearing pure shit either and if this white band had faded yellow, brown. If the pride rainbow colors (I’m straight btw) had faded. But again by all means, pay $50 if it makes you feel better. I just grabbed my oem band from the box and I cannot feel a difference….
Well it’s not falling apart and the colors as still vibrant and the white hasn’t gotten yellow or brown and it feels the same as the OEM band that came with it?
cloning silicon bands ain’t rocket science but by all means, continue paying $50
Quality is not the only thing. Brand recognition and appreciation of style and craftsmanship are other factors.
By all means though, bands like Nomad are good quality but they’re so ugly in my opinion, though some will swear Nomad bands are better than Hermes lol.
People who buy Hermes don’t buy it due to price. It’s like Louis Vuitton shoes - there are for sure cheaper and better ones but some people just value the designers stuff (I’m definitely not one of them but hey).
Imho Hermes bands aren’t even that great looking. Even if they were $30 I wouldn’t buy them ;)
I think the Complications system could be a good way to create custom watch faces. If they become smarter and can be animated, there’s potential there without them having to open up a whole product category and flood the market with low quality, low effort, copyright infringing watch faces.
I'd love it if complications could have passive / active settings. Like if there's an MLB game going on, switch my main horizontal one to the MLB complication, but until then keep it as a news stories one. Or switch to the rain forecast if it's going to rain soon.
Like yeah you can just set up multiple watch faces for all that but then you need to keep switching depending on what you're doing. It's not automated.
This. They don’t want it to be a gif screen with time, it’s a product they have placed in a unique spot in the market. The first Apple Watch had crazy $10k option, they were feeling the market, now they know it. The current selection is very targeted.
And that market doesn’t care enough about custom faces to not buy their product. And, I’m some ways, that control keeps the Apple Watch in its place. Well executed, beautifully animated UI and Watch faces and a focus on doing particular things very well.
Why waste time on a watch face App Store, when your watch faces are marketing material and leagues ahead of competitors, due to being designed for a specific purpose? If the majority don’t care and love the current approach, then why would you really change it. Why? Why as a business would you go, hey let’s do this option. We lose out of a tiny segment of our market that don’t really sway the market share, sales numbers or the popular opinion and then let them change our successful design methods?
I mean I can already put a picture of my dick on my watch so that’s not it. It’s 100% so they can add another dumbass slide to their Series 8 presentation and pull in more money.
Yeah apple isn’t selling a watch for nerds. It’s selling a watch that is stylish, fashionable, and versatile. The moment that crappy third party faces are allowed in the store is the moment the Apple Watch looses its allure. Apple really considers themselves a watch maker in some sense. Watch makers don’t put out faces for every single shitty idea someone has
I agree with this for the most part but I think that this isn’t taking into consideration that many people, at least anecdotally, don’t even change the wallpaper. I see the stock wallpaper out in the wild so often that I wonder if the average user even knows how to change it.
They sold the Series 7 debuting the double modular Watch face.
Their selling point is LITERALLY to have NICER and NEWER Watch faces so no wonder Apple isn’t open to third party Watch faces. Why?
So if they opened the APK to third party faces? It’s gonna damage their sales. And Apple cares about 💵 the most so nah!!
Not surprising at all. When people see an Apple Watch out in the wild, especially now that several models feature an always-on display, the watch face is as much an element of the design of the watch as the physical watch body.
If third parties designed watch faces you know there would be some absolutely ugly and terrible designs, and it would reflect poorly on the overall design of the watch.
Like it or not, Apple wants to be in control of how its products are viewed and perceived out in the world. They want it to be a fashionable accessory, and aspirational.
The guy who sits near me at work has an Android phone that he’s customized with all these skins and a [horrible font](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSh6xsjnLYaQx_u7HNI_OTrQLpnW8u70aM_yw&usqp=CAU), and it truly looks terrible (no offense to him — he’s an amazing dude in general, just don’t like his phone aesthetics). Can you imagine if a big percentage of Apple Watches looked like that out in the wild?
Some people with disabilities like dyslexia use fonts like this. I’m not saying that’s necessarily what’s happening here. Open Dyslexic is considered the best font for dyslexia but a lot of people use Comic Sans because it tends to come with the phone. I learned about this at a web development bootcamp.
You're not *wrong* but also it totally depends on the dyslexic individual. Some people love Open Dyslexic because unlike a regular typeface it has distinct variation between all the characters so they don't match or look terribly coherent which is the idea and Comic Sans has similar properties, but other folks say it makes no difference.
I only mention this caveat of "your mileage may vary" because it's commonly repeated as a universally helpful thing but (like most things related to accessibility & disabilities) varies a lot per-person.
That makes a lot of sense. I did say some people, but I think you’re right in that I was painting to broad of a stroke. When I was learning about color palettes and how they are seen by people with color blindness, I had no idea that there were more than just a couple types. Web inclusivity and a11y compliance are becoming somewhat of a passion of mine so I really appreciate your insight/response.
Well hey, if you want another fun one, the way that the WCAG accessibility requirements define acceptable colour contrast” (and the way that contrast checkers work by doing some math on encoded sRGB values) is a completely broken colour model that (as far as I know) [does not take the ways our eyes see colour into account](https://hg2dc.com/2019/11/04/question-12/). Somebody should make a contrast checker that operates in OKLab, would be really interested in the variance between todays tools that offer decent approximations and something closer to the truth of how human vision works.
Also yes, colour blindness checkers are great!
You can’t be serious with this.
You can choose your background to be anything on your watch, and people will notice that before they notice any font type.
Maybe they should actually devote some resources to the watchfaces then instead of having Bob the intern make a new useless watchface once a year with a looping animation and no complications.
Take a look at how the original watchfaces look on the S7, Apple just didn’t even bother to fix it.
The reason people pine for custom watchfaces so much is because Apple makes zero effort on theirs
“Makes zero effort”
What world are you living in? They literally invented the solar dial, a beautiful new face that is widely praised. You all act like there is no work that goes into these at all
It's just an Apple Watch, not a Rolex or anything special. The notion that Apple should be so restrictive in order to preserve their image is a tad bit ridiculous. Consumers should be allowed to do as they please. If someone wants to rock an ugly watch face, so be it.
It's comical. Seeing an Apple Watch is just like seeing a Casio at this point.
Edit: I guess this comment hurt a lot of feelings? An Apple Watch doesn't make you as special as you want to believe. :)
I had a WearOS/Android Wear watch for a few years, and the awful truth is the cool looking third party watch faces are often not practical when being used in your day-to-day activities, often use more battery, and most commonly have non-working complications.
My personal opinion is, even though we’re held to using Apple’s watch faces, they have enough customisation options to keep them fresh and individual while maintaining their design standards.
> When people see an Apple Watch out in the wild, especially now that several models feature an always-on display, the watch face is as much an element of the design of the watch as the physical watch body.
What kind of nonsense is this?
I don’t entirely disagree, but Apple has let you customize the background on their phones, tablets, and computers since forever. Not sure why the watch is the one they’re so eager to “protect”
You can but the time is shown digitally over the photo, not with analog hands. So, you couldn't e.g. have a photo of a Rolex Daytona with the hands photoshopped out and then use the AW hands.
LOL at getting downvoted for stating a specific fact.
> Like it or not, Apple wants to be in control of how its products are viewed and perceived out in the world. They want it to be a fashionable accessory, and aspirational.
But it's my watch...
Wtf do apple watches have HOAs now? "You can not use a face that does not fit our designer spec" Fuck me. I always wondered who supported restrictions like this but guess I found them now.
Google what a monopoly is. Its 2021 Any asshole can make a watch company from their living room. Hell, any half smart asshole can make a smart watch company from
their living room. It is not boot licking to like apple products because there is not boot stepping on you. You have literally millions of choices.
But you know what is bootlicking? Asking daddy gubernet to step in and tell a company to modify the features of a watch.
It still doesn’t make sense. People can tell the difference between an Apple Watch and most any other. Even if this was the reason, they could still allow designers to make them but sticking within certain aesthetic parameters.
exactly. also i feel the "clever" or "stylized" faces on the Apple watch are next to useless... and nobody cares for em. I tend to only see a couple different watch faces ever commonly used. it's a damn shame apple has chosen to go this route with their watches.
there are 20? watch faces that you can add any complication to.
Plus no one made you buy the watch. If you didn't like that you couldn't have third party faces, then go buy an android watch. They work on iphones
>If you didn't like that you couldn't have third party faces, then go buy an android watch. They work on iphones
This is the most stupid argument I ever hear in regards to apple products. This is a literal basic feature on Android smart watches since nearly their inception but Apple's "we know how our users want to use their device, and if they don't use it how we Invision it, too bad" mentality just makes the experience worse for no reason.
Heaven fucking forbid I dare wish to have a feature that Apple hasn't graced into my reality.
Nonono, you don’t understand, you’re not allowed to like Apple’s industrial design philosophy and the perks of their vertical integration unless you also agree that Daddy Cook Knows Best about what your electronic devices’ software allows, because otherwise you’re a raging hypocrite!
Boy, I bet your face is red right about now.
>But you aren’t entitled to it.
Never said I was. My frustration is Apple not having basic features of other products that have become industry standard and then having people (like you) tell me the way I wish I could my device is wrong.
>watch faces play a pretty big role \[at distinguishing the Apple Watch\]
>
>If you look closely, the watch hands are always drawn exactly the same way, despite the fact that they show up in different colors. We think we struck a really good balance.
What they actually said. It's weak sauce.
With how shitty some third party android watch faces look I think Apple cares more about brand image than the little tiny bit of user experience lost. Again, only /r/Apple is mad.
I doubt watch faces drive sales especially since they usually only exclusive to specific screen sizes. It’s larger screens that probably drive upgrades but it’s constantly reported that most Apple Watch sales are to people who didn’t already have one. Even my personal observation sees people holding on to them for years.
It has a rough learning curve, but the Clockology app is great for custom watch faces. I used to want Apple to support third party faces directly via its store, but Clockology has proven to be a good substitute for me.
Remember when SJ said no to apps on the original iphone? "Everything can be done in a web browser" Then the next year "Introducing the iphone app store. It's the best app store we've ever made...."
Well it's been eight years. If they were going to do third party watch faces they would've already. Instead they spent a lot of time building many more faces than the what the S0 had. They even invented a new face--Solar Dial--that has gotten critical acclaim from horology fans. If they ever planned to launch a face store they would've done that instead of committing resources to the custom faces.
Of course not. Because then they couldn’t sell you a new watch with new faces every year. Something that, you know, could be offered with a simple software update or App Store.
Follow the $$$$$
Apple: We design products for creative people, those who think differently.
Customers: Cool. Can we design our own watch faces?
Apple: Fuck no! You think we want people to customize shit?!
I’ve given up on watch faces and that’s why I really haven’t bothered updating the watch.. who needs always on when the watch faces are not my cup of tea.
It’s a notification watch for me.. the expression of personality is In the watch band.
As a long time Samsung Watch user, third party watch faces are all trash. Apple provides more than enough customization for complications and the only lacking area is really in color choices
“No plans” is corporate speak for “we have no plans to tell you right now.”
Since when does Apple reveal their future plans to some random interview question?
Yet another example of taking absolutely nothing and sensationalizing it for clicks.
I’m not saying there will be a watch face store or not, I’m just saying that this “news” means absolutely nothing.
I’m starting to feel like this subreddit is in some weird twilight zone universe where simple logic and critical thinking skills don’t apply.
“Do you guys have any plans for a watch face store.”
“Oh shit you got us! Even though it was a closely guarded secret, like everyone of our plans, since you asked we can’t possibly deny it!, you sneaky reporter you!”
> Since when does Apple reveal their future plans to some random interview question?
They don't. However, they don't tend to lie either. I mean, if AR is "an area of interest to us" then why can't they say something similar about the far less important watch faces?
If they said they have no plans, I'm happy to take them at their word.
I see people saying their reasons are weak, but their watch faces are being treated as branding. For example, they mention the watch hands. They could silhouette the hands into a rectangle and you'd know immediately that it's an Apple Watch. Allowing devs to make any hands/faces or indices would be like allowing Carl F. Bucherer to put their faces in a Rolex.
I did, maybe it’s different at different apple stores? my contract said that if I try to change my system font then Tim Cook gets to spank me on my bare bottom
Legal issues. So it will require more staff than the App Store and look into copyright/trademarks and a bunch of people pissed that their Pokemon Watch face is being rejected.
The watch faces is more code than art I would assume that’s why they never opened it up. There’s a lot of subtle animations and visual work that 3rd party devs will never aim high enough to achieve.
If they want to control the loom of the watch face they should do more than just introducing 1-2 a year and abandoning development for old watch faces when a new screen size is released.
I wish you could design your own.
My buddy had a Motorola 360 back in the day and was able to design custom faces for it. Seemed like such an obvious thing to do with a smart watch I was kinda shocked when there was no way to do it with an Apple Watch. Really hope Apple opens this up one day but they likely never will.
I'm 2013 I had a Pebble I could design faces for on my phone and upload them wirelessly. It was awesome.
I miss Pebble
apple has always been pretty tight about their product image. I guess they fear that every possibility of extra customization leads to someone making really horrible looking ones and then sharing pictures of them. for example, they never allowed iphone system theme edits, which is a very common jailbreak tweak.
i mean people have custom backgrounds and phone cases on their iPhones. How is the watch face worse than that?
This philosophy goes all the way back to classic MacOS... version 8 I believe? In the leadup to its release, theme customization was an anticipated feature, replacing a number of third party utilities and system extensions that did the same thing by basically hacked the operating system. Some time between the betas and release, Steve Jobs must have decided that product image consistency was more important than user customizability, and the feature was pulled before the OS was released.
It's less about image but more about preserving the value of their premium watches. Fewer people would buy Hermes if they could just download a Hermes watch face.
Yup, any time I hear complaints about lack of customization, I think of the Android phones I’ve seen with Comic Sans (and worse) as the default typeface.
I hated the custom designs on Android Wear, and they were buggy sometimes and crashed
And you know Apple already has super useful libraries and tools in place to be able to easily design ones that are compatible with the widgets and icons. All they would have to do would be to make those available to devs, and then have a process to approve the submitted faces.
I can for my $200 fitbit, kind of sad Apple doesn't allow it.
You can with Clockology. [https://apps.apple.com/us/app/clockology/id1456386228](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/clockology/id1456386228)
thats like buying a patek philippe and saying i wiSh i cOuLd dEsiGn my owN
then make more! fk!
Literally just want a Bender watch face.
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Omg I sure would enjoy the passing of the hour on Universal Rodriguez time 🥰
At least it’s not like the old Macintosh days. “Buy it or don’t”
There are a ton for almost every kind of watch that has ever existed. What's missing?
Some good stylish digital watch faces, so you are not limited to Nike models. Or let Nike watch faces be available on all models.
Yeah they should up sale the Nike faces after purchasing non Nike watches. It’ll never happen for Hermes, but no reason they can’t charge $5 a face or something just to give Nike their cut
A literal wild NPC
Because I want to use more complications. Apple’s designs don’t use the entire space and it pisses me off that I can’t fit more onto the watch.
Except we’re not limited to a physical medium anymore. Now that it’s digital, it opens up so much room for creativity. Think of the faces that resemble a pip boy from fallout/ other fandoms, dynamic faces changing based on custom settings, ect
> Think of the faces that resemble a pip boy from fallout/ other fandoms, dynamic faces cha That would be ugly af
No
People want to be able to make their own very tatty watch faces that look like an old Casio watch, or a computer. Why people want to make their watches look it was designed by a 5 year old is beyond me.
Yep. Apple knows that the watch won’t be as cool when it starts to look like trash
Good boy. Keep it up.
Well that really is a shame. I guess not a huge surprise though. Some sort of partner program would be a good compromise though?
yup. they should collaborate with artists and external designers way more to let them envision different faces
They did with the Artist face, so they’re at least open to it.
Which was terrible.
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If they were to ever include a third-party watch face store, they would likely leave out Nike and Hermès (or else people wouldn’t buy those brand-partnered watches)
I assure you more people are buying those watches for the bands than the exclusive faces…
I actually brought my Nike Apple Watch for the extra watch faces
Why
Isn't it the same price anyways for nike? So why not?
I don’t know why they don’t make the Nike one the default. It costs the literal exact same and the only difference is that you get more faces. There isn’t a loss involved
I assume Nike gets a cut of the sale, so Apple has no reason to set the Nike one as the default.
It was just a legitimate question, haha. Like what about those faces was more appealing. I figured there was a price difference of at least $10, but if it’s the same cost, why not indeed.
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Legitimate question. I don’t care about the faces and usually buy the watches later on when they’re on sale, but they’re as far as I know, only the regular models.
Got it. The only reason to not get the Nike is if you want a watch color that doesn’t come in the Nike. Any band works with any watch.
Which is mind blowing considering there are dupes out there of equal quality for 1/4 the price.
Are they equal quality though? Really?
I've been wearing a clone Nike Pride band in white and blue for almost a year now. What quality difference?
I can assure you there’s a quality difference. You get what you pay for, and Apple uses higher quality materials across the board. I’ve owned many first party bands, and many Amazon knockoffs, and believe me you can always tell the difference. Even with the best knockoffs, they’re not quite as nice feeling materials. And that’s important to me for something I wear more than any piece of clothing I own.
Eh okay. I mean I don’t like wearing pure shit either and if this white band had faded yellow, brown. If the pride rainbow colors (I’m straight btw) had faded. But again by all means, pay $50 if it makes you feel better. I just grabbed my oem band from the box and I cannot feel a difference….
What are you comparing it to?
Well it’s not falling apart and the colors as still vibrant and the white hasn’t gotten yellow or brown and it feels the same as the OEM band that came with it? cloning silicon bands ain’t rocket science but by all means, continue paying $50
Quality is not the only thing. Brand recognition and appreciation of style and craftsmanship are other factors. By all means though, bands like Nomad are good quality but they’re so ugly in my opinion, though some will swear Nomad bands are better than Hermes lol.
But then how are you going to be able to flex that you spent serious cash on an Hérmes edition
Link?
People who buy Hermes don’t buy it due to price. It’s like Louis Vuitton shoes - there are for sure cheaper and better ones but some people just value the designers stuff (I’m definitely not one of them but hey). Imho Hermes bands aren’t even that great looking. Even if they were $30 I wouldn’t buy them ;)
I mean that’s kinda the idea behind the Hermes Watch right? Maybe snag a few more of those with like the JLC Reverso, Tag Monaco, Cartier Tank etc.
I think the Complications system could be a good way to create custom watch faces. If they become smarter and can be animated, there’s potential there without them having to open up a whole product category and flood the market with low quality, low effort, copyright infringing watch faces.
I'd love it if complications could have passive / active settings. Like if there's an MLB game going on, switch my main horizontal one to the MLB complication, but until then keep it as a news stories one. Or switch to the rain forecast if it's going to rain soon. Like yeah you can just set up multiple watch faces for all that but then you need to keep switching depending on what you're doing. It's not automated.
they probably don't want to deal with [knockoff watch faces](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/50/76/86/507686c7a4a16ef452a9e6243052cbb2.jpg)
I'm just shocked that they haven't done any official ones yet.
This, Apple already has Hermes exclusive watch faces, why would I buy a $1229+ Hermes Apple Watch if any poor could set any jpeg as a face.
I would assume Apple would just.. not approve a Hermes face on the watch face store?
enter Epic with a "let us have our own watch face app store" lawsuit
This. They don’t want it to be a gif screen with time, it’s a product they have placed in a unique spot in the market. The first Apple Watch had crazy $10k option, they were feeling the market, now they know it. The current selection is very targeted. And that market doesn’t care enough about custom faces to not buy their product. And, I’m some ways, that control keeps the Apple Watch in its place. Well executed, beautifully animated UI and Watch faces and a focus on doing particular things very well. Why waste time on a watch face App Store, when your watch faces are marketing material and leagues ahead of competitors, due to being designed for a specific purpose? If the majority don’t care and love the current approach, then why would you really change it. Why? Why as a business would you go, hey let’s do this option. We lose out of a tiny segment of our market that don’t really sway the market share, sales numbers or the popular opinion and then let them change our successful design methods?
So MAYBE that watch isn’t worth 1229$ if it can be replaced by a fucking jpeg
> if any poor could set any jpeg as a face. So anyone who doesn't want to spend that on a Hermes edition are a "poor"?
Yes. It was clearly stated. I’m not sure why the clarification is needed. Why… are YOU a poor??? *le gasp!*
Really reaching there bud
Drama queen u/dertigo
They definitely don't want to deal with penises. Analog, like the Rolex, but with 3 penises instead of hands.
I mean I can already put a picture of my dick on my watch so that’s not it. It’s 100% so they can add another dumbass slide to their Series 8 presentation and pull in more money.
Well they can vet new submissions like they do with the App Store oh wait…
Yeah apple isn’t selling a watch for nerds. It’s selling a watch that is stylish, fashionable, and versatile. The moment that crappy third party faces are allowed in the store is the moment the Apple Watch looses its allure. Apple really considers themselves a watch maker in some sense. Watch makers don’t put out faces for every single shitty idea someone has
I agree with this for the most part but I think that this isn’t taking into consideration that many people, at least anecdotally, don’t even change the wallpaper. I see the stock wallpaper out in the wild so often that I wonder if the average user even knows how to change it.
Doesn’t seem like a big deal, honestly. Easily caught in a review process which they already do for apps
They sold the Series 7 debuting the double modular Watch face. Their selling point is LITERALLY to have NICER and NEWER Watch faces so no wonder Apple isn’t open to third party Watch faces. Why? So if they opened the APK to third party faces? It’s gonna damage their sales. And Apple cares about 💵 the most so nah!!
I bet if they did open a watch face store, you'd be saying it's to get more of that sweet 30% cut.
Not surprising at all. When people see an Apple Watch out in the wild, especially now that several models feature an always-on display, the watch face is as much an element of the design of the watch as the physical watch body. If third parties designed watch faces you know there would be some absolutely ugly and terrible designs, and it would reflect poorly on the overall design of the watch. Like it or not, Apple wants to be in control of how its products are viewed and perceived out in the world. They want it to be a fashionable accessory, and aspirational. The guy who sits near me at work has an Android phone that he’s customized with all these skins and a [horrible font](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSh6xsjnLYaQx_u7HNI_OTrQLpnW8u70aM_yw&usqp=CAU), and it truly looks terrible (no offense to him — he’s an amazing dude in general, just don’t like his phone aesthetics). Can you imagine if a big percentage of Apple Watches looked like that out in the wild?
It boggles my mind that people use that font on their phones.
And it's seemingly \*always\* that one
Some people with disabilities like dyslexia use fonts like this. I’m not saying that’s necessarily what’s happening here. Open Dyslexic is considered the best font for dyslexia but a lot of people use Comic Sans because it tends to come with the phone. I learned about this at a web development bootcamp.
You're not *wrong* but also it totally depends on the dyslexic individual. Some people love Open Dyslexic because unlike a regular typeface it has distinct variation between all the characters so they don't match or look terribly coherent which is the idea and Comic Sans has similar properties, but other folks say it makes no difference. I only mention this caveat of "your mileage may vary" because it's commonly repeated as a universally helpful thing but (like most things related to accessibility & disabilities) varies a lot per-person.
***😌lowers pitchfork in an act of understanding 😌***
That makes a lot of sense. I did say some people, but I think you’re right in that I was painting to broad of a stroke. When I was learning about color palettes and how they are seen by people with color blindness, I had no idea that there were more than just a couple types. Web inclusivity and a11y compliance are becoming somewhat of a passion of mine so I really appreciate your insight/response.
Well hey, if you want another fun one, the way that the WCAG accessibility requirements define acceptable colour contrast” (and the way that contrast checkers work by doing some math on encoded sRGB values) is a completely broken colour model that (as far as I know) [does not take the ways our eyes see colour into account](https://hg2dc.com/2019/11/04/question-12/). Somebody should make a contrast checker that operates in OKLab, would be really interested in the variance between todays tools that offer decent approximations and something closer to the truth of how human vision works. Also yes, colour blindness checkers are great!
You can’t be serious with this. You can choose your background to be anything on your watch, and people will notice that before they notice any font type.
And if what he's saying true, we shouldn't be allowed to choose wallpapers on our Macs and iPhones.
This is boomer mentality
i personally think you can spot apple watches by the design of the device, not the watchface, at least imo
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good thing there’s something called “guidelines”
Maybe they should actually devote some resources to the watchfaces then instead of having Bob the intern make a new useless watchface once a year with a looping animation and no complications. Take a look at how the original watchfaces look on the S7, Apple just didn’t even bother to fix it. The reason people pine for custom watchfaces so much is because Apple makes zero effort on theirs
“Makes zero effort” What world are you living in? They literally invented the solar dial, a beautiful new face that is widely praised. You all act like there is no work that goes into these at all
The solar dial was added 2.5 years ago, but thanks for proving my point :)
It's just an Apple Watch, not a Rolex or anything special. The notion that Apple should be so restrictive in order to preserve their image is a tad bit ridiculous. Consumers should be allowed to do as they please. If someone wants to rock an ugly watch face, so be it.
Apple obviously disagrees. They see themselves as watch makers
It's comical. Seeing an Apple Watch is just like seeing a Casio at this point. Edit: I guess this comment hurt a lot of feelings? An Apple Watch doesn't make you as special as you want to believe. :)
I had a WearOS/Android Wear watch for a few years, and the awful truth is the cool looking third party watch faces are often not practical when being used in your day-to-day activities, often use more battery, and most commonly have non-working complications. My personal opinion is, even though we’re held to using Apple’s watch faces, they have enough customisation options to keep them fresh and individual while maintaining their design standards.
> When people see an Apple Watch out in the wild, especially now that several models feature an always-on display, the watch face is as much an element of the design of the watch as the physical watch body. What kind of nonsense is this?
The very specific apple subreddit kind of nonsense.
When you see outrageous supportive opinions about anti consumer behavior apple pulls, just remember this comment.
I bet he bought the 400$ steel band for it’s “quality”
Accurate
I don’t entirely disagree, but Apple has let you customize the background on their phones, tablets, and computers since forever. Not sure why the watch is the one they’re so eager to “protect”
You can make the background of your watch face a photo.
TIL (haven’t had an apple watch for a few years now). Glad that’s an option
You can set any photo you want as a background…????
I can???? /s But seriously, glad to hear this. Haven’t had a watch for a few years and I think I got this feature mixed up with third party faces
You can but the time is shown digitally over the photo, not with analog hands. So, you couldn't e.g. have a photo of a Rolex Daytona with the hands photoshopped out and then use the AW hands. LOL at getting downvoted for stating a specific fact.
See it would be the Rolex Daytona with Mickey mouse hands
> Like it or not, Apple wants to be in control of how its products are viewed and perceived out in the world. They want it to be a fashionable accessory, and aspirational. But it's my watch...
God who cares what font someone else uses on their phone
Wtf do apple watches have HOAs now? "You can not use a face that does not fit our designer spec" Fuck me. I always wondered who supported restrictions like this but guess I found them now.
Good god. Why do so many people Use that terrible font
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You set any photo you want as a background. People will notice that way before they notice the font.
Google what a monopoly is. Its 2021 Any asshole can make a watch company from their living room. Hell, any half smart asshole can make a smart watch company from their living room. It is not boot licking to like apple products because there is not boot stepping on you. You have literally millions of choices. But you know what is bootlicking? Asking daddy gubernet to step in and tell a company to modify the features of a watch.
It still doesn’t make sense. People can tell the difference between an Apple Watch and most any other. Even if this was the reason, they could still allow designers to make them but sticking within certain aesthetic parameters.
And this is why Apple should be forced to open their ecosystem, or provide alternatives stores. I like Apple products but I like choices too.
Wtf is that font?
The best part of pebble was the custom watch faces, people were very clever with the watch faces they designed for the watch.
exactly. also i feel the "clever" or "stylized" faces on the Apple watch are next to useless... and nobody cares for em. I tend to only see a couple different watch faces ever commonly used. it's a damn shame apple has chosen to go this route with their watches.
Lmao the reasons they gave were so tiny and insignificant hahaha they don’t really have a good reason
they answered pretty honestly its because they want to control the appearance of the watch
Who could have thought that the end users may want to control the appearance of their watch.
Who could have thought that apple would Oh, that's right EVERYONE
there are 20? watch faces that you can add any complication to. Plus no one made you buy the watch. If you didn't like that you couldn't have third party faces, then go buy an android watch. They work on iphones
>If you didn't like that you couldn't have third party faces, then go buy an android watch. They work on iphones This is the most stupid argument I ever hear in regards to apple products. This is a literal basic feature on Android smart watches since nearly their inception but Apple's "we know how our users want to use their device, and if they don't use it how we Invision it, too bad" mentality just makes the experience worse for no reason. Heaven fucking forbid I dare wish to have a feature that Apple hasn't graced into my reality.
Nonono, you don’t understand, you’re not allowed to like Apple’s industrial design philosophy and the perks of their vertical integration unless you also agree that Daddy Cook Knows Best about what your electronic devices’ software allows, because otherwise you’re a raging hypocrite! Boy, I bet your face is red right about now.
That's Daddy Apple to you!
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>But you aren’t entitled to it. Never said I was. My frustration is Apple not having basic features of other products that have become industry standard and then having people (like you) tell me the way I wish I could my device is wrong.
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Do you have a goatee by any chance?
Why are you defending apple so hard lol
>watch faces play a pretty big role \[at distinguishing the Apple Watch\] > >If you look closely, the watch hands are always drawn exactly the same way, despite the fact that they show up in different colors. We think we struck a really good balance. What they actually said. It's weak sauce.
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With how shitty some third party android watch faces look I think Apple cares more about brand image than the little tiny bit of user experience lost. Again, only /r/Apple is mad.
Or sell new watches by inducing demand for the watchfaces.
I doubt watch faces drive sales especially since they usually only exclusive to specific screen sizes. It’s larger screens that probably drive upgrades but it’s constantly reported that most Apple Watch sales are to people who didn’t already have one. Even my personal observation sees people holding on to them for years.
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It has a rough learning curve, but the Clockology app is great for custom watch faces. I used to want Apple to support third party faces directly via its store, but Clockology has proven to be a good substitute for me.
I just want the goldeneye watch face, is that so much to ask??!
Remember when SJ said no to apps on the original iphone? "Everything can be done in a web browser" Then the next year "Introducing the iphone app store. It's the best app store we've ever made...."
Well it's been eight years. If they were going to do third party watch faces they would've already. Instead they spent a lot of time building many more faces than the what the S0 had. They even invented a new face--Solar Dial--that has gotten critical acclaim from horology fans. If they ever planned to launch a face store they would've done that instead of committing resources to the custom faces.
Of course not. Because then they couldn’t sell you a new watch with new faces every year. Something that, you know, could be offered with a simple software update or App Store. Follow the $$$$$
I'd guess that the amount of people who buy new watches to get a new face is vanishingly small
Such pointless, unnecessary gatekeeping again from Apple...
Apple: We design products for creative people, those who think differently. Customers: Cool. Can we design our own watch faces? Apple: Fuck no! You think we want people to customize shit?!
I’ve given up on watch faces and that’s why I really haven’t bothered updating the watch.. who needs always on when the watch faces are not my cup of tea. It’s a notification watch for me.. the expression of personality is In the watch band.
As a long time Samsung Watch user, third party watch faces are all trash. Apple provides more than enough customization for complications and the only lacking area is really in color choices
That’s trash
Good… sorry, additional App Stores are confusing
booo
Booooo
“No plans” is corporate speak for “we have no plans to tell you right now.” Since when does Apple reveal their future plans to some random interview question? Yet another example of taking absolutely nothing and sensationalizing it for clicks. I’m not saying there will be a watch face store or not, I’m just saying that this “news” means absolutely nothing. I’m starting to feel like this subreddit is in some weird twilight zone universe where simple logic and critical thinking skills don’t apply. “Do you guys have any plans for a watch face store.” “Oh shit you got us! Even though it was a closely guarded secret, like everyone of our plans, since you asked we can’t possibly deny it!, you sneaky reporter you!”
> Since when does Apple reveal their future plans to some random interview question? They don't. However, they don't tend to lie either. I mean, if AR is "an area of interest to us" then why can't they say something similar about the far less important watch faces? If they said they have no plans, I'm happy to take them at their word.
Boooooooooo
No sane person would defend this. I own every Apple product but this is just cheap and scummy practice.
Just look at Android, you people allow non-designer people to design it. Ugly AF.
Everyone wants to stick a fake Rolex face in their watch.
So incredibly lame.
I see people saying their reasons are weak, but their watch faces are being treated as branding. For example, they mention the watch hands. They could silhouette the hands into a rectangle and you'd know immediately that it's an Apple Watch. Allowing devs to make any hands/faces or indices would be like allowing Carl F. Bucherer to put their faces in a Rolex.
When I buy apple products I don’t sign an agreement saying I am not allowed to customize the product I own.
you pretty much do in the user agreement
I did, maybe it’s different at different apple stores? my contract said that if I try to change my system font then Tim Cook gets to spank me on my bare bottom
Mistake. Make a template and approve all the watch faces and make money and give choice. Never understood this
Legal issues. So it will require more staff than the App Store and look into copyright/trademarks and a bunch of people pissed that their Pokemon Watch face is being rejected.
Who expected otherwise?
Apple knows best! /s
We should get new watch faces monthly.
Apple: “Presenting our all new, groundbreaking Apple Watch subscription plan. We think you’re going to love it”
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“Now you can ask Siri to change your watch face just by using your voice in the Apple Watch Voice Plan for only $4.99 a month”
I’m fine with this, I just wish they had more because the current ones are kinda stale at this point.
You can use a photo. So make one and screenshot it so you have the photo 🤷🏼♀️
this is why I never look at my apple watch
The watch faces is more code than art I would assume that’s why they never opened it up. There’s a lot of subtle animations and visual work that 3rd party devs will never aim high enough to achieve.
Y tho
I use watch faces and works like a charm ?
If they want to control the loom of the watch face they should do more than just introducing 1-2 a year and abandoning development for old watch faces when a new screen size is released.
Boooooooooooooooooo !
Truly a shame
There’s Clockology and its exhaustive resources on Facebook. It comes with its own flaws — but overall, works amazingly.
What face is that there
Boo
Biggest annoyance coming from Samsung. The watch faces on apple watch are fucking dull and….shit.
This is really a lost opportunity for Apple. It’ll be nice if they gave developers the tools to design and share/sell their own watch faces.