[Wear OS General] TheMystic:
Hello community,

When shopping for watch faces, it is possible that you get attracted to certain designs and buy them, only to realize later that the watch face is missing one or more things that you would like to have. Then it becomes a question of whether to keep the watch face or get a refund.

Watch faces come with the following types of customizations:

1. Complications: which display information directly from another app, e.g. weather, date, etc. - VERY USEFUL

2. App Shortcuts: which are simply shortcuts to apps on your watch - NOT very useful.

A good watch face will support more number of custom Complications. Some of the elements in a watch face are fixed, and cannot be customized. Most Developers deliberately make some of the information on the watch faces non-customizable (not sure why, so my guess is to sell more watch faces). So look specifically for what can be customized. Typically, 4 or more custom complications would make for a great watch face.

Personally, I prefer watch faces that show basic things prominently such as time, date and weather. There are many watch faces whose designs may look good, but not as functional as one would like it to be. The designs often obscure the information, making them difficult to read at a glance. It is a smart watch, and therefore, should present info in as easy to read manner, as possible.

So here is a handy checklist that can be used to see what all features are available in a watch face:

TIME & DATE: These are obvious, so I won't include them in the list (and these don't make a watch 'smart'):

01. DAY of the week

02. Weather

03. Weather, with location name: very few watch faces support this.

04. Moon Phase: very few watch faces support this.

05. Phone Battery*

06. Watch Battery: present in most watch faces.

07. Calendar, preferably with the ability to display 'Agenda': very few watch faces support this.

08. World Clock

09. Weather related info like 'Feels like Temperature', Sunrise and Sunset, UV index, etc: most watch faces support these.

10. Chance of Rain: very few watch faces support this.

11. UTC time**

12. Day of the year**

13. Week of the year**

14. Step Counter***

15. Distance Covered***

16. Calories burnt***

17. Heart Rate (bpm)****

18. Blood Pressure (BP)

19. Google Fit (or other similar apps/ service like Samsung Health) integration: only some watch faces support this.

* if not supported natively, you can enable this on most watch faces by installing this app.

** if not supported natively, you can enable this on most watch faces by installing this app

*** if not supported natively, you can enable this on most watch faces by installing this app.

**** if not supported natively, you can enable this on most watch faces by installing this app.

Do take note of the AOD mode when selecting a watch face. This is very important. Some watch faces only offer a 'DIM' mode for AOD. This is bad as this will not only drain more battery, but will also cause screen burn-in. The AOD mode must ideally offer a 'Time only' option, and preferably shifting pixels too!

There are two types of watch faces I have come across so far:

1. One that allows use of complications available with WearOS, as well as 3rd party apps.

2. One that relies on its own set of complications, and you need to install a companion app on the phone: This severely limits the amount of information you can have.

Watch faces in the 1st category are usually preferred due to their versatility and number of complications supported.

SUMMARY

What I look for before buying a watch face:

1. Prominent Time, Date & Day (text should be big enough)

2. 4 or more custom complications (excluding the above)

3. Minimal AOD (such as Time-only option to help avoid screen burn-in and save battery)

Hope this helps.

RELATED POSTS

You'll find more info and related links here:

https://xdaforums.com/t/wear-os-facts.4462733/

https://xdaforums.com/t/watch-faces-with-support-for-rare-complications.4463367/