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Dougswatchtings

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 23, 2023
2
0
Hey there! New here. After a few hours of disappointing Googling, I hope to receive some direction or advice as to if this is even possible.

I would like to create a WatchOS face or use tools to piece together my face. Just curious if this is even possible or not. Many of the tools recommended online do not allow upload of an image for the circular watch face section. And apple allows for full face upload with no ideal complication configurations.

I would like to replace the inner circular watch face (background?) with a face+bezel PNG (or JPEG with matching black background) that I have pieced together.

The hands of the face + Complication style could be that of the "Simple" stock watch face theme, but it would be nice to customize colours of the hands.

It would be really cool to be able to shift the numerical date (day only) to align with the background date spot. But I feel this would be challenging and is not a priority.

I've seen custom faces that replicate anything from Casio (with integrated complications in non-traditional placements) to animated backgrounds... so there must be a way.

I don't have a ton of coding experience, but any tools/tips/howto guides would really help. I can learn quickly when given instructions. I feel like this is a multistep solution, but I lack the knowledge of how WatchOS works along with other areas. So go easy on me lol, but any direction would be appreciated.

I've attached both the "inner watch face background" and the "simple watch face theme" screenshots for clarity. The watch face is a crude piece-together, but would like to know my options before investing more time into cleaning up the image.

The watch face means quite a bit to me as it was the watch I was once aiming for (motivation). Tried it on, took a photo and used as phone wallpaper. A year later, got the watch, business was great, and then everything went to **** due to poor decision making (greed & boredom) [We've all been there right?]. I would like to use this as motivation to push as I did a few years ago. And appreciate any insights provided.

Thanks in advance. I appreciate you.

Dougs
 

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jz0309

Contributor
Sep 25, 2018
11,411
30,106
SoCal
Hey there! New here. After a few hours of disappointing Googling, I hope to receive some direction or advice as to if this is even possible.

I would like to create a WatchOS face or use tools to piece together my face. Just curious if this is even possible or not. Many of the tools recommended online do not allow upload of an image for the circular watch face section. And apple allows for full face upload with no ideal complication configurations.

I would like to replace the inner circular watch face (background?) with a face+bezel PNG (or JPEG with matching black background) that I have pieced together.

The hands of the face + Complication style could be that of the "Simple" stock watch face theme, but it would be nice to customize colours of the hands.

It would be really cool to be able to shift the numerical date (day only) to align with the background date spot. But I feel this would be challenging and is not a priority.

I've seen custom faces that replicate anything from Casio (with integrated complications in non-traditional placements) to animated backgrounds... so there must be a way.

I don't have a ton of coding experience, but any tools/tips/howto guides would really help. I can learn quickly when given instructions. I feel like this is a multistep solution, but I lack the knowledge of how WatchOS works along with other areas. So go easy on me lol, but any direction would be appreciated.

I've attached both the "inner watch face background" and the "simple watch face theme" screenshots for clarity. The watch face is a crude piece-together, but would like to know my options before investing more time into cleaning up the image.

The watch face means quite a bit to me as it was the watch I was once aiming for (motivation). Tried it on, took a photo and used as phone wallpaper. A year later, got the watch, business was great, and then everything went to **** due to poor decision making (greed & boredom) [We've all been there right?]. I would like to use this as motivation to push as I did a few years ago. And appreciate any insights provided.

Thanks in advance. I appreciate you.

Dougs
No, you cannot create your own watch face. Closest would be to choose the “Photo” watch face that can show jpg files… I’ve personally never used it though…

Quite a few people here asking for a “face store” but is is rather unlikely we’ll see Apple doing that
 
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Dougswatchtings

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 23, 2023
2
0
No, you cannot create your own watch face. Closest would be to choose the “Photo” watch face that can show jpg files… I’ve personally never used it though…

Quite a few people here asking for a “face store” but is is rather unlikely we’ll see Apple doing that
I feared that. I originally tried the Photo face, but only digital and not practical, also doesn't offer any complications.

I appreciate your response! Was also curious as to how the developers on the third party apps create their custom themes. Is there a special software or license granted to a select few to create these? Or are there any jailbreaks or other work arounds to accomplish this? Has anyone reverse engineered a WatchOS theme? So many questions lol

Or is there simply no hope? And I should quit while I'm ahead? 😂

Thanks in advance
 

xraydoc

Contributor
Oct 9, 2005
11,033
5,493
192.168.1.1
I feared that. I originally tried the Photo face, but only digital and not practical, also doesn't offer any complications.

I appreciate your response! Was also curious as to how the developers on the third party apps create their custom themes. Is there a special software or license granted to a select few to create these? Or are there any jailbreaks or other work arounds to accomplish this? Has anyone reverse engineered a WatchOS theme? So many questions lol

Or is there simply no hope? And I should quit while I'm ahead? 😂

Thanks in advance
Themes? There are no themes. I’m not sure what you mean by that. And no 3rd party watch faces. The only ones that exist are the ones Apple provides, though the Hermes watch models do come with some additional faces not available on other models. Same used to be so for the Nike watches, but those are not available to everyone (though, interestingly, not on the Hermes watches).

Developers can create their own complications, though, although there are some limitations in what they can do and how they look in the API. And no hacks or jailbreaks to get around these limitations.

There are apps that will give you “custom watch faces” but they’re not really watch faces. It’s an app that you leave running that looks like a watch face. But they do have some significant limitations and don’t work with your standard complications (though they do have some simulated complications). You’re welcome to use these watch face apps, but understand that they’re not really the same thing.
 
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