Back - Trigger

Software Projects - Smart Watches

Lacrimae rerum. Memento mori. Memento vivere.

Custom Watch Faces For Wear OS

After struggling to find a watch face which was satisfactory, several watch faces were personally developed for the desired appearance and functionality using Watch Face Studio from Samsung. The relevant criteria include creating an aesthetic and minimal design (with a focus on symmetry), disguising the bezel to fit the design (and case), considering the impact on battery life, providing shortcuts for launching applications (such as stopwatch and maps), and showing an overview of important metrics (such as step count and heart rate). If designed successfully, almost all of the common actions should be visible or easily accessible directly from the watch face. Although the Samsung Watch 4 was specifically considered, the watch faces are compatible with any smartwatch running Wear OS 3 (although more suitable for round watch faces).

Colourful Essential Launcher

The time is shown at the top and is not actually expected to be the primary item once the watch face is visible (if it is only necessary to observe the time, this can be viewed from the ambient face without waking the watch). Unfortunately, some icons overlap the time when relevant, such as aeroplane mode or when the watch cannot connect to a phone, but the design could not be adapted to accommodate for this. With regard to the indicators, the battery is displayed with a circle which changes opacity based on the battery level, date for the current day, and countdown in days until a personal date (sort of like the idea of a life timer as a reminder not to waste it). A linear progress bar for the step count and daily goal is also presented with text, although steps are not always the best measure of effort during activity. There is also a notification indicator following the bezel at the top, which appears when there are unread notifications (otherwise it is hidden).

A pair of icon shortcuts are included at the bottom and are intended for selecting a workout and playing or pausing the media controller (gap left in the middle for icons when certain actions are in progress). The primary shortcuts in the centre are intended for the music or podcast player, media controller, heart rate monitor (pre-set due to the limit on complications), fitness tracker (such as Google Fit or Samsung Health), stopwatch, alarm (pre-set due to the limit on complications), maps or navigation (such as Google Maps), and messaging (such as Messages or WhatsApp). The images are hardcoded, as this provided the most consistent appearance and it was not seen as important to be able to readily change them (although this would have been preferable if simple to implement). There are a variety of colour combinations, including red, blue, green, yellow, and white, and styles varying the layout of the buttons.

The ambient face simply shows the current time and is intended to be used as an always-on display, so the font size is fairly small and bold in an attempt to limit usage of the battery. To avoid the possibility of ...burn in..., the time will move vertically from the highest point at 0:00 (near the top) to the lowest point at 23:59 (near the middle) depending on the hour. A notification indicator will also appear when there are unread notifications (otherwise it is hidden).

Mock up of the layout with labels for the intended use of indicators, complications, and other features:
Screenshots of Colourful Essential Launcher in various colour combinations and with the ambient display:




Mostly Grey Analogue

...

Minimal Plain Digital

...

Simple Open Analogue

...

Abstract Smooth Spirals

...

Efficient Gliding Dots

...