56 MACWORLD MARCH 2020
iOSCENTRAL TIME FOR THIRD-PARTY APPLE WATCH FACES?want to report that as of 2019 Apple has
prioritized the faces of the Apple Watch, I
can’t. Instead, it’s given us a few
encouraging new faces (go.macworld.com/
nwfc)—and left a mess everywhere else.
LAUNCHED A THOUSAND
WATCHES
Let’s start with the good. As it did last year,
Apple has introduced new faces into this
year’s watchOS update, and I’m
encouraged by what has been done. The
California face is the most customizable
Apple Watch face yet, and it comes close
to being my favorite Apple Watch face
ever. You can choose numeral styles (Pills,
Roman, California, Arabic, Arabic Indic,
Devanagari), dial size (full screen, circular),
more than 60 accent colors, and either
two (on the full-screen dial) or five (on the
circular dial)
complications.
Most of
Apple’s new
faces allow
you to fill the
screen if you
so choose—
but you’ll give
The watchOS 6
Solar Dial watch
face.
up some or all of your complications if you
do so. The Gradient face offers gorgeous
color choices, but can’t display
complications in full-screen mode. Two
new big, colorful digital faces—Numerals
Mono and Numerals Duo—are welcome
additions for people who want a readable
in-your-face time, but don’t support
complications at all.
The new round faces that do support
complications, like the new Solar Dial face,
generally support four complications at the
edges of the display. There’s a new face with
support for the extra-large complication
banner introduced last year, though: the new
Modular Compact allows either a digital or
analog face in the corner, along with the
banner and two circular complications.
Viewed as a group, these new faces
strike me as being pretty solid. They give
users plenty of options for look and feel,
analog and digital, complications around a
circle or a bold full-screen design.
Unfortunately, they’re almost the
entire story.FACE THE FACTS
WatchOS 6 has brought almost no
modifications to existing watch faces, and
it’s incredibly frustrating. Utility, my favorite
Apple Watch face since the beginning,
remains unable to use the larger “modern”
complications introduced with watchOS 5.
Is it locked in stasis because it can also be