58 MACWORLD MARCH 2020
iOSCENTRAL TIME FOR THIRD-PARTY APPLE WATCH FACES?If you watch
a dimmed
face long
enough you’ll
see that
there are still
animations
here and
there.A selection of watch faces available in watchOS 6.
improve the Apple Watch overall.
As long as Apple holds a monopoly on
watch-face design, it will deserve all the
criticism it gets about how slowly it’s
moving in this area. The bar’s a lot lower
when Apple only has to provide base
functionality and can let third-party
developers noodle on designs from the
grotesque to the gorgeous.
Maybe this year. ■introduction of the always-on display and
its accompanying dimmed-mode faces as
proof of why Apple will never allow
third-party developers to create watch
faces. In fact, I believe the opposite: The
coming of the always-on display is such a
major change to how watch faces operate
that it made no sense to allow anyone
outside Apple to build them until that
work was done.
Perhaps now that the new, richer
complications have had time to settle
down, and we’re clear that every watch
face needs a bright, animated active mode
as well as a subdued dim mode, Apple will
be ready to let third-party face developers
inside the tent. I’m not sure I’d bet money
on the possibility, but it seems more likely
now than it did even last year. Having seen
some developers mock up their face
designs (go.macworld.com/mkup), I’m
encouraged that third-party faces would