6 of the Best Apple Watch Face Apps - Make Tech Easier (2024)

One of the best aspects of the Apple Watch is the way you can customize your watch face. Should you want to show off your favorite color or TV show on your watch, there is an app that can help. This list includes some of the best apps to keep your Apple Watch face looking fresh.

1. Clockology

Price: Free with premium options

The excellent app Clockology not only lets you create your own Apple Watch faces but also use those created by other users. If you want to go on a little nostalgia trip back to the 90s, then you can’t go wrong with the Casio Space Resist watch face, which you can download and enable through the app.

Clockology isn’t unique to Apple Watch, as you can also use it to design and download custom clocks on your desktop, iPhone or iPad. Check out the official Subreddit for some of the great things that people come up with through Clockology, from classic brands like Diesel and Bell & Ross, to the retro-inspired Casio one.

2. Watch Faces Gallery #1

Price: Free with premium options

The Watch Faces Gallery #1 app provides a wide enough array of designs to choose from so that you can start every day with a fresh watch face. One of its standout features is the Playground, which allows users to create a personalized Portrait Watch Face. You can select the background, key element, and data style to truly make your watch face unique.

Watch Faces Gallery #1 integrates with the Health app to display various health metrics directly on the watch face and boasts compatibility with all series of the Apple Watch. However, your options of choosing and/or building a watch face are severely limited in the free version.

3. Watch Faces by Facer

Price: Free with premium options

With thousands of options available, Facer is one of the best known names in the Apple Watch face space. Backed by a huge user community, there are literally thousands of original designs, ranging from small wallpaper changes to complete overhauls of the background, complications and more.

The built-in editor makes it easy to design your own watch face, either online or via the iOS app. One of the biggest benefits is its partnerships that bring officially licensed watch faces from popular brands, like Tetris, Ghostbusters, Garfield, MVMT, and Star Trek. That adds up to a really great selection of watch faces you likely won’t find anywhere else. However, these certainly carry a premium subscription.

4. Buddywatch

Price: Free with premium options

The self-described “Apple Watch stylist,” Buddywatch, is another outstanding app for finding a new Apple Watch face. Well-designed and easy to navigate, Buddywatch loads right into its home screen, where you can find the latest additions to the app. Scrolling through this list, you will find a host of options that are not only beautiful watch faces but also recommendations for the right watch band to pair with the watch face. Once you locate an Apple Watch band you want to use, clicking on the “Download” button kicks you right over to the Apple Watch app, where you can further personalize the face.

Should you need any additional complications to complete the watch face, Buddywatch alerts you to which apps you will need, which is a nice touch. Heading to the search button allows you to search through a variety of face categories, including casual, classy, health, sport and essential, to narrow your search. You can also do the same for the watch model so that you can find what will fit on your Apple Watch model. Along with the app, Buddywatch also hosts a somewhat minimal website where you can see the same results but on a much larger screen.

5. Watch Faces by MobyFox

Price: Free with premium options

With new content added weekly and strong partnerships that grab you right from the start, it’s easy to see why MobyFace is well rated. While the app gets all of the attention, the MobyFace website is actually a really great starting point, with its own video series on how to download and install Apple Watch faces. This is a big differentiator that helps set this app apart from the rest of the recommendations on this list. That it also loads right up to Star Wars and The Mandalorian is another big hook.

If Star Wars isn’t your preference, don’t worry, as there is no shortage of options, including Retro, NASA, Art, Nature, Seasons, and more categories. Each of these categories has dozens, if not hundreds, of watch face options to choose from. There really is something for everyone. While a good number of the watch faces do require a small cost of around $1.99 to fully unlock the app, it’s a small price to pay for how frequently you can switch back and forth between different faces.

6. Watchsmith

Price: Free with premium options

Watchsmith has a different approach than the apps mentioned above. With this app, the focus is on making your own complications that can dynamically change throughout the day. For example, you can start the day off by seeing the weather, then change to show you your calendar later in the morning. The app already includes a set of highly-customizable complications ranging in function from date to weather to astronomy.

You can personalize, customize and make them your own as often or as infrequently as you like. Once you find the right mix of complications, you are essentially tweaking existing watch faces, but in a way Apple doesn’t include by default. The app itself is free to use, but it appears you need a subscription to set specific complications.

Until the day Apple opens up the Apple Watch to true third-party watch faces, apps like the ones mentioned here are the next best thing, though many come with many limitations unless you pay in-app purchases. Get more out of your wearable by learning how to use Siri shortcuts on your Apple Watch, and check out this list of websites where you can find iPhone and iPad wallpapers.

Image credit: Pexels. All screenshots by David Morelo