If you’ve been struggling with the same handful of Apple Watch designs, third-party face apps offer more color, artwork, and complication layouts. Apple still controls the underlying templates, but the available customization goes much further than the default gallery suggests.
Apple limits every installable face to its approved templates and complication system. Apps such as WatchMaker, Facer, and Clockology build customized combinations of those elements or prepare artwork for the Photos face.
What “custom Apple Watch face” means
A custom Apple Watch face can include:
- An Apple-designed template with your preferred colors and layout
- Photos or artwork used as the background
- Third-party complications for weather, calendars, fitness data, or other information
- A shared configuration containing a face’s colors, layout, and complication choices
The template determines which areas you can edit. Some faces provide several complication slots, while others give you little more than a color choice.
Wear OS offers deeper theming because it supports independent face engines. Apple Watch apps have to work within Apple’s face system, so an Apple version may look different from the same design advertised for another smartwatch.
Customize Apple’s built-in faces first
Apple’s Face Gallery includes Photos, activity-focused designs, modular layouts, and other faces suited to different Apple Watch models. Start there before paying for another app. Apple’s own options cover a surprising number of setups once you change every available slot.
Customize a face from your iPhone
- Open the Watch app on your iPhone.
- Select Face Gallery.
- Choose a face category and open a design.
- Set the available color, style, dial, and layout options.
- Select each complication slot and choose the information you want displayed.
- Tap Add. The face appears under My Watch > My Faces and syncs to your Apple Watch.
Complications are small information panels or shortcuts supplied by Apple and compatible apps. A weather complication might show the temperature, while a calendar complication displays your next appointment.
Customize a face on Apple Watch
- Press and hold the current face.
- Swipe between your installed faces, or use the option for adding a new face.
- Select a face and tap Edit.
- Swipe through the available style, color, and complication sections.
- Tap a complication position, then turn the Digital Crown to choose its source.
- Press the Digital Crown to save your changes.
The available sections depend on the face. If you can’t change a particular element, the template has fixed that area.
Create a face from your photos
The Photos face handles custom artwork without requiring a third-party face engine. It also gives you more control over the finished result because you can crop and edit the image beforehand.
- Open Photos on your iPhone and choose the images you want to use.
- Crop them for the Apple Watch’s tall display. Keep important details away from the time and complication positions.
- Open the Watch app and select Face Gallery.
- Choose Photos, or Portraits if that option is available for your images and Watch model.
- Select the photos or album.
- Configure the time position, style, and available complications.
- Tap Add and allow the face to sync.
Many face apps automate this workflow. They prepare the artwork, open Apple’s installation flow, and create a compatible face configuration for you.
Best places to find custom Apple Watch faces
Watch Lux: Best for curated artwork
Watch Lux focuses on ready-made designs, including photo, animated, depth-effect, minimalist, and fitness styles. Its catalog contains more than 500 designs organized by category.
The download includes some free faces. Access to the wider catalog requires a one-time purchase or subscription, so check the confirmation screen before starting a trial.
This is the better fit when you want finished artwork and don’t care about building every element yourself. Remember that animations and interactive details still have to follow Apple’s restrictions.
WatchMaker: Best for a huge library
WatchMaker offers more than 150,000 faces, wallpapers, and complications across several smartwatch platforms. You can customize existing designs, create your own, and share them with its community.
The catalog includes free content alongside premium access. WatchMaker promotes its paid options heavily, so inspect the in-app purchase terms before approving anything.
Its size is the main attraction and the main drawback. Finding a polished Apple Watch-compatible design can take time, and faces made for other platforms may lose interactive elements during conversion.
Facer: Best for households using different smartwatch brands
Facer has a large community catalog covering Apple Watch, Wear OS, and Samsung watches. It makes sense if your household uses more than one smartwatch platform.
Apple Watch designs use supported images, templates, and complications. A preview created for Wear OS may have different complication positions or controls when installed on Apple Watch.
Facer offers both free and paid content. Check the selected face and membership terms before confirming a purchase.
Clockology: Best for designing your own layout
Clockology provides a detailed editor and an active design-sharing community. It addresses the limited choices in basic gallery apps by giving you much finer control over artwork and information placement.
There is a learning curve. I’d skip Clockology unless you want to edit layouts yourself or import community designs, because a curated gallery gets a face onto your watch faster.
Check the App Store listing and purchase screen for the current cost of any premium tools or designs.
Watchsmith: Best for data-focused complications
Watchsmith concentrates on complications that can display different information throughout the day. You could show weather in the morning, calendar details during work hours, and fitness data later.
It solves the data-layout problem better than an artwork gallery. The trade-off is that the face still looks like an Apple template, and frequently refreshed information may use more battery.
Buddywatch and Timeora: Best for browsing collections
Buddywatch works as a face stylist and library manager. It suits anyone who wants to browse, install, organize, and share compatible configurations without spending time in a design editor.
Timeora offers curated original designs with regular additions. Gallery services are convenient, but free downloads often sit beside subscriptions or premium packs. Read the purchase screen before approving Face ID.
Install a face from a third-party app
Button names vary between apps, but the installation flow is usually consistent:
- Install the face app on your iPhone.
- Browse its gallery or create a design.
- Choose the app’s option for adding or setting the face.
- Review the face in the Watch app or Apple’s face-sharing preview.
- Approve any required companion app or complication.
- Add the face to My Faces.
- Open the face in the Watch app and correct any missing complication sources.
Don’t approve configuration profiles or device-management access for a watch face. Current reputable apps can use Apple’s supported face, photo, and sharing tools.
Share a customized face
You can send a face configuration to another Apple Watch owner from your iPhone:
- Open the Watch app.
- Select the face under My Watch > My Faces.
- Use the share control shown for that face.
- Choose Messages, Mail, or another available sharing service.
- Ask the recipient to open the shared face on their iPhone and approve the installation.
The shared configuration can include the layout, colors, and complication selections. The recipient may be prompted to install an app when the face depends on one of its complications.
Fix common custom-face problems
A complication is blank or shows “–“
Confirm that its companion app remains installed on your iPhone and Apple Watch. Then check the app’s required permissions, such as location or health access.
Open the face in the Watch app, select the affected complication position, and choose its source again. Also confirm that Background App Refresh is enabled for the app if its data needs periodic updates.
The face keeps changing by itself
A Focus mode, Sleep schedule, Workout setting, or automation may be assigning another face. Check your Focus configurations on the iPhone and remove any face assignment you no longer want.
The installed face differs from its preview
Apple fixes the available slots and interactive areas for every template. Designs created for another smartwatch platform often need different complication positions on Apple Watch.
Open the face under My Faces and replace any unavailable complication. If the artwork itself is cropped badly, save the image to Photos, adjust the crop, and build a Photos face manually.
The face is using too much battery
Remove complications that refresh frequently, especially weather and other network-dependent data. Darker, less animated artwork can also reduce power use on the Apple Watch’s OLED display.
Try those changes before buying another Apple Watch charger or USB-C charging dock. A busy face can create battery drain that extra charging hardware only masks.
A supposedly free face requests payment
A free app download doesn’t guarantee that every face is free. Review the subscription duration, trial terms, and in-app purchase description before confirming with Face ID.
Cancel unwanted subscriptions through Settings > [your name] > Subscriptions on your iPhone.
Which Apple Watch face app should you use?
Start with Apple’s Face Gallery and a Photos face. That combination solves the customization problem for anyone who mainly wants personal artwork and useful complications.
Choose Watch Lux for curated designs, WatchMaker or Facer for a large catalog, Clockology for detailed editing, and Watchsmith for changing data throughout the day. Once you’ve matched the app to the problem, you’re no longer dealing with a face that looks or works exactly like everyone else’s.