How To Add and Customize Watch Faces in watchOS 3

BY Khamosh Pathak

Published 28 Aug 2016

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There’s no third party watch faces (yet). But Apple did just add 3 brand new watch faces in watchOS 3 – Minnie Mouse, Numerals, and Activity. And now you can easily switch between the watch faces, simply by swiping in left/right from the edge of the screen.

3 watch faces doesn’t sound like much. But Activity face has two version and all of them are customizable at length. So let’s talk about how to get them on your wrist.

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Face Gallery in Watch App

When you launch the Watch app in iOS 10, you’ll notice there’s a “Face Gallery” tab. From here you’ll be able to explore and add all the new (and old) watch faces. In fact, you can do all the customizations from the Watch app itself.

When you go to the Face Gallery, you’ll see a section called New in watchOS 3.

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You’ll see all the new watch faces here. Tap a watch face to see more information. Then tap “Add” to add it to your Apple Watch. The watch face will be added to the end of the list. You can customize the complications and colors from here.

Then go to “My Watch” tab and you’ll see the “My Faces” section. Swipe to the end to see the watch face you just added.

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Tap on it and you’ll see a preview, along with all the customization options.

If you want to reorder the watch faces or delete one, go back to “My Watch” tab and besides “My Faces” section you’ll see the “Edit” button. Tap it and tap the red “” button to delete a watch face. Use the handlebars to rearrange them.

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Pro tip: Take some time to arrange the watch faces you decide to go with here. Because in watchOS, switching to a watch face is as easy as swiping. So you can easily run a Modular face at work and switch to Activity when you’re working out and to Numerals when you’re going out. Also remember, you can’t rearrange watch faces from the Watch itself.

On Apple Watch

You can, of course, do all of this on the Apple Watch as well.

Force Touch on the watch face and you’ll see a carousel of all the watch faces.

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Swipe to the end of the screen and you’ll a “+” button.

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Tap it and you’ll now see a list of all available watch faces. Use the Digital Crown and go to the bottom of the list to see the new watch faces.

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Select one and they’ll be added to the end of the list.

Sadly, there’s no way to reorder the watch faces from the Watch itself. To do that, you’ll need to use the iPhone app.

You can delete a watch face by swiping up on it and tapping the “Delete” button.

To customize a watch face, tap the “Customize” button.

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Swipe between the pages to select different complications and views.

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Use the Digital Crown the switch between the available options.

Once you’re done customizing and arranging, click the Digital Crown button once.

What Does Your Watch Face Look Like?

Currently, my watch face is Activity Analog. I love using the Watch as a fitness tracker. Plus, this watch face just looks damn cool. With the colorful circles, and the retro analog dial. What does your watch face look like? Share with us in the comments below.