My 10 Favorite Pixel Watch and Galaxy Watch Faces

For the past few years, I’ve avoided using third-party watch faces on the Galaxy Watch and Pixel Watch because they were always frustrating. Most third-party watch faces are slow, clunky, and poorly designed, and it’s hard to find one that works well. To make matters worse, they often drain the battery quickly, they don’t display proper health stats and data, and sometimes they want me to install a companion app on my phone for some reason.

But thanks to Google and Samsung, things are changing, third-party Wear OS watch faces have started to get better, and I found 10 favorite watch faces to share with you.

Before I share my favorite watch faces, let me explain how third-party watch faces are even better. Last May, Google released Watch Face Format, a preset template for watch face designers. It’s also already integrated into Samsung’s Watch Face Studio, so developing with it should be very easy.

Basically, if you’re a developer, you should adopt this format to ensure your watch faces behave like native watch faces on any modern Wear OS watch. It won’t drain the battery excessively; it will show people their health data and statistics correctly; and for those who own the watch, it can be customized directly on the watch and within the Pixel Watch app. And it usually has a smaller installation size because it’s essentially an XML file. Even better, it doesn’t require a companion app on your phone, and you don’t need to constantly update it to always apply battery and performance optimizations – the Wear OS platform handles all of that.

So what’s the problem? Well, because they follow a set of parameters laid out by Google, watch faces developed in this format usually look a bit basic and similar to each other – unless the designers go to great lengths to make their watch faces look unique.

They are also hard to find. There’s no dedicated section in the Play Store to discover faces developed using the watch face format, and unless the developer explicitly mentions it somewhere, it’s hard to tell if a face uses that format.

But I did some digging for you and found 10 different cool and interesting watch faces built by different developers based on the watch face format. They should work with your Pixel Watch 2 and 1, Galaxy Watch 6, 5, and 4, OnePlus Watch 2, and any other watch running Wear OS 4.

Let’s start with my current favorite digital watch face: the Sport XR from Amoled Watch Faces. The bright gradient colors and dotted pattern in the background caught my eye when I first saw this face, and I still think they’re pretty cool. I’m constantly switching between different shades of blue that fit the Pixel Watch 2 straps, but let’s be honest: the green, red, and orange shades are pretty, too.

The heart rate complication on the left is fixed here, but since I always select it on any watch face, I don’t mind it at all. However, the statistics on the right and top, as well as all four app shortcuts, are customizable. The only downside is that I can’t change the text on the corners, so I have to remember that I set App 1 to Spotify, App 2 to Google Home, and Timer to Google Pay. At least I set the alarm as mine!

For an always-on display, you can show everything, but I opted for a simple clock-only design.

Next up is my favorite analog watch face: Nothing Fancy by Time Flies Watch Faces. To be fair, though, it’s pretty gimmicky. I love the design and crazy amount of customization.

There are 30 color schemes, eight different indexes, five hands, eight always-on display options and a setting to show or hide the stopwatch.

On top of that, you get eight customizable message slots – four large ones in the middle and four smaller text in the ring around it. I’ve been using this face for a while now and I keep discovering new looks every time I try to customize it.

My only issue is that it’s buggy and doesn’t always open in the Pixel Watch app. When this happens, I have to do all my editing on my wrist, which gets tedious and clunky when you have 30 color schemes to scroll through. Still, it’s a small price to pay for such a great analog watch face.

The next watch face from SOC Creations is very – well, how should I put it – Google inspired. The Pixel Watch 2 Face I is perfect for me, though, because I really like the official Digital Bold watch face on the Pixel Watch, but I wish it contained more information.

The dial builds on the original design by adding four customizable complications. I chose to display the date, battery, step count, and heart rate; that’s all I needed.

There are 18 color options here, and the always-on display shows it all, but in a battery-friendly way. All around 10 out of 10.

But some data slots are locked: date, notifications, steps, heart rate and battery cannot be changed. But, again, these are the complications I personally choose to display on any watch face I use, so the fixed selection works well for me.

I usually check out the weather and complications for the next event in the two empty slots. You also get two app shortcuts on the left that can be shown or hidden. The stopwatch can be turned off and the always-on display simply shows the time, date and battery.

I love the inner shading around it and it blends the bright index numerals perfectly into the black bezel of my watch. The clock hands aren’t the best, but being able to assign different colors to them is a nice bonus.

Unfortunately, the middle complication is fixed at Battery, Heart Rate, Distance, and Next Event, but you can add four different complications on each side. However, I find this too busy, so I usually just go to the left and right sides, leaving the top and bottom empty. If you ask me, I’d say it’s the big dial numerals that make this watch look good, so removing more numerals would ruin the look.

Going back to Google inspiration, the Material Stack by JH Watchfaces looks like one of the official Pixel Watch watch faces, but with two additional complications and two shortcuts on the left side.

Everything here is customizable, and if you fill up every slot it can get a little busy, so I usually leave the shortcuts empty. But what I like is that if I need more, I can choose to overdo it. My only request is a simpler always-on display without the complexity and shortcuts on the left. Now that everything is visible when the watch is off, I find it too crowded.

The gradient color and patterned background on SG WatchDesign’s SG-128 looks very similar to the first design I showed you. Once again, these make this watch face pop when open. It’s so beautiful.

There’s a lot of information here, but thin fonts and lines help keep the design sleek. But unfortunately, almost everything about this watch is fixed, so you have to be happy with the battery, date, distance, steps, and heart rate always being displayed.

However, you do get two customizable complications and three app shortcuts at the bottom. The always-on display is very well done: the simplicity of white text on a black background is unmatched.

Typograph by WatchFace-Designs is a simple yet highly customizable analog watch face that everyone should have in their collection. You get eight clock fonts, six index styles, two hand shapes, 20 color themes, and three customizable complications.

I like that I can easily go from classic to funky to simple, and the always-on display retains font and index selections. I wish there were some extra options for the clock hands, though.

Prime Home OS 2 watch faces from Prado Design® are designed for anyone who needs a ton of shortcuts on their watch. There are nine here, with six fixed for messages, calls, settings, heart rate, music and calendar. Only three shortcuts are customizable, plus three complications on the side and one on the bottom.

I like that the background here isn’t one solid color, and there are 10 different icon packs to choose from, so the look can change dramatically from one design to another.

An always-on display might be a little more complicated, though. Now, it’s time to cover everything else with black.

The final watch face, Dobleuxyz’s Pixel Fanboy doesn’t overdo its name. Between the font, the pill shape at the bottom, and all the different colors, this always makes me feel like I’m looking at my Pixel 8 Pro’s home screen. There’s even a total dark mode if you prefer!

I love how dense this face is without looking too busy and how customizable everything is. The battery and date are fixed, but everything else can be selected by you. There are eight different custom slots between icons, statistics and text.

So there you have it: 10 different watch faces, each with their own unique twist. These faces are currently in my personal rotation, but I recommend checking out the developer pages for each face as they do a great job. There are many, many other options to choose from.

The watch face format is still relatively new, though, so I hope we’ll see more watches and more developers using this format in the future.