The 12 Best Apple Watch Faces in 2024 - IGN (2024)

The Apple Watch is one of the most highly customizable pieces of tech from the Cupertino, California-based company. Not only can you switch out its watch band, but you can also swap watch faces depending on your mood and situation. The smartwatch is very versatile for just about any occasion.

TL;DR – These are the best Apple Watch faces

• Infograph (Best for Up-to-the-Minute Information)
• Nike Digital (Best for Exercising)
• Watch Faces by Facer (Best Third-Party Watch Faces)
• Simple (Best for Minimalist)
• California (Best for Formal Wear)
• GMT (Best for Travelers)
• Numerals Duo (Best for Informal Wear)
• Playtime (Best for Kids)
• StepDog (Best for a Virtual Pet)
• Mickey Mouse & Minnie Mouse (Best for Disney Fans)
• Wayfinder (Best for Apple Watch Ultra)
• MobyFace (Best for the Pop Culture Obsessed)

However, with the wide range of watch faces to select, it may be overwhelming to find the best one for you. We rounded up the best Apple Watch faces for all sorts of people in all sorts of circ*mstances and events.

Luckily, nearly all Apple Watch faces are free, but there are a few that require some cash—if you want access to more options and styles. From formal wear to working out and the minimalist to the pop culture lover, here are the best Apple Watch faces in 2024, below:

Infograph

Best for Up-to-the-Minute Information

For those looking for a lot of information at once, the Infograph Apple Watch face is our pick. It can support up to eight complications at the same time—including weather, location, calendar, compass, Apple Fitness, Apple Music, and so much more. Oh, and it also displays the time.

It even has a phone contact feature, so you can quickly call your favorite contact (just a cellular Apple Watch or paired with an iPhone) with just one tap from your watch. Meanwhile, Infograph is highly customizable with all sorts of different colors and styles.

Nike Digital

Best for Runners

If you’re a seriously active runner, then the Nike Digital Apple Watch face is ideal to stay on top of your fitness goals. In September 2022, Apple discontinued the Apple Watch Nike Edition and simply made its watch straps and faces available to purchase for all users.

While there are five Nike-themed watch faces (Nike Analog, Nike Bounce, Nike Compact, and Nike Hybrid), the Nike Digital is the best one—thanks to its sleek design, use of up to three complications, and includes the Nike Run Club app on the watch face. Now runners can quickly launch the app from the Apple Watch itself to start a run without digging through their iPhone.

Watch Faces by Facer

Best Third-Party Watch Faces

One of the top third-party Apple Watch face makers is Watch Faces by Facer, which is available on the Apple App Store. The company features thousands of watch faces for the Apple Watch, as well as other wearables from Samsung and Google.

Meanwhile, Facer watch face types range from simple to complex and monochrome to colorful with categories in arts, space, mermaids, unicorns, butterflies, retro gaming, and much more.

While just about all of its watch faces are free, they are ad-supported—unlike watch faces from Apple directly. If you don’t like ads, there’s a Facer Premium subscription for $5 per month, or $40 per year. This allows you to download and sport any of their watch faces without any ads.

Simple

Best for Minimalists

Simple, as the name suggests, is a very simple and straightforward, yet stylish, Apple Watch face. It’s designed with an analog clock that can be customized to show a full clock or just the watch hands with a black background. It’s very minimal, but also includes up to four complications for quick info at a glance or to launch apps from your wrist.

California

Best for Formal Wear

For a bit of class, go with the California Apple Watch face — especially if you’re in formal wear. Its elegant design features a mix of half Roman and half Arabic numerals, while it can either be displayed in full screen or circular. California is very customizable for colors, numerals, dial markers, and up to two complications. Overall, you can make the watch face simple or complex, depending on the occasion.

GMT

Best for Travelers

If you’re a globetrotter or jetsetter, then the GMT Apple Watch face is for you. It’s designed to have two time zones shown in a clever and analog style with two dials. The inner dial shows your local time in a 12-hour format, while the outer dial can be set for another timezone in a 24-hour format. This is a good way to keep track of where you are and where you’re going at the same time.

Meanwhile, the watch face’s two-tone color scheme is customizable, while it also shows additional information, such as day and night, and sunrise and sunset of your chosen city. GMT also supports up to four complications – one for each corner of the Apple Watch.

Numerals Duo

Best for Informal Wear

For something more casual, the Apple Watch face Numerals Duo is our pick with its large numerals and customizable two-toned design for the hour and minutes. This is a no frills option, but stands out because of its large blocky look. It also has no complication options; it just shows the current time. In fact, it’s this writer’s everyday look and watch face for the Apple Watch.

Playtime

Best for Kids

Made for kids of all ages, the Playtime Apple Watch face is fun, bouncy, and interactive. In a collaboration with Chicago-based illustrator Joi Fulton, Playtime features peppy characters as its numerals that interact with you whenever you tap on them.

Meanwhile, you can even give the Apple Watch’s Digital Crown a turn to change the background of this watch face. However, while the colors are customizable, it unfortunately features zero use of complications.

StepDog

Best for Virtual Pets

If you’re a pet owner, then you’re going to fall in love with StepDog. Much like the Tamagotchi from the ‘90s, StepDog is a virtual pet that helps you track your daily steps. The more you walk (or run), the more your new pet gets exercise and thrives. Once you hit your daily goals, StepDog goes to sleep for the day and wakes up for your next set of steps.

However, StepDog is not free. It costs $1 for a premium pack, which includes your choice of dog breed, toys, food, water, and a dog house. If you want all of the dog breeds offered, then it’s $2 for the complete set.

You can also check out our list of the best Apple Watch games for more of the interactive watch apps available.

Mickey Mouse & Minnie Mouse

Best for Disney Fans

For Disney fans, the Mickey & Minnie Mouse Apple Watch faces are fantastic picks. The playful and whimsical design features Mickey or Minnie pointing to the hour and minute of the time with their rotating arms, while their feet tap out the seconds.

Both watch faces are customizable with an assortment of colors, while each supports up to three complications. One of the coolest tricks these watch faces can do is it can read out the current time in either Mickey or Minnie’s voice when you hold two fingers down on the watch face display.

Additionally, for Pixar fans, there’s a Toy Story Apple Watch face that features Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Jessie, or a toy box option with Hamm, Rex, Bullseye, and the Pizza Planet aliens. When you tap on the watch face, it will display assorted animations from the Toy Story movies.

Wayfinder

Best for Apple Watch Ultra

Because the Apple Watch Ultra is designed for the great outdoors, the Wayfinder face is exclusive to it. It features customizable elevation or longitude and latitude in the inner ring and a compass in the outer ring. The watch face also supports up to eight complications (four in the center and one for each corner of the smartwatch), while colors and dial style are customizable.

Meanwhile, it’s the only Apple Watch face that has a special Night Mode that turns everything red to make it viewable in the dark to preserve battery life.

MobyFace

Best for the Pop Culture Obsessed

Love all things pop culture? MobyFace creates officially-licensed watch faces for the Apple Watch, such as Harry Potter, Star Wars and The Mandalorian, Marvel, DC Comics, Hello Kitty, and much more.

At $2 per collection, MobyFace offers hundreds of fun designs from your favorite movies, TV shows, sports teams, music, and other forms of pop culture. The company also sells matching smartwatch bands, phone cases, and other mobile accessories.

What to Look for in Apple Watch Faces in 2024

The Apple Watch is the most popular and best selling smartwatch in the world for a few reasons. It works seamlessly with the iPhone, it’s accurate, highly functional, well-built, and very versatile. In fact, one of its biggest draws is its customizability to suit just about any activity and occasion. Not many smartwatches can go from fitness tracking to black-tie formal at a moment's notice.

However, with all of the watch bands and watch faces available, there are millions of different combinations and styles for the Apple Watch. To help you navigate, here’s what to look for in an Apple Watch face in 2024.

Apple Watch Model

You have to really know your Apple Watch. Older Apple Watch models might still be working, but they’re not likely to be running the latest watchOS, which is watchOS 9. Apple Watch Series 4 or later, Apple Watch SE (both first- and second-generation models), and Apple Watch Ultra are compatible with watchOS 9. Not sure which model you own? The series number is engraved on the back of every Apple Watch.

Apple iPhone Model

Moreover, the Apple Watch needs to be paired with an iPhone model that is compatible. This also requires that your iPhone is running at least iOS 16 or higher, which is compatible with the iPhone 8 or later. This means your Apple Watch wouldn’t have the newest watch faces to select, so your options might be limited.

Next you have to consider what activities you’re going to use the Apple Watch for. As mentioned above, the Apple Watch is very versatile and can be used for just about any physical activity, while it can also be used as an accessory for formal and informal wear.

Watch Faces

Best of all, watch faces can be quickly changed on a whim, so it can look different for any situation. Just long press on the watch face and the Apple Watch will prompt you to change its watch face with just a series of swipes. For a complete list of all of the watch faces available for watchOS 9, click here (and for Apple Watch Ultra faces here).

Price

The price may be of some consideration, but just about all first-party watch face styles are free to use through the Apple Watch itself and the iPhone’s built-in Watch app. However, there are a number of third-party watch face designers that are compatible with the Apple Watch from the Apple App Store. The prices for these watch face apps can vary from free with ads to paying an annual subscription upwards of $40 per year.

It really comes down to your use case for the Apple Watch. The smartwatch is highly customizable, which is one of its appeals, so your personal usage and style are the biggest factors for what to look out for in an Apple Watch face.