John Gruber:
I just can’t see Apple ever allowing these sort of watch faces for Apple Watch — that’ll be left for the jailbreak crowd. A few weeks ago I thought third-party watch faces would be like third-party apps were for the iPhone — something that wasn’t there at the launch, but which came sooner rather than later.
That’s what I thought too. John has some interesting thoughts on custom watch faces and why we won’t see them.
Custom watch faces always turn out to be plagiarised watch faces from popular watches or hideous-looking skeuomorphic abominations that look like a seventeen year old just created the desktop wallpaper of his dreams.
I trust in the Apple designers to craft the most suitable faces for the watch. That all being said, I’d like to see hand-picked companies be permitted to sell their designs down the road…
I REALLY don’t want to see third party watch faces. It would be like third party themes on iOS.
It seems not many have picked up on the fact that every watch face was designed to look good with every band. Some watch faces look best with a particular band, and that seems to be the primary face displayed when Apple shows marketing shots of particular watch configurations. Like Mickey/classic buckle, sports/digital face, etc.
I never expected Apple to allow third party faces one bit, because it breaks this nice cohesive design. As a user you CAN’T pick an ugly configuration. They all look good. Some look better together. I know everyone saw the “new” button in the watch faces, and I’d expect it to either be all Apple designed, or similar to apps on the Apple TV where Apple is either part of the process or hand selects companies. It won’t be a free for all. Gruber is right to highlight the custom faces on Android Wear. There’s some pretty hideous looking watch faces there, and probably some pretty tacky configurations out in the wild. Apple Watch is definitely more curated and aesthetic design is a bigger factor than ever before for Apple.
On some article sites that have a lot of anti-apple people, I see many commenting that watches have been out for years and they have an expensive watch so why do they need an Apple watch. To me the ability to custom tailor the watch face to suit the individual would negate that argument.
For example, a pilot could have a watch face that shows local time and zulu time and perhaps a timer. Photographers might have specific needs that custom faces would suit.
Of course I’m talking about functionality, not design.
So what if people choose to have an ugly face? Apple keeps touting that the watch is the most personal device ever. What’s the harm in letting people personalize them as they wish*? Lilly Pulitzer dresses are pretty ugly, but the Target collection sold like hotcakes. You can’t let great stuff in without allowing crap through. There are loads of browsers, mapping, stock, weather, etc. apps that are worse than the Apple built ones. But, not a single default Apple app is in the top two or three of their category, except for maybe Compass.
From day one I thought sports teams or leagues would have watch apps with logoed watch faces and/or watch faces that would include current in-games stats. Could be done with glances, I guess, but a turn of the wrist would be more convenient while watching the game. Partnering with teams or leagues could insure (relatively) tasteful designs.
The watch face is the Apple Watch. That Apple is controlling this visual message in immediate term shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.