Android Wear 2.0 might be on hold until next year, but that doesn’t mean the army of third-party developers have stopped work. Especially in the watch face department. There’s now more ways to personalise your watch screen including designer options and interactive watch faces too.
Read this: The best Android Wear watches
Here’s Wareable’s top Android Wear watch faces, split between the top round face options and the best bets for rectangle devices. Fancy trying to make your own? Check out our guide on how to design and install your own custom Android Wear watch faces.
Whether you’re using a round-faced Android Wear smartwatch like the Huawei Watch or the LG Watch Urbane or a regular rectangular model like the Sony SmartWatch 3, it’s now easier than ever to bring your device’s face to life.
Best watch faces for round smartwatches
Imgur Spiral Watch
Not content with being one of the biggest image-sharing platforms on the web, Imgur also makes a rather natty Android Wear watch face, which shows the time as a series of expanding rings (you can have the time displayed digitally as well, if you like).
Free, Google Play
Chronus
Those of you in the market for a smart-looking Android Wear face and some rather fine lock screen widgets would do well to check out Chronus, which brings weather and fitness information to the fore on your displays in a very well-designed set of interfaces.
Free, Google Play
Weareal
There are four face styles available for free, from the upmarket to the downright wacky.The idea behind the 3D animated Weareal faces is to give an authentic metallic glow and reflection to your Android Wear smartwatch – and we have to say they largely succeed.
Free, Google Play
Chrono
If you enjoy packing as much information as possible into your Android Wear watch face then give Chrono a go: it packs all kinds of data on screen in a classic digital format, from weather and battery information to the current time and date (which is pretty essential).
$0.99, Google Play
Watch Face Minimal & Elegant
You have to pay for this one but after you have you get access to thousands of different watch face options – it’s an Aladdin’s cave of attractive designs, from digital to analogue and back again, and they can all be customised to suit your personal preferences.
$1.59, Google Play
World Timer
As you might expect from the name, it lets you keep track of the time in 24 different cities across the world with a couple of taps.In an ultra-connected world a lot of us need to know the time in different parts of the globe, which is where World Timer can help.
$0.99, Google Play
Wear Mini
The Wear Mini lets you access favorite apps, toggle apps and widgets from your watch face. There’s also plenty of customization here with 12 face backgrounds, five dial styles and two borders plus the option to show an analog hand. You can also toggle Wi-Fi for your phone or find your phone right from the watch face.
Free, Google Play
Star Wars
This watch face has most of its goodies stored away in the app, but it’s also a fun one to sport especially if you’re a fan of the newest Star Wars movies. Show your loyalty to the dark or light side – or choose a droid face? You’ll also be able to see the time, date, weather and daily Star Wars factoids.
Free, Google Play
Ustwo
If we had to choose a favourite Android Wear watch face it would probably be this beauty, which is actually like having four different apps in one. The different modes – Albumen, Next, Episode and Runway – all offer a range of colourful and useful faces with everything from weather updates to appointment reminders included, with a bit of abstract art thrown in for good measure.
Free, Google Play
Specialized Bikes
Designed for bikers who need to keep up to date with riding conditions, this app offers real-time weather info, details on sunrise and sunset times and an ever-changing precipitation graphic. It’s designed to work on both Android Wear face shapes but looks best on the round models, especially the LG G Watch R.
Free, Google Play
Asics Watchface for Activity
We would have liked a little bit more in-depth fitness info from Asics’ debut Android Wear face, but we’re including it as it’s a work in progress. Currently it pulls in step info from Google Fit and gives you a rating. Nothing amazing, we know, but wait until you get the fat-man icon and see how motivated you are to get active then.
Free, Google Play
Pujie Black
Add up to three different ‘complications’ to borrow Apple’s language Pujie Black watch faces which are themselves customisable. Choose info like the weather, calendar events and steps with this interactive Android Wear watch face.
$0.99, Google Play
InstaWeather for Android Wear
An information-heavy weather based smartwatch app that gives you a wealth of real-time information on your watch face. It shows you satellite images so you can see when rain is expected and there’s some nice forecast home screens on offer too. There’s lots of fun for free but you will have to pay for some premium features.
Free, Google Play
Best watch faces for square smartwatches
Un Petit Monde
Using the brilliant miniature toy figures in real world settings setup that Kurt Moses has made his photographic signature, Un Petit Monde offers fantastic animations and time-lapse videos on your Android Wear watch face. This is one just for rectangular device wearers.
Free, Google Play
Kevin Tong Watch Face
American illustrator Tong has teamed up with MediaMonks to bring his mechanical creations to life. You can have male or female robots, or a mix of both, and the animations change as the day goes on to keep it interesting.
Free, Google Play
Retro LCD Wear Watchface
We love this retro-tastic watch face, inspired by the Casio classics of the 1980s (similar to the Digital Vintage option above). As well as telling you the time, it will also keep you updated with the battery status of your Android Wear device.
Free, Google Play
Matrix face for Android Wear
The great thing about this app is that, once you’ve downloaded it, you’ll be able to slow down time and space and have awesome ninja-style fights with evil agents. Maybe. If you can hack it that is. For those that can’t it still looks brilliant.
Free, Google Play
Math
A simple idea made complex, Math replaces the traditional number markers on a watch face with formulae and equations resulting in the desired value. We give it √100 out of 32+1 for effort.
Free, Google Play
Harajuku Kawaii
If you want your Android Wear smartwatch to stand out then you’re not going to find anything more vibrant than this effort from produced by Asobisystem, tapping into Kawaii culture from Harajuku, Japan. It’s not easy to tell the time, mind, but hey – that’s not really what smartwatches are for anyway, right?
Free, Google Play
More…
Check out the full Google Play selection and, if you come across one we haven’t included that you think we should have done, let us know using the comments below…
Be sure to also check out our guide to the best Android Wear apps and take a look at our Android Wear hidden secret tips and tricks.
