The Only 3 Apple Watch Faces Worth Setting Up (and the Clutter I Cut From Each)

I spent a month swapping watch faces every few days. Three survived. Here is what each one is for, and the complications I took off to make them work.

When you first set up an Apple Watch you pick a face, tap a few complications to fill the gaps and never look at the settings again. I did exactly that, and my watch spent the best part of a year telling me the weather, the moon phase, my battery level and the temperature in a city I don't live in, all at once.

Then I got curious about how many faces the thing actually offers and spent a month trying a lot of them. This is a roundup, but a short one. Of everything I tried, three faces earned a permanent place, and each one earned it for a different kind of day.

1. Typograph: the calm-day face

Typograph is mostly time. The numerals are large, there is room for a couple of small complications and almost nothing else on screen. I put two on mine: my next calendar event and the date. That is it.

What surprised me is how much less I checked it. With a busy face I would raise my wrist, read three things I didn't need and lose the thread of whatever I was doing. With this one I glance, I know the time, I carry on. It is the face I use on weekends and for any day when I want the watch to stay out of my way.

2. Modular: the busy-day face

I wanted at least one face to carry real information, and Modular does it without turning into a wall of numbers. The big digital time sits at the top, and the larger slots below it hold the things I do check on a working day: my next calendar event, the weather and my activity rings.

• Next event. This earns its slot every single day, because it replaces pulling out my phone to check where I need to be.
• Weather. One slot, current conditions only. I removed the multi-day forecast, which I never read on a wrist.
• Activity rings. A quiet nudge to stand up, which I needed more than I'd like to admit.

The rule I settled on is simple: a complication stays only if I have used it in the last week. I did a clean-out like this for my apps too, which I wrote about in why I deleted most of my Apple Watch apps. The face and the app grid turn out to have exactly the same problem, which is that things get added and nothing ever gets removed.

3. Activity Analog: the gym face

For training days I switch to Activity Analog. It is a traditional clock face with the three rings drawn right around the dial, so a glance mid-session tells me what I need to know without opening anything. There is nothing to read and nothing to tap, and with sweaty hands that matters.

It is also the face that most changes my behaviour. Seeing a ring sitting two thirds closed at the end of the afternoon is a better prompt to go for a walk than any notification. If you want to know which wearable features are genuinely worth the attention, my list of wearable features I actually use every day covers the rest.

The faces I tried and dropped

Honesty section. A few faces looked brilliant in the gallery and lasted days in real life:

• The very busy ones. Any face with six or more complications looked impressive and read terribly. I never found the number I wanted in under a second.
• The photo faces. Lovely for a day. Then the complications sat on top of a family photo at awkward angles and I stopped enjoying either.
• The novelty animations. Fun for about a week, and the watch is then a toy rather than a tool.

The trick that made all three work: switching automatically

Three faces would be a nuisance if I had to swap them by hand. I don't. In the Focus settings you can pair a watch face with a Focus mode, so my Work Focus switches the watch to Modular, my Fitness Focus switches it to Activity Analog and everything else falls back to Typograph. After the first morning I stopped thinking about it.

That also quietly fixes the notification side of the watch, which is a separate habit worth looking at. I found the same thing when I turned my phone notifications off completely: the useful fix was deciding what is allowed to reach me, not trying to ignore everything.

If you want more of this

There is more on the kit I have worn and tested on the wearables and fitness tech hub, and my wearable data guide is the place to start if you want to make sense of the numbers your watch collects. If you'd like one honest tech experiment in your inbox each week, join the Brite newsletter. I only write when there is something worth saying.

Questions people actually ask

What is the best Apple Watch face for everyday use?

A calm, uncluttered face such as Typograph is a good default: big numbers, one or two complications and nothing competing for attention. The best face is the one that shows the two or three things you actually check, and nothing else.

How many complications should I put on an Apple Watch face?

Two to four is plenty for most people. Every extra complication adds something to read, and in my month of testing the faces with the most data on them were the ones I glanced at least.

Can my Apple Watch face change automatically?

Yes. In the Focus settings you can link a watch face to a Focus mode, so the face switches when Work, Sleep or Fitness starts. You can also move between faces by swiping along the bottom edge of the screen.

Do different Apple Watch faces affect battery life?

They can. Faces with lots of live complications, bright colours or constant animation ask more of the watch than a simple one. I didn't measure it scientifically, so treat it as a reason to keep faces simple rather than a guaranteed saving.

How do I change or add an Apple Watch face?

Press and hold the face, swipe to the one you want or tap New to add another, then tap the face to select it. You can also build and arrange faces from the Watch app on your iPhone.