A lot can be said about the original Pixel Watch, but one thing that is certain is that it’s a showcase for Google’s vision of the ideal smartwatch. From the sleek, modern design to the Material UI design that stretches across the entire system, it’s exactly what to expect from a Google product. One element that’s undeniably important in a smartwatch is the watch face, and Google has made sure to build plenty of unique options to pick from. From super minimalistic ones to more complex options for users that require more utility.
The much anticipated Google Pixel Watch 2 builds on this library, adding four new highly-configurable options to pick from (it currently appears that they will remain exclusive to the second-gen watch). Thanks to an anonymous source inside Google, we can show the watch faces in action.
Accessible
Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
There will be four variants to pick from:
- Circular — single-line digital time above a circular complication slot
- Linear — single-line digital time, with the date above it
- Stacked time — stacked digital time (hours above minutes), with a single compilation slot to the side
- Just time — a simple stacked digital time
Arc
Arc is a highly-customizable watch face intended for users requiring more utility and tailoring from their watch. It provides several options — a choice of indices, variant selection (which controls how many complications and elements of the watch face are shown), and a toggle to enable or disable the second hand.
There are six variants total, three categories times two sub-variants each. The categories are:
- Max — four circular complication slots in the middle
- Minimal — date in the upper part of the face
- Numerals — big numbers in the middle of the face
The sub-variants control the complication slots outside the indices and are the same for all three categories:
- Four — four flat complication slots in the corners
- Two — two flat complication slots on the bottom and top of the screen
Bold Digital
Bold Digital watch face is based on one of the lock screen clocks recently added to Pixel phones running Android 14. It uses a bold, overlapping font and colors that vary between particular numbers. It comes in two variants: Just Time and Radial, the last of which provides three circular complication slots.
Analog Bold
The last watch face is Analog Bold. It’s another customizable analog watch face. Unlike Arc, it has a filled hour hand and bold numerals in every configuration. It comes in a couple of variants that decide how many complication slots are shown (ranging from zero to four), as well as whether to show the current date. Another two aspects that can be configured are the dashes and whether the numbers should be rounded.
Dynamic Coloring
Ryan Haines / Android Authority
All the watch faces come with various colors to pick from, but Google will add even more ways to customize the look. The Pixel Watch 2 will ship with Wear OS 4 and dynamic theming, which can extract colors from the active watch face and apply them around the UI of the watch. We can also confirm that the boot animation will use the same dynamic colors too, just as Google Pixel phones already do.
That’s all the new watch faces that Google has made exclusively for the Pixel Watch 2. While four is not that many, the range of customization still makes this a welcome upgrade. Especially considering how many other great watch faces were on the original Pixel Watch.