How to Get New Apple Watch Faces: A Complete Guide

Apple Watch faces are more than just a clock — they're the primary interface you interact with dozens of times a day. Whether you've had your watch for years or just unboxed it, knowing how to expand your face options can meaningfully change how useful (and enjoyable) your watch feels. Here's exactly how the system works.

What Apple Watch Faces Actually Are

An Apple Watch face is a customizable display that shows the time plus optional complications — small widgets that surface data from apps like weather, fitness rings, heart rate, calendar events, and more. Faces aren't just aesthetic choices; they're functional configurations that affect what information is visible at a glance.

Apple controls which faces are available on each watch model. Unlike phone wallpapers, you can't install faces as standalone files downloaded from the internet — at least not directly. What you can do is expand your collection through several legitimate methods.

Method 1: Add Faces Directly on Your Apple Watch

The fastest way to get a new face is already built into watchOS:

1. Press and hold the current watch face to enter face editing mode
2. Swipe left past your existing faces until you reach the "New" card with a + icon
3. Turn the Digital Crown to scroll through all available faces
4. Tap a face to add it to your lineup

This gives you access to every face Apple has made available for your specific watch model and watchOS version. The full gallery can include dozens of options — from Modular and Infograph to Portraits, Astronomy, Siri, and animated faces like Motion or Numerals Duo.

Method 2: Use the Watch App on Your iPhone

For a larger preview before committing:

1. Open the Watch app on your paired iPhone
2. Tap Face Gallery at the bottom of the screen
3. Browse faces by category — New Faces, Photos, Artists, Classics, and more
4. Tap a face, customize its complications and color, then tap Add

The Face Gallery is often the better browsing experience because you can see all available complications laid out before adding the face to your watch.

Method 3: Share Faces with Other Apple Watch Users 🎨

Since watchOS 7, Apple Watch users can share face configurations — including specific complication setups — through Messages, Mail, or Safari links. When someone shares a face with you:

• A banner notification appears offering to add it
• The face installs with the same complications already configured
• You can then edit it to suit your own apps

This is particularly useful for productivity setups or aesthetic configurations that others have already fine-tuned.

Method 4: Third-Party Apps That Surface as Complications

It's a common misconception that third-party developers can create entirely new watch faces. Apple does not allow this. What third-party apps can do is provide complications that appear on existing faces. Some apps are specifically designed to display custom content — a photo, a quote, a custom data readout — within a complication slot on a standard face.

Apps like Widgetsmith, Facer (for complication-style customization), and similar tools let you configure custom complications that make a standard face feel significantly more personalized. The face structure itself is still Apple's, but the content displayed can be highly customized.

Which Faces Are Available Depends on Your Hardware

Not every face works on every Apple Watch model. This is one of the biggest variables in what you'll see available.

Older models like Series 3 have a noticeably smaller library because many faces were designed specifically for the larger Retina displays introduced in Series 4. watchOS version also matters — some faces arrive with major OS updates and won't be available if your watch hasn't updated.

The watchOS Version Factor

Apple adds new faces with major watchOS releases (watchOS 10, watchOS 11, etc.) and occasionally with point releases. To see if you're missing faces due to an outdated OS:

1. Open Settings on your Apple Watch
2. Go to General → Software Update
3. Or check through the Watch app on iPhone → General → Software Update

Some older Apple Watch models are eventually dropped from watchOS support, which means they stop receiving new faces alongside new features. Series 4 and earlier, for example, cannot run the latest watchOS versions.

Customizing What You Already Have Goes Further Than You'd Think

Before assuming you need entirely new faces, it's worth exploring how much variation exists within a single face. Most faces let you:

• Swap color themes (often 20+ options)
• Change complication slots to different apps
• Switch between full, slim, or digital time styles
• Use personal photos or photo albums as the background on supported faces

A well-configured Modular or Infograph face with the right complications can function completely differently depending on your apps and workflow.

What Shapes Your Available Options

The range of faces available to any individual Apple Watch user comes down to a combination of factors that vary significantly from person to person:

• Which Apple Watch model you own (display size, chip generation)
• Which version of watchOS is currently installed
• Whether your model still receives software updates
• Which third-party apps you have installed that offer complications
• Your use case — fitness-focused setups, productivity configurations, and minimal aesthetic preferences all point toward different face and complication combinations

Someone running watchOS 11 on an Ultra 2 has access to a meaningfully different library than someone on a Series 6 running an older OS version — and even between two people with identical hardware, the "right" configuration depends entirely on which apps they use and what information they actually want to see on their wrist.