21 Best Apple Watch Faces in 2023 | RefurbMe Blog

With the launch of the new watchOS 9 and its new features, the Apple Watch is getting even more faces to choose from. Apple provides a diverse library of watch faces, many of which are geared toward specific situations and occasions, and the choices can be overwhelming. The good news is that the best Apple Watch faces are already pre-installed on your smartwatch. Keep reading!

Metropolitan

• Features: Minimalist design for casual and formal environments
• Customizable feature: Font of the numerals on the dial
• Complications: Up to 4

Metropolitan is one of the new Apple Watch faces that appeared with watchOS 9, featuring a minimalist design with support for up to 4 complications around the corners. It has a casual and formal feel, and it can be displayed in any situation, like in a work meeting or hanging out with friends.

Only available on watchOS 9

Lunar

• Features: Different lunar calendars
• Customizable feature:

  Second hand’s color | Analogue & digital switch

• Complications: 4

Lunar came with watchOS 9 and can keep track of both the lunar calendar and the Gregorian calendar—and it can even depict the relationship between the two. Moreover, you can also choose Chinese, Hebrew, and Islamic calendars and can support up to 4 complications. It’s a beautiful Apple Watch face despite showing a lot of information, which can overwhelm users who want a more minimalist approach.

Only available on watchOS 9

Playtime

• Features: Cute and fun
• Customizable feature: Background
• Complications: No

Playtime is not only for kids, even if it looks like it. This cool Apple Watch face created in Apple’s collaboration with Chicago-based illustrator and artist Joi Fulton is perfect for people of any age. The Digital Crown can be rotated to change the background, and the faces of the characters will react to you if you tap on them.

Only available on watchOS 9

Astronomy

• Features: Real-time model of the Earth, Moon, and our Solar System
• Customizable feature: Phases
• Complications: Up to 4

This is one of the best Apple Watch faces revamped for watchOS 9. It displays a real-time 3D model of the Earth, the Moon, or our Solar System. The Earth shows you the transition between day and night, and you can also follow the moon phases or choose the solar system view to see the position of the planets on any day of the year. Rotating the Digital Crown will also show the passage of time so that you can track the alignment of the planets or the next full moon.

Portraits

• Features: Highlights the photo’s subject with a 3D effect
• Customizable feature:

  Classic, modern, or round design

• Complications: 2

Portraits is a beautiful Apple Watch face that lets you choose any portrait mode photo as the background of your smartwatch. You can set two complications in the middle and the bottom and rotate the Digital Crown to bring the photo’s subject forward. But the real thing about it is that it creates a cool 3D effect with perspective motion and impressive results.

Portraits came with watchOS 8 but got an update with watchOS 9 to highlight the depth effect on photos of dogs, cats, and landscapes, along with the possibility of using the editing mode to add a tint to the background layers of the picture.

Infograph

• Features: Multi-tasker
• Customizable feature: Color 
• Complications: Up to 8

This watch face is available only on Apple Watch SE and Apple Watch Series 4 and later, featuring up to eight rich, full-color complications and subdials. You can also check the weather in the top-right with current, minimum, and maximum temperatures on show. The middle offers shortcuts to common apps, such as Activity and Music, but you can cut these any way you want.

California

• Features: Half Roman and half Arabic numerals
• Customizable feature: Color | Numerals | Dials
• Complications: Yes

The California Apple Watch face has been an all-around favorite since its release on watchOS 6. It has an elegant design, with either a square or round face, and resembles a traditional, familiar watch face. You can add as much data as you wish or leave it minimal. The complications are entirely customizable, and the time display can be altered for shape and numeral design.

Siri

• Features: Siri suggestions
• Customizable feature: Color
• Complications: 2

If you use Siri, you can also have it as a face on your Apple Watch. It will show you cards with information for the day that the software thinks you could use, like the weather, upcoming events, the traffic on your way home, and additional data. You can set up two complications for the first and third-party data sources. It’s an excellent companion if you use Apple’s voice assistant daily.

GMT

• Features: Set up a secondary timezone
• Customizable feature: Color 
• Complications: Up to 4

The watchOS 7 updates came with the GMT watch face that enables you to set a secondary timezone. By default, you get the Rolex vibes from the watch, but the colors are customizable. The Apple Watch face is available only on Apple Watch SE and Apple Watch Series 4 and later. It may come in handy for international travelers or those who work with colleagues around the globe.

GMT face has two dials: a 12-hour inner dial that shows your local time and a 24-hour outer dial that lets you track another time zone. You can choose from a list of city names or add one from your iPhone’s world clock list.

Count up

• Features: Track elapsed time
• Customizable feature: Color
• Complications: Up to 4

Count Up offers the easiest way to transform your Apple Watch into a stopwatch and track elapsed time with up to four complications on edge and the possibility to change the ring’s color. It’s available with Apple Watch SE or Series 4 and later.

To start timing, tap the main 12-hour dial to align the market on the outer bezel with the minute hand, and then turn the Digital Crown to set the length of time. Finally, tap Start.

Activity

• Features: Fitness Tracker
• Customizable feature: Color | Style
• Complications: Yes

The Activity face is the favorite of fitness enthusiasts and works with activity rings. The Move ring, represented by the red bar, shows how many calories you’ve burned until now. The green and blue rings show how many activity minutes you’ve completed so far and how frequently you’ve stood up and moved about for at least a minute.

In addition, it can also show you the hours you’ve pushed if you are in a wheelchair. With up to three complications, this is one of the best Apple watch faces, and it was modernized with watchOS 9.

Simple

• Features: Minimalist
• Customizable feature: Color | Style
• Complications: Up to 4

As you can imagine, this is the simplest Apple Watch face you can find out there. You can add complications, but if you want the most minimalist design, it can be better to turn them off. In any case, Simple lets you choose the dial design and add the hours’ markers.

Motion

• Features: Aesthetic and relaxing 
• Customizable feature: Collections
• Complications: Up to 3

The Motion face is a modern app that can react to your touch, and it has three collections to choose from. The Butterfly collection has 25 different species that move like real butterflies. Every time you raise your wrist, a butterfly will appear. The Flower collection has nine other animated flowers blooming. The third, the Jellyfish collection, has six different species of jellyfish and shows a different one every time you raise your wrist.

Meridian

• Features: Design and function
• Customizable feature: Color | Style
• Complications: Up to 4

Meridian came with watchOS 6. It offers a great combination of design and function with an analog look with up to four complications in the middle of the dial. The clean layout on this face gives you an at-a-glance overview of important data you can access immediately. The complications include Date, Weather, Air Quality Index, and Activity and the dial comes in black or white with numerous accent colors to choose from.

Chronograph

• Features: Precision over time
• Customizable feature: Color | Timescale
• Complications: Yes

With this face, you can tap the bezel around the 12-hour dial, and the watch will transform into a chronograph that measures your speed based on the time traveled over a fixed distance.

You can change to different dials, including 60, 30, 6, and 3-second timers, which you can start by tapping the dial and hitting the green button. This face was one of the best Apple Watch faces on watchOS 7.

Stripes

• Features: Superbly customizable
• Customizable feature: Color | Number of stripes | Direction of stripes
• Complications: Only in the full-screen version

Stripes, new with watchOS 7, is a highly customizable watch face. You can set the number of stripes from two to nine and re-order the colors in whatever sequence you want. It is also possible to rotate the position of the stripes so they are horizontal, vertical, or at an angle from 0 degrees to 345 degrees at 15-degree increments. Like many Apple Watch faces, the full-screen version of the face does not accept complications. However, the circular version does.

Photos

• Features: Custom photo
• Customizable feature: Color filters | Content | Time position
• Complications: Yes

Not convinced about any of the faces? How about using your photos instead? To do so, open the Apple Watch app, and go to Face Gallery. Scroll down until you reach Photos and tap Favorites. Here, you can sync an album, choose individual photos, or include up to 10 in a carousel. Go to My Watch > Photos > Synced Album to find your synced album. Sync a Favorites album to only show your best pictures. You can also limit the number of stored images and apply color filters to your photos directly using the Edit feature.

Modular Compact

• Features: Pack in reams of information
• Customizable feature: Color | Dial
• Complications: Up to 6

The new Modular Compact face focuses on data. With six complications, the three icons at the bottom can be changed to common contacts so you can make calls straight from the watch. Corner complications are out, but you can use the central modular unit to show information like heart rate data or commuting alerts.

If you want even more information than the Utility face, then the Modular face can be your choice. Modular Compact, Modular, and X-Large faces were updated on watchOS 9 to include a wide range of colors and gradients to match your mood when customizing your Apple Watch.

Artist

• Features: Abstract but aesthetic 
• Customizable feature: The face
• Complications: No

Commissioned by artist Geoff McFetridge, the Artist watch face shows faces that subtly reveal the time as the eyes and nose. Tap the screen to change and customize the face displayed, and the always-on Apple Watches will show the outline of the drawing when powered down. It’s abstract but has a unique look.

Memoji

• Features: Quirky emoticons on your watch face
• Customizable feature: Color | Style
• Complications: Yes

If you have a Memoji on your iPhone, you can port them onto your Apple Watch. However, if you fancy it, you can have one of the now-familiar stock Memoji characters and customize the small info panel at the bottom. This face includes all the Animoji characters and any Memoji you have created, letting you choose from various accent colors and characters.

Kaleidoscope

• Features: Relaxing Patterns 
• Customizable feature: Color | Emoticons | Memoji
• Complications: Yes

Kaleidoscope is a beautiful Apple Watch face with patterns that intertwine and change throughout the day. It’s also designed for relaxation purposes. When you turn the Digital Crown, the patterns move; the faster you turn the crown, the faster they will. And needless to say, you can use this to get yourself into a relaxed state if you’ve had a stressful day.

How to add, delete, and edit Apple Watch faces

Add a new Watch face

1. Tap on the Watch face firmly.
2. Swipe left until you reach a window that reads New.
3. Tap on the Plus (+) icon.
4. Turn the Digital Crown or swipe with your finger to scroll through the list of available watch faces.
5. Tap the face to add it to your Apple Watch.

Customize a Watch face

1. Press your watch face until it shrinks down.
2. Tap Edit on the face you want to customize and swipe to either side to select the feature to be changed. Turn the Digital Crown to choose a new customization for that feature.
3. Swipe to the left-most screen to customize face complications, and turn the Digital Crown to edit it.
4. Press the Digital Crown when you are done to save the changes.

Delete a Watch face

1. Press the current watch face until it shrinks down.
2. Swipe up to that face.
3. Tap Remove.
4. Press the Digital Crown to return.

👉 Related: 10 Best Apple Watch Face Apps

Where can you buy an Apple Watch at a discount?

With watchOS 7, Apple opened the watch face landscape to third parties, who can now create and sell their own faces. Several Apple Watch apps offer galleries of different faces that you can add. Regardless of the face, an Apple Watch is a good investment.

On RefurbMe, we compare hundreds of refurbished Apple devices every day, including refurbished Apple Watches from Amazon, Back Market, Decluttr, and Apple itself. Our mission is that you can find the best available deals in the market, all of them with a warranty and hassle-free return policies. Here are the best Apple Watches compatible with watchOS 9 in real time to enjoy all the faces you’ve seen in this post:

Apple Watch Nike Series 4

2018 release
44mm Space Grey Aluminum
Black Nike Sport Loop (Regular size)

Good condition,

by decluttr

$117

new

$429

-73%

View deal

Apple Watch Regular Series 4

Cellular • 2018 release
40mm Gold Stainless steel
Gold Milanese Loop (Regular size)

Fair condition,

by Back Market

$119

new

$799

-85%

View deals

Apple Watch Regular Series 4

Cellular • 2018 release
44mm Space Grey Aluminum
Black Sport Band (Regular size)

Fair condition,

by Back Market

$120

new

$529

-77%

View deals

Compare all Refurbished Apple Watch compatible with watchOS 9

If you want to know more about the merchants selling them, check out our article about the 5 best places to buy an Apple Watch and learn more about everything they offer, including the testing process, shipping, and warranty.

Finally, don’t forget to check our list of the best Apple Watch accessories if you wish to enhance your experience with the watch even more. Some of them will serve you well if you like to exercise and want to protect it or if you need a portable charger or are looking for a waterproof case.

Good luck!