Google Pixel Watch

What would you change about Google’s Pixel Watch faces?

Abner Li | Nov 27 2022 - 12:01 am PT

Google did a good job providing a range of default watch faces on the Pixel Watch. Having lived with the first-generation wearable for an extended period, we have some design thoughts and improvements in mind.

Non-skeuomorphic hands

There are 10 analog watch faces with four of them doing something rather clever with the design of the hands. Classic, Dial, Ink, and Pilot feature pill-shaped hour hands that are hollow in the middle. As such, you can easily view the complications in the background. Similarly, Dial’s minute hand does not extend all the way from the center to the edge, so there’s not too much of an obstruction.

These design choices greatly aid legibility and reflect Google’s understanding that its faces do not have to mirror mechanical designs perfectly. Similar to how most watch faces let you disable the second hand, a nice tweak would be letting you enable the hollow hour design on Analog, Pacific, Pilot Bold, and Shapes.

Digital start

Concentric, unsurprisingly, has the most unique digital watch face design of the nine available today. The Dial I and II layouts help showcase the round nature of the Pixel Watch, but Half Dial is what makes Concentric unique.

Most of the other digital watch faces are staid in that they sometimes just feel like numbers, text, and shapes on a black background. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, and I use Utility daily, but it pales in comparison to Concentric, where the time is displayed in a unique manner that’s an homage to analog/circles but is something that would mostly not be possible mechanically. The complication placement to the side is nice and Google should update Radial so its analog clock also supports digital time.

One thing that Google masterfully avoided is what I call the crowded G-Shock look that some digital faces rush to adopt. They pack so much information that legibility greatly suffers. It’s good that the Pixel Watch left that choice to the realm of third-party faces.

Google should take inspiration from its past to make more unique, Concentric-esque watch faces. ustwo’s Portions watch face from the Android Wear 2.0 launch should be modernized as that was a good and unique digital approach.

Complications

Complication slots are the reason Utility is my daily driver with four being the minimum for me. Index leans too much into the “text on a background” effect for me. However, the most widely used complication style is the circle with the rectangular slot style only properly leveraged by Media controls and Next event.

As third-party Wear OS 3 support grows, Google should guide developers into better supporting the rectangle complication while also adding it to more faces.

Abstract

Analog
Styles: None or Numerals
Seconds: On or off
Complication: One circular
Unique design element(s):
- Hands: Thick, elongated pill for hours and a miniature floating pill for minutes. Seconds, if enabled, is a circle.

This watch face is interesting for the floating minute hand that does not obstruct the background/complication.

Analog

Analog
Styles: None, Numerals I (dashes), Numerals II (1-12), Dashes, or Dots I (at 12/3/6/9)
Seconds: On or off
Complications: One circular

Simplest face found on the Pixel Watch.

Big Time

Digital
Complications: None

A two-line clock like the Android 12+ lock screen that’s a bit too thin.

Classic

Analog
Styles: Arabic I (dashes), Arabic II (dots), Roman I (dashes), Roman II (dots), Dashes, or Dots
Seconds: On or off
Complications: Four circular

Outline-style hour pill that does not obstruct complications.

Concentric

Digital
Layout (complications):
- Dial I: Dashes
- Dial II: Just numerals
- Half Dial: Dial I with three circular complications

Dial

Analog
Styles: None, Numerals I (every 5 minutes), Numerals II (00/10/20/30/40/50), Numerals III (1-12)
Seconds: On or off
Complications: Four circular
Unique design element(s):
- Hands: Thick pill for the hour and a miniature floating one for minutes. Seconds, if enabled, is a circle.

Outline-style hour pill that does not obstruct complications.

Everyday

Digital
Bold Time: On or off
Layout (complications)
- Info: Two circular complications + line-style complication
- Big: Double-line clock; less wide than Big Time

Nice balance of complications with time that is easy to read. Be sure to use the Bold option. The Big layout is a better choice than Big Time for those that want the simplest possible face.

Index

Digital
Bold Time: On or off
Seconds: On or off
Complications: Five line-style

Most info-dense option with a two-line clock that isn’t packed, but feels too minimally designed.

Ink

Analog
Styles: Cardinal I (Just 12/3/6/9), Cardinal II (Dots for 12/3/6/9), Cardinal III (Dashes for 12/3/6/9), Hours I (Just 1-12), Hours II (Dashes 1-12)
Seconds: On or off
Complications: Four circular

The rare Pixel Watch face with a background that isn’t pure black.

Pacific

Analog
Layout: Markers (Chevrons, circles, and pills), Date (Markers with date at 3 o’clock), Numerals I (Makers with 12/6), Numerals II (Chevrons and pills with 1/2/4/5/7/8/10/11), Info (Circles and 12/6 with two circular complications)
Seconds: On or off
Complications: Two circular with Info

Dive-inspired watch face. As a reminder, the Pixel Watch is rated 5 ATM.

Photos

Digital
Layout: Linear (1-line clock) or Stacked (2-line)
Complication: One line-style

A necessary inclusion that supports up to 30 photos.

Pilot

Analog
Styles: Dots or Dashes
Layout: Date (at 3 o’clock), Numerals (1-12), Info (Numerals with two circular complications), Info II (Numerals with four circular complications)
Complications: Two or four circular
Seconds: On or off

Inspired by pilot watches with a focus on legibility.

Pilot Bold

Analog
Styles: Dashes or None
Layout: Date (at 3 o’clock), Numerals (12/3/6/9), Info I (numerals with one circular complication), Info II (numerals with two circular complications)
Complications: One or two circular
Seconds: On or off

Prime

Digital
Complication: One line-style

The font is Google Sans for those that like reading the time. One more line-style complication slot would be nice.

Radial

Styles: None, Numerals (1-12), Dashes I (12), Dashes II (60)
Seconds: One or off
Complications: Three circular

Many similarities with Concentric. Google should add a digital clock option.

Shapes

Analog
Layout: Hours or Cardinal
Complications: One circular

Somewhat annoying that the sides of each shape don’t correspond to the hour. Clearly trying to be the “Google” watch face, but the more Google-y thing would be a different way of conveying the time.

Track

Digital
Bold time: On or off
Layout: Stacked or Linear
Complication: One line-style

Fitbit-esque watch face best used with a health stat.

Utility

Digital
Bold time: On or off
Layout: Modular I, Modular II, Modular III, or Minimal
Complications: Up to four

Best option for easy-to-ready time and large complications. Modular II and II have a unique rectangular-style complication slot that’s fortunately not very well leveraged by Wear OS. Meanwhile, minimal is for those that want a large one-line clock.

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