Ranking all the new Pixel Watch 2 faces

Abner Li | Oct 31 2023 - 2:00 pm PT

Or, how I went all-in on info density. The Pixel Watch 2 introduces six new watch faces, and here’s how I would rank them from worst to best:

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6. Adventure

I wanted to like this pseudo G-Shock watch face, but nope. It has too many unnecessary flourishes that just clutter the screen and make the display feel small. The Digital Arcs layout has four perimeter complications and two circular slots, while you get the day and date as a line in the middle. “DIGITAL MODE” appears at the center, which mercifully disappears on the AOD as it’s completely pointless and is my least liked addition. The Digital layout just shows the two circle complications.

Analog Minimal, with its sharp hour and minute hands, just shows the day and date. Analog Max has four circular complications, and Analog Arcs adds the perimeter ones. You have eight complications here, while day/date technically make it nine.

5. Large Scale

This rather simple face has four layouts to it. Just Time is basically Android’s two-line lockscreen clock, with Stacked Time adding a large complication to the right. Circular puts the slot underneath a single-line clock, while Linear is the day, date, and time.

4. Rotation

There are two key design traits behind this analog watch face. The day and date appear in the minute and hour hands, respectively. Meanwhile, every time the second hand passes over a numeral the hour animates in. I’m not too crazy about that particular aspect, nor do I see the utility, but I like Rotation because it naturally and seamlessly adds information to a conventional clock design.

Layout options include Minimal with nothing but the hands, while Indices add in the hour markers. Max will throw in four circular complication slots.

3. Digital Bold

This face has a corresponding lockscreen clock on Pixel phones running Android 14, which is nice for cross-platform consistency. Your color options are Pomelo, Melon, Lime, Spearmint, Aqua, and Bubble Gum, which is not as pink as you would expect. Radial shrinks the Just Time layout into a circle to fit in three complication slots. However, the AOD version uses lines that are way too thin to my eye.

2. Analog Bold

If the Arcs variant shows the most information, Analog Bold gives you the most visual customization for numerals. The Numerals layout is the simplest, with just 3/6/9/12 markers that can be customized with a Standard or Rounded font. You can also have Dashes, Dashes & Dots, or nothing for indices.

Meanwhile, you can replace numeral three with the Date, while Info I swaps out six for a circular complication and Info II replaces 3 and 9 instead. Finally, Info IV will add four arc complication slots.

1. Analog Arcs

With up to eight complication slots, Analog Arcs shows you the most information at a glance. The four circular slots inside are paired with arc complications that show an icon and some text. I’d greatly recommend using Simple over Ring Indices for a cleaner, less complicated look.

Max Four shows the most complications, while Max Two drops you down to six by using two semi-circle perimeter slots. I think the arcs – which also appear in Minimal Two and Numerals Two – are too large without showing enough information.

Minimal Four keeps all the arc complications but swaps the inner circular slots with just one line at the top, while Numerals Four adds 3/6/9/12 markers.