Your First Watch Face

Every watch face, however fancy, is the same three things: something that shows the time, a background behind it, and a dimmer version for when the watch is resting. This tutorial builds exactly that once, a clean digital face with the date and a battery ring, so you see the whole loop before you learn any one piece of it in depth.

You don't need to know how to code, and you don't need a watch until the last step.

1. Create the project

1. Open WristForge Hub and click New project.
2. Pick Watch Face (not Game).
3. In the template gallery, choose Blank. The other templates (Analog, Digital, Fitness, Hybrid) are finished faces you can take apart later; Blank keeps this tutorial simple.
4. Type a name and click Create.

The first time you open a watch face, a short guided tour starts. It covers the same ground as this page with the editor pointing at each button. You can replay it any time from Help, then Tours.

2. Find your way around

• Hierarchy (left): every object on the face, one per row. Objects lower in the list draw on top.
• Scene (middle): the face as it will look on the watch. Click an object to select it, drag to move it.
• Inspector (right): everything you can change about whatever is selected.

3. Set the background

Click an empty part of the face. The Inspector shows the Background settings. Pick a solid colour, a two-colour gradient, or an image. Dark backgrounds look best on a watch and save battery.

Leave ambient at 0 for now. That hides the background when the watch dims, which is what most faces want.

4. Add the time

Click Add Object above the Hierarchy and choose Digital Clock. It appears in the middle of the face.

With it selected, look at the Inspector:

• format: leave it on Auto and the face follows the wearer's own 12 or 24 hour setting.
• colour and font size: make it big and easy to read. A watch is read in a glance.

5. Add the date and a battery ring

Two more objects from Add Object:

1. Date Text. Drag it just under the clock. Pick a format you like in the Inspector, such as the weekday and day of the month.
2. Battery Level. Choose a ring or arc style so it sits around the edge of the face, and give it a colour that stands out against your background.

That's a real, useful face already. Everything else you learn later (complications, colour choices for the wearer, animation) is more objects added the same way.

6. Design the ambient look

When a watch rests it switches to ambient mode: the screen dims and should show as little as possible. Google requires every face to have one, and a good one looks like a quieter version of the full face.

Click the moon button (Ambient) at the top of the Scene to see it. Each row in the Hierarchy has an ambient dot: filled means the object shows in ambient, a hollow ring means it's hidden.

For this face, keep the Digital Clock showing and hide the date and battery ring. New objects start hidden in ambient, except clocks, so this may already be done. Click the moon again to go back.

7. Try it

Press F5 (or the Preview button). The time ticks, and the date and battery fill in with sample data.

Open the Simulate tab to test the awkward cases: set the time to 23

, drop the battery to 5 percent, or switch to ambient. Anything that overlaps or gets cut off at the round edge shows up here. See The Simulate Tab.

Press F5 again to stop. Nothing you do while previewing changes your face.

8. Put it on your watch

1. Open Build, then Build…. The first time, WristForge offers to download the Android build tools it needs. Say yes; it only happens once.
2. Pair your watch from Build, then Devices…. You only do this once per watch.
3. Back in Build…, pick Debug APK and build. It installs straight onto the watch.
4. On the watch, long-press the current face and pick yours from the list.

If anything goes wrong, Getting Your Face Onto a Real Watch covers the details.

9. Share it

When you're happy with it, there are two ways to get your face onto other people's watches:

	Face Hub	Google Play
Cost to you	Free	Google's developer account fee, plus WristForge Pro for the Play bundle
Setup	Upload one .zip on the WristForge site	Signing key, store listing, Google's review and testing rules
Price	Free, or a price in WristForge coins	Anything you set on Play

Most people start with Face Hub: build a Face Hub build and upload it from your creator area on the site. For Google Play, see Publishing Your Face on Google Play.