About a month ago, Apple presented the new Apple Watch Series 4. A lot of rumors that came out in the run-up to the keynote turned out to be true. The Watch got a new size with a larger screen and advanced heart rate functions were added. On the other hand, we heard nothing at all about a very early rumor in April: the dials still remain reserved for Apple, Nike and Hermès.
Although there is a lot of demand, third parties may not develop their own dials. That’s what developer Steve Troughton-Smith really regretted and decided to solve the problem himself. He has written a library with which it is very easy to design dials himself.
External dials Apple Watch
It all started with the imitation of the beautiful Hermès dials. These are only available on the expensive Hermès versions of the Apple Watch. Troughton-Smith used Apple’s SpriteKit technique to make the dials. After he was satisfied with the design and operation of the dial app, he threw the source code on the developer platform GitHub. This allowed other programmers to work with the design of dials themselves. We would like to share the best results with you.
1. The original dial of Troughton-Smith
You probably already know these designs from Hermès. The background color changes with the hands and in contrast to the dial of the fashion brand the numbers are decently readable.
2. Dial with disappearing figures
A nice development on that design comes from Shane McCafferty. This does not change the background color, but the numbers disappear. He has also added playful gears to the background.
3. Inspired by famous brands
Developer David Smith was inspired by the luxury watchmaker Nomos. He made a dial based on the Nomos Metro
4. Binary dial
We are not sure whether this dial is also based in some way on the original source code, but it is still very cool. This is a so-called binary clock. Difficult to read, but a chic design.
5. Simple but functional
The prize for the most beautiful and innovative external dial also goes to David Smith. He made this simple dial without numbers, but with two colored rings. They are not just for the appearance but have a function. The blue ring works as a kind of rain radar for the coming hours, the orange ring lets you know how warm it gets. Simple but functional
If not a.u.b .: counterfeit Rolex
That it can also go wrong when designing a third-face dial, shows this example. A terrible fake Rolex dial. And then you wonder whether Apple is right that it does not allow third-party dials on the Watch.
Unfortunately no complications
A shortcoming that these external dials that they do not support complications. For this Apple would, unfortunately, have to build real support for external watch faces in watchOS. Because the dials presented here are basically just apps that show a dial – so they do not appear with the built-in dials. Apple, are you reading? We really want external dials.