How to share your Apple Watch face with others.

After yesterday’s advice, it only seems right to explain how to share your watch face with others:

1. Go to the Watch app.
2. Select the watch face you want to share.
3. Click on the Share icon.

Maybe there is a way you can save your favorite Apple Watch face from being eliminated?

With watchOS 11, Apple discontinued several watch faces, the most notable one being the Explorer watch face. The cancelling continued with watchOS 26, with more (admittedly worth cancelling) watch faces that got burned and bit the dust. I’m not sure how Apple decides what faces to discontinue, but it has to be based on user preference. Apple has a ton of data on what Apple Watches are active, and they must know what watch faces are actively being used. There is probably a different metric for a watch face being active on your display, vs a watch face that is in your carousel of watch faces but isn’t actively being used. You made the watch face, but it rarely becomes your active watch face.

My guess is if you really want a particular Apple Watch face to live another year, make sure you’re actively using that watch face. If you want to go beyond the call of duty, you can share and promote that watch face to your friends, family, and even foes. The more people using it, the less likely it will be discontinued (at least that’s my theory).

In that regard, I’m evangelizing the Motion Watch face with the beautiful Jellyfish.

watchOS 27 feature request: more triple, bite-sized widgets in Smart Stack please.

Smart Stack is great, but it becomes a drag to scroll through all your widgets when you just need a lot of different, small bits of information as quick as possible. I love the default triple widget, but can we get more than one as an option? I know it will eat into my total widget count, but I’m OK with 6 of my 10 widgets being tied up into 2 blocks.

There are other triple widgets such as alarms, messages, and even the weather widget, but I want the truly independent triple widget that is not a subset of a particular app. My 2 triple widget setup would look like this:

1. Messages

2. Digital seconds

3. Weather temperature

4. Activity Rings

5. Prayer timings

6. Start a Workout

The European Union gets major features with iOS 26.5 Beta 1

Juli Clover at MacRumors mentions all the new features as part of her iOS 26.5 Beta 1 coverage:

European Union Third-Party Wearable Changes

Apple is working on new interoperability features in the EU to comply with the requirements of the Digital Markets Act. Apple has tested these features in prior betas, but the Live Activity sharing feature is new.

Proximity pairing - Devices like earbuds will be able to pair with an iOS device in an AirPods-like way by bringing the accessory close to an iPhone or iPad to initiate a simple, one-tap pairing process. Pairing third-party devices will no longer require multiple steps.

Notifications - Third-party accessories like smart watches will be able to receive notifications from the iPhone. Users will be able to view and react to incoming notifications, which is a capability normally limited to the Apple Watch. Notifications can only be forwarded to one connected device at a time, and turning on notifications for a third-party device disables notifications to an Apple Watch. Notifications from select apps can be forwarded, or from all apps.

Live Activities - Live Activities are able to sync to a third-party wearable, similar to other notifications. This is a feature that appears to be new to iOS 26.5.

There's no word on when the EU third-party wearable features will launch, and Apple also tested them in the iOS 26.3 and iOS 26.4 betas before removing them when the software was released to the public.

Proximity pairing sounds neat and convenient, but Notifications and Live Activities on third-party smart watches sounds like a huge mess:

1. What if the manufacturer of a 3rd-party smartwatch releases an update that accidentally breaks iPhone notification compatibility?

2. With Apple Watch, you can pair up to 5 Apple Watches with one iPhone and easily switch them out to activate them, simply by wearing the other watch. Notifications only go to the Apple Watch you’re wearing. How smooth will the transition be when going from a 3rd-party watch to an Apple Watch or vice versa?

3. What 3rd party devices will be supported and for how many years? iPhone and Apple Watch compatibility already has a lot of tiers depending on how far back you go, but you almost need a Doctorate just to figure out if an iPhone and Apple Watch are compatible. I can’t even imagine how that will be for 3rd party devices.

Smart Stack on Apple Watch needs this cool upgrade for older watch faces.

If you notice all of Apple’s newer watch faces, they have a mini version of said watch face in Smart Stack. It’s a nice little touch that Apple cares about, but not enough to back port it to older watch faces.

At least, not yet.

We had a similar issue when the Series 10 was released, with only 3 watch faces having the Always On Display with ticking seconds hand. I won’t give Apple too much grief over this Smart Stack request because they didn’t announce it as a feature of the watch. They didn’t get on stage and say:

“We’ve updated Smart Stack to have a more lively watch face in the corner, giving you a more intimate look at the time representing your current watch face.”

Every new watch face since the debut of the Series 10 has this new feature. Take a look at Flux for example:

The smaller time in Smart Stack looks and behaves just like the real version with the solid line filling up the screen.

Here are more examples of newer watch faces having this feature:

Apple started keeping the “soul” of the watch face in Smart Stack.

The detail is pretty impressive, especially for Exactograph and Waypoint. In Waypoint, the compass is actually functional in Smart Stack which is overkill, but cool. We need some of this love for older watch faces. I say “some” because it doesn’t make sense for certain watch faces, and the generic analog and digital watch faces are fine.

Here are some analog watch faces that could be spruced up:

BEFORE: Notice how the Utility watch face is used as the generic Smart Stack watch face for most analog faces.

AFTER: Smart Stack keeps the watch face identity intact.

There’s also a ton of digital watch faces that could use this new feature: For example, having the digital time with a small typeface doesn’t make sense on the X-Large face, which is all about accessibility. In Artist, sure the color is matched in Smart Stack, but the face can be shrunken down to fit with similar sized font as the current digital clock.

Before - not enough distinction with just a few color variations.

After - Each watch face keeps its identity and makes Smart Stack a fun place to hang out.

Will we see an updated Smart Stack in watchOS 27? Maybe, but let’s hope we also get smoother swipes between watch faces.

Apple releases updates for watchOS 5 and watchOS 8 in order to keep core functions alive.

Juli Clover from MacRumors:

watchOS 5.3.10 is available for the Apple Watch Series 1, Series 2, Series 3, and Series 4, while watchOS 8.8.2 is available for the Apple Watch Series 3, Series 4, Series 5, Series 6, Series 7, and original Apple Watch SE.

According to Apple's release notes, the updates extend the certificate that features like device activation, iMessage, and FaceTime need to function. The certificate update ensures that these apps and features will continue to work after January 2027, which is when the existing certificate was set to expire.

watchOS 8 is the final version of watchOS that's supported on the Apple Watch Series 3.

watchOS 5 is the final version of watchOS able to be installed on an Apple Watch Series 1 or Series 2 using an iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, or iPhone 6 Plus. The Series 1 and Series 2 do support watchOS 6, but installing watchOS 6 requires an iPhone 6s or later.

To add to Juli’s bit:

• Series 4, Series 5, and the original Apple Watch SE can be updated to watchOS 10, but watchOS 10 requires an iPhone XR, XS, or later, and relearning the controls.

• Series 6 and Series 7 can be updated to watchOS 26, but watchOS 26 requires an iPhone 11 or later, or iPhone SE 2nd generation or later.

Apple corrected its spelling mistake for turmeric.

Updated my watch to the latest watchOS 26.4 Developer Beta, and lo and behold, they spelled it right. Maybe someone at Apple does read my posts? I’m quite flattered.

New updates for old Apple Watches says a lot about what people are really using.

Apple just released new software updates for older iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Apple Watches, but let’s just focus on Apple Watches for now. From Aaron Perris (reported by 9to5Mac):

Apple has released the following new software updates:

watchOS 10.6.2 (build 21U594)

watchOS 9.6.4 (build 20U512)

watchOS 6.3.1 (build 17U224)

These releases are all for older versions of iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch software. […]

Per Apple’s online support documents, they appear to be focused on extending iMessage, FaceTime, and device activation certifications on older devices.

From Apple’s website regarding the Big Sur update:

“This update extends the certification required by features such as iMessage, FaceTime, and device activation to continue working after January 2027.”

watchOS 10 is actually smoother than watchOS 26 in a lot of ways, partly because Liquid Glass has made watchOS more buggy and even my iPad Pro 4th generation isn’t as speedy as it was on iPadOS 18. This update isn’t much of a surprise, but I’m glad they have extended compatibility for these older watches, especially the Series 5.

watchOS 9.6.4 is a “black hole” version of watchOS because all watches compatible with watchOS 9 (Series 4, 5, SE 1st gen), are able to upgrade to watchOS 10, but if it is synced to an iPhone 8 or iPhone X, it won’t upgrade to watchOS 10.

That means we still have a lot of iPhone 8 and iPhone X users out there. Phones released in late 2017.

WatchOS 6.3.1 is compatible with, wait for it, the Series 1, released back in September 2016. It featured the same dual-core processor as the Series 2, while the original Apple Watch was too slow for its own good.

The main reason for all these updates: to extend device functionality past January 2027.

Wow.

It’s great that they released the update now because it might take till January 2027 to sync your iPhone 6S Plus with your Apple Watch Series 1. And yes, there are still people using an iPhone 6S Plus.

Apple Watch Series 5 Ceramic Edition - is it worth buying in 2026? Full hands-on.

Update 3/11/26 - added some Neon Yellow Sport Band photos, and updated the performance section in regards to widgets in Smart Stack.

There’s only one 6 year old Apple Watch worth buying, and even then it’s only for the die-hard Apple fan:

Apple Watch Edition, Series 5 Ceramic.

It came in two sizes, 40mm and 44mm, equivalent to today’s Apple Watch SE 3. If you’re OK with the thicker bezels on the SE 3, you’ll be fine with a Series 5. I’ve been using mine over the past few days, and it still holds up really well today - much better than the Series 3. Of course, the Ceramic Edition has some perks, with the main one being the premium pearly white finish that is smooth and scratch resistant. You get the bonus of a sapphire display which is also scratch resistant.

It better be sapphire when you consider this bad boy was $1,299 at launch.

Ceramic Edition Series 3 and Series 5.

Fun fact: the larger Series 3 case (left) has a slightly smaller screen than the smaller sized Series 5.

The downside - both ceramic and sapphire are more shatter prone, so you don’t want to daily this watch or use it for workouts since replacement units can cost up to $800. If your battery has less than 80% health, it is worth the additional $99 to get it replaced since more than likely, Apple will simply swap out the device, giving you a new watch for an additional $99. Hurry up though, because the Series 5 is now vintage. Apple’s definition of vintage per Apple:

Products are considered vintage when Apple stopped distributing them for sale more than 5 and less than 7 years ago. […]

Owners of iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, Apple TV, Apple Watch, AirPods, Apple Vision Pro, and Beats products may obtain service and parts from Apple service providers for a minimum of 5 years from when Apple last distributed the product for sale.

Service and parts may be obtained for longer, as required by law or for up to 7 years, subject to parts availability.

In less than two years (if not sooner), the Series 5 will become obsolete, ceasing all repairs and service.

If you’re still interested, I’ve done some testing to see if it’s worth it for you.

Initial boot up

Once again I did a boot up test to see how quickly it can ping my iPhone Air. With this test you get a feel for how quickly the watch connects to the phone. From the Apple logo boot up screen to a successful phone ping I got the following times:

• Series 3 - 8 minutes, 50 seconds

• Series 5 - 1 minute, 53 seconds (1st attempt)

• Series 5 - 2 minutes, 27 seconds (2nd attempt)

• Series 5 - 2 minutes, 27 seconds (3rd attempt)

• Ultra 3 - 1 minute and 6 seconds

2.5 minutes is perfectly acceptable for a 6 year old watch, especially compared to the extremely sluggish Series 3.

Size comparison

When you compare the Series 5 to any modern Apple Watch of the same size, the size is very similar, and almost unnoticeable to the naked eye. It’s when you get to full-screen watch faces that you notice the bigger bezels. Not a huge deal if you ask me, especially if you use darker watch faces.

Each small Apple Watch generation body style. Left to right: 38mm Series 2, 40mm Series 5 Ceramic, 41mm Series 9, 42mm Series 10. The Series 5 display is smaller, but not by much.

The Series 3 bezels are ancient (far left), making the Series 5 (2nd from left) more acceptable. The Series 10 (far right) looks like it has a bigger bezel than the Series 9 to its left, but it’s actually more complicated.

What bands look best on the Ceramic body?

The great news is most bands look amazing on the white ceramic body, the only exception being silver bands. It’s not ugly, but it definitely has a retro Nike type of vibe.

It kinda works if you really try hard.

Not a fan of this look though.

This look…this works…this works well.

Honestly, any band from Apple that doesn’t have silver lugs looks amazing with Ceramic. Sorry Grand H owners.

I have a plethora of sport bands but none that are punchy except for my purple band, making the watch more spunky and fun. Lighter colors give it a more adventurous look, while darker colors scream business casual. The ultimate flex is the black link bracelet, giving you that nice contrast at the upper echelon of business casual, leading to big merger acquisitions on the golf course.

Spunky.

Business casual.

Vacation.

Vacation from your vacation.

Bruce Wayne on the golf course.

Hardware

If you want to know the look and feel of the Series 5, look no further than the new Apple Watch SE 3. It has the same exterior hardware when it comes to screen size and dimensions. The one difference? I’ll pull up what I said about the Series 3 Ceramic Edition since it applies here:

The Ceramic models have a distinct lip or “shelf” between the display and the body, resulting in a break in the fluid feeling when you slide your finger off the screen and onto the body. This was a limitation of the Ceramic manufacturing process because even the entry-level aluminum and mid-tier stainless steel models had the seamless feel and look between screen and body. As beautiful as the Ceramic Edition is, it’s a shame they couldn’t make it as seamless considering the original $1,299 price tag.

Series 3 Ceramic’s bigger shelf vs the more flush display on the aluminum Series 3.

Series 5 Ceramic maintains the bigger shelf vs the Series 5 Stainless Steel. Both displays are Sapphire, so the only variation here is the body.

Battery

The Series 5 was the first Apple Watch to feature an Always On Display (AOD), making it a game changer for many. I tested the battery with the AOD on the smaller 40mm size, and got pretty good results. I have a replacement watch from Apple so I also had 100% battery health.

• Day 1 - 100% at 9AM…24% at 10:15PM

• Day 2 - 94% at 7:26am…8% at 10:39PM

You can easily get a full day, but you will have to strategically charge the watch if you like sleep tracking, which this watch supports. I say strategically because the Series 5 does not support fast charging. Going back to sleep tracking, it’s nowhere near as robust as more modern watches, and you won’t get sleep apnea notifications nor a sleep score if that’s your thing. Expect a solid day of battery life for casual use, and 24 hours (or more) on Low Power Mode, with even better numbers if you’re going for 44mm.

Performance

I was surprised by the performance considering this watch is over 6 years old. I never noticed any lag or hiccups during my casual daily use, mainly replying to messages or using voice activated Siri to turn on and off lights. If you’re a power user, you might run into some slowdowns, especially if you use cellular or On-device Siri frequently. Sorry, no 5G here.

The Series 5 ended software updates with watchOS 10 as its last major release, so you do get the same controls as current Apple Watches, without the hiccups and slowdowns of Liquid Glass on watchOS 26. Some of my favorite features on watchOS 10 are still supported:

1. Configuring a specific watch face with specific Focus Modes.

2. HomeKit compatibility.

3. ECG and heart rate notifications.

4. Fall detection.

5. Menstrual cycle tracking (for the ladies of course).

6. Auto workout detection - I was standing up and patting my baby girl’s back, and the watch thought I was starting an elliptical workout.

Here’s a full feature list comparing it with the SE3 and Series 11.

Update: 3/11/26 - the Series 5 supports 6 widgets in Smart Stack compared to 10 widgets in newer watches. Still plenty of widgets for most people. Just make sure you know what constitutes as a widget.

Unique quirks

Besides being the last generation of Ceramic Apple Watches, the only other quirk you will notice is some older watch faces that were removed with future updates. Of course that also means you won’t have many of the newer watch faces. I ain’t going to lie though - most of these now extinct watch faces are not worth bringing out the pitchforks for, except for the Explorer watch face, and maybe Numerals.

Full list of watch faces available on watchOS 10.

Explorer was a Jony Ive favorite…

That pollen colored band 😮‍💨. Source: Hodinkee

At least with Numerals, you can tell what hour it is without having to guess.

How much do they cost today?

The market is highly varied online, with eBay being your main source to purchase one. People are asking anywhere from $300-$2,000 depending on size, condition, battery health, and other accessories that are bundled together.

The best strategy - buy one for cheap with a battery health lower than 80%, and take it to Apple to get the battery replaced for $99. You’ll most likely end up with a brand new watch with a new battery from my personal experience and also from others on reddit. I was fortunate enough to get a free replacement, which I explained in detail.

Who should buy the Series 5 Ceramic Edition?

You know who you are if you’re trying to get a Ceramic Series 5. You can get an infinitely better Apple Watch by buying an SE 3, but that’s not what you’re here for.

You want the Ceramic finish.

You want the luxurious feel.

You want a different look on your wrist.

If you’re that type of enthusiast, you won’t regret it. It’s a weekend watch, and if you get one with good battery health, it can still last you for another 5 years.

Smart Stack on Apple Watch - how many widgets can you really have?

Assuming you turned off widget suggestions, you can have up to 10 widgets on the Series 9, 10, and Apple Watch Ultra 3. I’m assuming you can also have 10 widgets on the Ultra 2 and Series 11, which I don’t have for testing but they all use the same processor. On my much older Series 5, you can have 6 widgets.

The tricky thing is determining what actually is a widget, because you would think each rectangular block is a widget, but if you use the rectangular block with 3 circle widgets, each circle counts towards your total widget count. So on my Ultra 3 for example, I can have 7 widgets, and an 8th widget that holds the 3 circle widgets (total of 10). You can have only 1 or 2 circle widgets if you like, and add more full-sized widgets totaling 10.

Bottom line - you can’t treat the 3 circle widgets that occupies the space of one widget as one widget. They count as 3 separate widgets.

That would be one widget, two widgets, and three widgets Sire.

Bonus calendar widget in Smart Stack is back.

Apple added it, took it away, and now brought it back again:

New quality of life update - you can click on the date in Smart Stack to enter your calendar. Now you can free up a widget if you had a dedicated “Your Schedule” widget set up.

You can also click on the time to go back to your watch face.

I’m currently running watchOS 26.2 Developer Beta.

Apple needs to squash this 3-year old bug in watchOS 27.

Mark Gurman in his latest Power On Newsletter:

After the sweeping design overhaul of iOS 26 and the debut of Liquid Glass across its platforms, Apple is working on a Snow Leopard-style update. For iOS 27 and next year’s other major operating system updates — including macOS 27 — the company is focused on improving the software’s quality and underlying performance. […]

Aiming to improve the software, engineering teams are now combing through Apple’s operating systems, hunting for bloat to cut, bugs to eliminate, and any opportunity to meaningfully boost performance and overall quality.

watchOS 27 wasn’t mentioned by name and doesn’t have the brunt of software complaints, but don’t worry, I’m here to speak up for the silent majority.

watchOS 27 has a few bugs here and there, but nothing major. However, there is one feature that is still broken, and calling it a bug is being kind.

You can call it a minor infestation.

What am I talking about? I’m talking about, once again, the hidden toggle that is “Swipe to Switch Watch Face.” This mess started with watchOS 10 and its retooling of all the buttons and swipes.

I’ve tooted my horn about this several times in the past, but attention to detail is what makes Apple, Apple. When I’m swiping between watch faces, literally right now, with my Apple Watch Ultra 3, the best Apple Watch on the market, it still feels clunky and looks bad when compared to a Series 3 Apple Watch, a watch that has mastered the swipe between watch faces even though it crawls at a snails pace in every other function.

In fact, watchOS 26 has worse animations than my Series 10 on watchOS 11. At least the complications didn’t disappear and reappear like they do on watchOS 26.

Take a look for yourself:

Series 3 on watchOS 8 - notice the smooth transitioning of the seconds hand when swiping between analog faces, and how the time is always correct.

Series 10 on watchOS 11 - each swipe has to load the time and complications from scratch, but complications don’t disappear and reappear.

Ultra 3 on watchOS 26 - even worse than watchOS 11, with complications disappearing and reappearing.

Swiping to switch the watch face was a core feature from the beginning of Apple Watch, and even though swiping between watch faces is a transitionary software feature that doesn’t need to be reinvented, it does need to be fixed. Liquid Glass is proof that Apple does care about these small details - they literally reinvented every transition with Liquid Glass.

Apple Watch had a great run under their now-retired COO Jeff Williams, but I think he had too much on his plate, putting these optimizations on the back burner.

9to5Mac:

In addition to serving as Apple’s COO, Williams had also been overseeing the company’s customer service and support, the design team, software and hardware engineering for the Apple Watch, and Apple’s overall health initiatives.

Recently, Bloomberg reported that some of Williams’ responsibilities would be split, with the health and fitness teams reporting to Apple’s Senior Vice President of Services Eddy Cue, watchOS shifting to Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi, and Apple Watch hardware engineering being handed to Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering John Ternus.

The tag-team combo of Federighi and Ternus leading software and hardware engineering for Apple Watch is a great sign, and I’m confident we’ll get a more optimized watchOS experience that runs as fluid as the Liquid Glass moniker it carries.

Looks like Apple won’t be fixing ‘Swipe to Switch Watch Face’ until watchOS 27.

My own critical analysis a few months ago:

No longer the default option, the swipe came back as a 2nd string option due to its glitchy performance. On my 7 and a half year old Series 3 Apple Watch, with its latest software version (Watch OS 8), in the year 2025, you can swipe between watch faces and everything is in memory and seamless. Extremely smooth, with the hour, minute, and seconds hands perfectly in sync between swipes. It just works!

Somehow the architecture of watchOS 10 fundamentally changed some of the inner workings of the Apple Watch, and after almost 2 years now, it’s as if the watch face has to “load” each and every time you swipe watch faces. It feels and looks buggy, especially when you go from an analog watch face to a digital watch face that is full of data. It juuust (barely) works.

The Tips app on your iPhone even demos how to change your watch face, referring to the touch and hold method vs the swipe method.

I’m sure there are Apple Watch engineers who cringe every time they swipe from one watch face to another, knowing that this problem still exists and needs to be fixed. I understand why it’s not a high priority, but it’ll be two years in June when they announce watchOS 12.

Two years is long enough.

With the latest (and possibly final) developer Beta 9 on watchOS 26, this problem still persists. Not a deal breaker, but it just doesn’t feel Apple-like to leave it this clunky.

It feels like Android.

Red Apple Watch faces that are easy on the eyes when sleeping and maintain your visual acuity (in-depth guide).

For a simple watch face when going to sleep, you could use the Sleep Focus and get a minimal watch face, but the problem is you have to tap the screen to see the time, which defeats the purpose of an always-on watch, and maybe your just overpowered by sleep and moving your other arm feels like a real drag in the moment.

The next best option? Minimal red watch faces.

Having a minimal watch face is always the best choice when going to bed, since blue light can strain your eyes and disrupt your sleep. Depending on which Apple Watch you have, you can use different watch faces with a minimal appearance that won’t launch apps with accidental taps and sear your eyes.

There’s nothing more scary than checking the time at 2AM because you hear some sounds, and now you’re blinded by your watch face. The moment you gain some ability to see in the dark again, you see your child almost right up against your face letting you know they leaked themselves.

Now that makes two of you.

To avoid further leaks, use these watch faces.

Note: All these watch faces are red to the naked eye, maintain your night vision, and give off significantly less light than Apple’s Sleep Focus watch face.

Apple’s Sleep Focus watch face.

A quick tip before we get started - when you select the default red color, tap the red color circle and turn the digital crown to make the red as dark as possible.

All the colors above the dash mark can be edited this way.

Apple Watch Series 3

If you’re still stuck on the Series 3, you have two choices for an all red watch face:

Modular - The Series 3 stopped getting updates after watchOS 8, keeping the older Modular watch face. This has a special advantage since you can change the color of the time, something no longer available with the new Modular watch face. Simply disable all complications, choose red as your color option, and you have the most minimalist, least distractive watch face.

Since you can change the color of even the time, just get rid of all complications…

to get this minimalist watch face that’s easy on the eyes.

X-Large - The X-Large watch face in red is another solid option. You get one spot for a massive complication, still giving you time in big font on a single line. The Series 3 version of X-Large on watchOS 8.8 has a unique problem because none of the complications are static, meaning touching the massively sized complication will open its respective app. The Moon Phase complication for example is actually a static complication in later versions of watchOS, but in watchOS 8.8, it opens the World Clock app.

The only option is to turn off complications and keep the huge font.

The regular X-Large face is the way to go. As neat as the complication looks, it’s not ideal for sleep since the touch target is huge.

Apple Watch Series 4, Series 5, SE 1st generation

These three watches were updated to watchOS 10, giving them an advantage with the X-Large face, but taking away the Modular watch face as we knew it. The new Modular watch face becomes more modernized with an extra Date complication and rounder fonts, but now the time can only be had in white, disqualifying the watch face since a truly red watch face cannot be achieved.

Bummer.

The new Modular watch face has multiple colors, but the time is always white when the background color is turned off.

X-Large - The X-Large face gains more complications in watchOS 10, with the key feature being static complications. These static complications don’t interact to touch and don’t open any apps, making it impossible to get any white light exposure. You can choose from two different static complications that are all red in the Astronomy category:

1. Moon

2. Solar System

Depending on the Moon phase, you could get a brighter image, which is why I recommend the Solar System complication for the least intrusive look.

The Moon and Solar System widgets work as static complications, but Solar System is the better option since it’s almost invisible.

Apple Watch Series 6 thru Series 10, SE 2nd generation

X-Large - on watchOS 11 and later, you get three static complications:

1. Earth

2. Moon

3. Solar System

Earth can get bright if you’re a daytime napper in a blacked out room like myself, so once again, the best complication is Solar System.

Solar System wins every time, but Earth and Moon still give off way less light than the Sleep focus watch face.

Photos - the Photos watch face in watchOS 26 gives you the ability to put any photo as a wallpaper, and more importantly, you can select the color of the time, just like the old Modular watch face on the Series 3. Selecting the time color is not always an option depending on the photo but for our purposes it is.

Use the following process to get an all-black watch face:

1. Take an all-black photo (or just use this sample).

2. Select Create Watch Face.

3. Select the Photos Watch Face.

4. Select your preferred Time Size.

5. Pick your font.

6. Pick your Numerals.

7. For Style, pick Natural.

8. For Time Color, select the red time color and slide the gradient to dark red as described earlier in this article.

9. Turn off all complications.

Note: For whatever reason, you can only change the color of the time on the iPhone and not on the watch directly.

Take a look at how similar it is to the original Series 3 Modular:

Original Modular (left) vs new Photos (right).

Photos watch face with small, medium, large and X-large time sizes.

I will admit I do cheat a bit with the Photos watch face and add a complication on top. It is such a small touch target that I have never activated it by accident. The Top complication does make the time even smaller, making it closely resemble the original Modular watch face on the Series 3:

Original Modular (left) vs new Photos (right). That complication is Wind Speed if you’re wondering. And yes, it matters a lot to me.

Apple Watch Ultra and Ultra 2

These watches get watchOS 26, so they will benefit from the X-Large and Photos watch faces, but with two additional Ultra-exclusive watch faces - Modular Ultra and Wayfinder. Not only are these exclusive watch faces, they are also the only watch faces that support Night Mode, making everything turn red.

Modular Ultra - Simply remove all complications, and pick how you want your time to be displayed. Either select the red color or activate Night Mode to ON to have a big beautiful red clock (or small) with no distractions.

Wayfinder - Once again, remove all complications, and turn ON Night Mode to get an all-red analog watch face.

Wayfinder (left), Modular Ultra (right).

Source: MacRumors

Honorable mentions

There are a few other watch faces that get honorable mentions, but they don’t meet my strict criteria of solid red color with no active complications. They still shine too much light compared to the red watch faces I mentioned above, almost equivalent to Apple’s Nighttime watch face.

Numerals Duo - The top number in the darkest red isn’t a true red, shining white light at you.

Meridian - If you select the Fall 2021 (PRODUCT) RED color, you get a fully red dial, but the hour and minute hands are outlined in white.

Close, but no cigar.

Even the Digital Time complication is all red, making this one receiving the highest honorable mention.

Typograph - Similar to Meridian with the standard red color.

Will Apple gatekeep Night Mode to the Ultra lineup?

It’s hard to say what Apple will do with the Series 11, because if they open up Night Mode (which I am all for), it would change the whole dynamics of having the perfect bedtime watch face. Many more watch faces would qualify with an all red look, but we’re only a few weeks away from finding out.

How to fix the blank Control Center bug in watchOS 26.

If you’re having the blank Control Center icons issue, simply enter Low Power Mode via Settings > Battery > Low Power Mode. Launch the Control Center to see your icon labels back in place. Now exit Low Power Mode.

You can also do this through the Control Center itself by tapping the invisible battery percentage logo and selecting Low Power Mode. Dismiss the Control Center and then relaunch it to see your icon labels. Now you can exit Low Power Mode.

You will have to do this every time you reboot the watch.

A sleeper update that only the staunchest Apple Watch user will notice.

If you’re one of the cool kids who knows how to swipe to switch watch faces, watchOS 26 beta 6 fixes a pet peeve that even Apple developers were getting tired of.

The large widget size on the Modular watch face would always be triggered when swiping from either side, constantly opening up that app even though all you wanted to do was switch to the next watch face. This happened about 90% of the time, but now it happens 0% of the time. This is more of an issue with Apple Watches that have slimmer bezels (think Apple Watch Series 7 and later).

It took them a while to fix this issue, and hopefully they can start fixing another glaring issue that made Apple hide the ability to swipe to switch watch faces in the first place.

Blood Oxygen feature returns on Apple Watch - what this could mean for future health metrics.

Apple Newsroom:

Apple will introduce a redesigned Blood Oxygen feature for some Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10, and Apple Watch Ultra 2 users through an iPhone and Apple Watch software update coming later today.

Users with these models in the U.S. who currently do not have the Blood Oxygen feature will have access to the redesigned Blood Oxygen feature by updating their paired iPhone to iOS 18.6.1 and their Apple Watch to watchOS 11.6.1. Following this update, sensor data from the Blood Oxygen app on Apple Watch will be measured and calculated on the paired iPhone, and results can be viewed in the Respiratory section of the Health app. This update was enabled by a recent U.S. Customs ruling.

There will be no impact to Apple Watch units previously purchased that include the original Blood Oxygen feature, nor to Apple Watch units purchased outside of the U.S.

You won’t get measurements directly on your watch; you will have to go to your iPhone’s Health app to view the data. Still better than nothing, but it begs the question:

Is this a precursor to improved health features in the near future?

For one, sleep apnea detection could be more accurate with this new information. From a post I wrote back in January:

If you look at Apple’s study, sensitivity for severe sleep apnea had a sensitivity of 89.1%, while sensitivity for moderate sleep apnea was 43.4%, giving an average score of 66.3%. What that actually means is the Apple Watch is best at detecting severe sleep apnea 89% of the time. It is not that great at determining moderate sleep apnea at only 43%.

Apple would rather underdiagnose people than give false positives, which is still better than no diagnosis at all. They were able to get this far with just the accelerometer sensor:

“The Sleep Apnea Notification Feature is a software-based medical device that analyzes Breathing Disturbance data collected nightly by the Apple Watch accelerometer sensor.”

I wonder how much better the Apple Watch could have been at detecting Sleep Apnea if they included Blood Oxygen data, which is another key component in diagnosing sleep apnea. To perform another study at this scale would take years, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Apple’s sleep apnea detection gets better sensitivity with more crucial data points like blood oxygen levels once the battle with Masimo ends.

Who knows, maybe Apple has two sets of data when they did the study, one with just the accelerometer and one with both the accelerometer and blood oxygen sensor.

Small but helpful update to Smart Stack in watchOS 26 - now gone.

Me a few days ago:

New quality of life update - you can click on the date in Smart Stack to enter your calendar. Now you can free up a widget if you had a dedicated “Your Schedule” widget set up.

Yesterday, Developer beta 6 got rid of this feature. Hopefully it’s a bug and we get it back. It adds more utility and is a no-brainer to keep that function.

Small but helpful update to Smart Stack in watchOS 26.

New quality of life update - you can click on the date in Smart Stack to enter your calendar. Now you can free up a widget if you had a dedicated “Your Schedule” widget set up.

You can also click on the time to go back to your watch face.

Workout Buddy in watchOS 26 is too nice.

She needs to have a more serious attitude and just tell it to you like it is. I did a couple of 15 minute workouts this week, and she was being passive-aggressive about my progress. We don’t need full Samuel L. Jackson mode, but something in the middle or at least the option to be more aggressive.

She needs more of a “GOYA” attitude.

That won’t happen of course, but as a healthcare provider, one of the best ways to motivate people to be more conscious and intentional about their health is to put their life into perspective. Think of things they want to do, and how their health could impact their ability to do that thing.

For example:

1. If you don’t start eating right and exercising more, don’t expect to be there when your daughter walks down the aisle.

2. If you want to go hiking with your grandkids, you need to lose weight and get your physical therapy sessions done regularly.

It would be crazy (but effective) if Workout Buddy starts telling you to keep running, or else you’ll never make it to enjoy retirement.