5 Of Our Favorite Apple Watch Faces To Try In 2023

What we choose to wear, whether it's clothing or some other fashion accessory, is often a way to express our identity to the rest of the world. For many, that includes their Apple Watch, which is on display to the public when on the wearer's wrist. Not only can you select the color of the case, but there are countless watch band options to choose from, as well. Plus, you can customize the face of your Apple Watch, from its look to the type of information it displays.

Customizing your watch face is important because it's not just for other people to see. You'll likely be checking it repeatedly throughout the day, so you want to make sure you're looking at something aesthetically pleasing, as well as something that displays the information you want and in the clearest way possible. Thankfully, there are many options in the Face Gallery, which you can easily access from the Watch app on your iPhone, and you can further customize the colors, fonts, complications, and more once you choose an option you like. Here are some of our favorite Apple Watch faces to try today, all currently available from the Face Gallery.

The Face Gallery for the Apple Watch offers a wide range of designs for just about everyone, including options that are utilitarian, fun, minimalist, and modernist. One of the more modernist options is the Fire and Water face. Similar to the Liquid Metal and Vapor faces also available from Apple, the Fire and Water faces feature a simple animation that is sleek and intense. The Fire animation is desaturated and almost brown-looking, with hints of blue flames. The Water is silver-colored and has both splash and whirlpool animations. If you can't decide between Fire or Water, there's an option to select both, with a different Fire or Water animation each time you check your watch. 

You can also choose whether you want the animation to fill the entire face of the Apple Watch, with the water splashing against the edges, or a round option. The round option contains the animation within the clock's circle, leaving the perimeter around the circle free. This gives it room for up to three complications, with one on the bottom and one in each top corner. The fullscreen rectangle option does not permit any complications, which is disappointing, but also allows for cleaner animation and an overall cooler look. Whether you choose circle or rectangle — or Fire or Water — the only clock option is analog, so make sure you know your little hand from your big hand. There are no numbers on this clock face; instead, the 12 black dashes will reveal themselves as the Fire or Water animation appears behind them.

For many people, the first watch they wore as a child was a Mickey Mouse watch. Using the Mickey Mouse face on your Apple Watch has a nostalgic charm that's hard not to love, but that's not the only reason this is a great option. It has the perfect amount of animation for a watch face, one that isn't too distracting but is always there. In this case, it's Mickey tapping his foot to the second, and it's extremely charming. It's also one of the only Apple Watch faces with sound: when you tap the face, Mickey will tell you the time, usually including his trademark laugh, or a contextual "Good morning" or "Good evening." This can be silenced, of course, with the rest of your Apple Watch sounds in the settings. The face also comes in a black-and-white option if you want a more monochrome look that harkens back to the "Steamboat Willie" days.

If you don't have a particular affinity for Mickey but are looking for something similar, there are also Toy Story faces, which include Woody, Buzz, and Jessie animations, as well as a Minnie Mouse option. The Minnie Mouse face also speaks and is available in black and white, as well as several color options. Both the Mickey and Minnie faces allow for up to three complications.

If you're an Apple Watch power user more concerned with a second screen full of information rather than a fashion accessory, the highly-customizable Modular face will let you cram your display with up to six complications, including weather, blood oxygen, compass, messages, and many others.

The time, located in the top right, is digital in a clear large-enough font, with an option to have the day and date above it. This way, despite all the other information crowding the screen, you can still easily check the time with a quick glance. The Modular face is meant to be functional, not pretty, but it still offers a wealth of customizable color options to individualize your face and give it a little zest. There are solid options, including a cream option that gives your watch a very cool, retro look. There are also some gradient colors, to give it a little more texture, as well as a bright rainbow background.

The Apple Watch really took off when the device became especially focused on fitness, and there are many users who don't use the watch for anything besides monitoring their workout (and, occasionally, checking the time). If you're one of these health-oriented Apple Watch users, you might be fine with eschewing other watch faces for the Activity face.

The Activity face doesn't tell you anything that the Activity app doesn't, but by seeing your current burned calories, exercise minutes, and stand minutes for the day with a quick glance at your wrist, you'll be more mindful of how active you've been and can step it up if needed. The Activity rings make for a nice face on the analog option; a smaller version of the rings is also on the digital face, plus the time gives you seconds in addition to hours and minutes, which helps if you're timing a workout. Both include three complications and allow you to customize the color, though the Activity stats will always remain pink, green, and blue.

One of the newest additions to the Face Gallery is Portraits, which works the same as the Photos option. You can use the Photos face, which displays images from your iPhone's photo library, to design and customize your own watch face, but many people use it to display photos of loved ones, like children, parents, and pets. It's the digital version of a picture in a locket.

If you're using your Apple Watch in this fashion, the Portraits face is an even better option because it will use the photos of loved ones taken in Portrait mode, which blurs the background and looks more like a professional image that can really make their faces pop. The portrait can rest in front of the time, but not obscure it. Plus, you can customize the color for either the background or the entire watch face. You can choose up to 24 portraits to use at once, so every time you check your watch, you'll see a different favorite image. You can select the font for the face, as well as two complications, because it wouldn't be an Apple Watch face without some extra data on hand.