Can You Get Third-Party Apple Watch Faces? (2026)

Short answer: yes, but not the way you’re probably imagining — and the difference explains almost every frustration people have with Apple Watch face apps.

There is no third-party watch face API on watchOS. Developers cannot write a watch face the way they write an app. There is no watch face store. Apple has never shipped one, and watchOS 27 doesn’t add one either — a third-party face store remains one of the most-requested Apple Watch features that has never arrived, most likely for reasons of platform control and licensing rather than technical difficulty.

And yet you can absolutely put a beautiful custom face on your Apple Watch today, in about ten seconds. Here’s how that’s possible, what the four available methods actually are, and how to tell which one an app is using before you pay for it.

Quick Answer

• You cannot install a face written by a third-party developer the way you can on Wear OS. That API doesn’t exist.

• You can install a shareable .watchface file, which is a real, permanent watchOS face. This is the good route, and it’s what apps like Vellum and Buddywatch use.

• You can build a Photos or Portraits face from any image, including artwork an app saves to your camera roll.

• Some apps instead draw a “face” inside their own watch app. It looks like a face, but watchOS will return to your real one.

Why There’s No Third-Party Watch Face Store

On Wear OS, Samsung and Google let developers ship watch faces as installable software. Apple never has. Complications — the small data widgets in the corners of a face — were opened to developers early on, and watchOS 26 added third-party Control Center widgets. The face itself has stayed closed.

What Apple did open, in watchOS 7 back in 2020, was face sharing. You can export any configured face as a .watchface file, send it to a friend, or post it on the web — and the Watch app on iPhone can install a face straight from a link. It was designed for people sharing setups with each other. It also, quietly, became the foundation for an entire category of apps.

Method 1: A Real .watchface Install

This is the best version of custom faces on Apple Watch, and it’s worth understanding because it’s the one that behaves properly.

A .watchface file is a complete face definition: the artwork, the time style, the complication layout, the colors. When an app installs one, watchOS adds it to your face carousel alongside the ones Apple ships. It’s a first-class face in every way.

What that gets you:

• It stays. No app has to be running. Delete the app that gave it to you and the face remains.

• Always-on display works exactly as it does on a stock face.

• Complications come pre-placed. The designer decided where things go, so you don’t assemble it yourself.

• Normal battery behavior. There’s no extra process; it’s just a face.

The nicest implementations install the file straight to your paired watch from inside the app in a single tap — no camera roll, no detour through the iPhone Watch app, no companion app on the watch. That’s how Vellum’s faces install, with their complications already embedded and color-matched to the artwork — countdowns and HealthKit trackers among them, arriving in position rather than needing to be slotted in afterwards.

Others take a slightly longer road to the same destination: you tap sync, the iPhone’s Watch app opens, and you confirm there. Same end result, one more step.

Method 2: Photos and Portraits Faces

Apple’s Photos face turns any image in your library into a watch face, and the Portraits face does something more cinematic with depth-of-field shots, tucking the time behind your subject.

Plenty of watch face apps work this way: they give you artwork, you save it to Photos, then you build the face yourself in the Watch app. WatchMaker is one — its App Store listing lists Photos access as required specifically so it can save faces to your device.

This produces a real, permanent face. The trade-offs are that you do the assembly, you choose the complication layout yourself, and you’re bound by what the Photos face supports. If you want to do this by hand with your own images, we’ve written the full walkthrough in how to add a custom Apple Watch face.

Method 3: In-App Rendering (the One to Understand Before You Buy)

Some apps don’t install a face at all. They install a watch app that draws something face-shaped on your screen.

Clockology is the best-known example, and it’s genuinely impressive — a free, deep editor with a devoted community and a 4.8★ App Store rating. But per Clockology’s own FAQ, watchOS returns to your normal Apple Watch face when the app closes, after certain notifications, or after a period of inactivity. The official guidance is to set Return to Clock to “After 1 Hour” and to wake and view the app at least once an hour to keep it on screen. A common workaround is adding the app’s complication to a stock face so you can relaunch it quickly.

None of that is a defect — it’s watchOS working as designed. Apple decides what’s on your screen, not an app. But it’s the single most important thing to know before you invest time building a design this way, because it determines whether you get a watch face or a watch app you have to keep opening. If that is already your problem, best Clockology alternatives covers what to use instead.

Method 4: Complications Only

The fourth approach skips faces entirely and improves the ones Apple gives you. Watchsmith is the classic example: 37 complication types that swap themselves out depending on the time of day.

This is the officially supported, fully sanctioned path — complications have had a real API since the beginning. The ceiling is lower, since you’re still wearing an Apple face, but everything works exactly as it should.

The Four Methods Compared

How to Tell Which Method an App Uses

Before you subscribe to anything, check the App Store listing for these signals:

• “One-tap install” with no mention of Photos → almost certainly a direct .watchface install. Best case.

• Photos access listed as required → it’s saving artwork to your camera roll for a Photos face.

• Screenshots showing an editor, and reviews mentioning the face “going away” → in-app rendering.

• “Requires the app on your Apple Watch” → either in-app rendering, or custom complications that depend on the watch app.

Will Apple Ever Open Watch Faces Up?

There’s no sign of it. watchOS 27, arriving in fall 2026, is expected to bring new Apple-designed faces including a Modular Ultra variant for non-Ultra models — but those are Apple’s faces, not a developer API. Third-party Control Center widgets arrived in watchOS 26 and HealthKit keeps expanding, so Apple is opening the watch up in general. The face itself remains the exception.

The practical takeaway: the .watchface route isn’t a stopgap waiting to be replaced. It’s been the sanctioned way to get a custom face since 2020, and it works well.

Third-Party Apple Watch Faces FAQ

Can you download third-party watch faces on Apple Watch?

You can download and install .watchface files, which produce real, permanent watch faces. You cannot install a face written as third-party software, because watchOS has no API for that and no third-party face store exists.

Is there a third-party watch face API in watchOS 27?

No. watchOS 27 adds new Apple-designed faces but no developer API for creating watch faces. It remains one of the most-requested features Apple has never shipped.

What is a .watchface file?

It’s a shareable file containing a complete watch face — artwork, time style, complication layout and colors. Apple introduced face sharing in watchOS 7, and any .watchface file you install becomes a normal face in your carousel.

Why does my custom watch face keep reverting to the old one?

Because it isn’t a real face. Apps that render a design inside their own watch app lose the screen when the app closes, after a notification, or after inactivity. A face installed from a .watchface file never does this.

Do custom watch faces work with always-on display?

Static faces installed as .watchface files or built as Photos faces support always-on exactly like Apple’s own. Animated faces are where apps differ: WatchMaker’s listing states its live video faces only work with always-on turned off, whereas Vellum’s live faces support always-on — with it enabled they animate when you tap or hold the face.

Will I lose my custom faces if I delete the app?

Not if they were installed as real faces. A .watchface install and a Photos face both survive deleting the app. Anything rendered inside a watch app disappears with it.

The Bottom Line

Apple hasn’t opened watch faces to developers, and probably won’t soon. But face sharing means you can still put genuinely original art on your wrist and have it behave exactly like a face Apple made — permanent, always-on, no app running in the background.

The only thing worth checking is which method an app uses. If you want the one-tap version, browse Vellum’s collections — every face installs straight to your watch, complications already placed. Or compare the whole category in the best Apple Watch face apps of 2026.

Sources

Checked August 2026. Where this page describes how another app behaves, the claim comes from that company’s own documentation or App Store listing rather than our testing.

• Apple Support — Share Apple Watch faces: how .watchface sharing works, added in watchOS 7.

• Clockology FAQ: watchOS returning to the standard face on app close, notification or inactivity, and the recommended “After 1 Hour” setting.

• WatchMaker on the App Store: Photos access requirement, and the two-second cap on live video faces with always-on disabled.

• Watchsmith on the App Store: complication types and subscription pricing.