I’ll admit it: I was really looking for the brand new Pixel Watch from Google.
I’ve been wearing the watch for the past few weeks, despite bathing and sleeping, and here’s the thing: I actually wore no expect to enjoy it.
I was actually a very early fan of Wear OS and Google’s smartwatch odyssey, way back in the day the first platform out in the prehistoric era of 2014. But then a few things happened:
- I reached a point where I wished I could be less tied to technology, and wearing a smartwatch made me feel constantly online and related to my electronic duties.
- Google abandoned its thoughtful original vision for wearables with an emphasis on contextual information and visual nuggets, and instead began to pursue the more popular philosophy of Apple — with an emphasis on complex stand-alone programs and complex interactions. These things look impressive in the ad, but in my eyes don’t create a great experience in the real world, and it just didn’t fit the way I wanted to use the watch.
So suffice it to say, I figured my journey with the new Pixel Watch would be an interesting technological diversion, but a short-lived adventure that I’d rather give up.
Boy was I wrong.
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Wearing the Pixel Watch felt like reconnecting with an old friend—picking up where the original Google Wear vision left off. Honestly, it almost feels like nothing has happened in terms of Google’s smartwatch strategy in the past few years. this it’s a natural evolution from Wear’s childhood years, when the basic concept was good but the hardware wasn’t up to par. this it’s what Wear should have been (and could have been!) all along.
It may have taken on a typical comic character a trigger that causes déjà vu to bring us here, but the Pixel Watch is a surprisingly pleasant experience from the point of view of someone who wants this type of tech not to get in the way and just be useful without being intrusive.
That being said, there’s one place where the Pixel Watch experience can come in handy, and that’s the selection of watch faces that come pre-installed on the device. Don’t get me wrong, the default Pixel Watch watch face options are: good, and some of them are actually quite beautiful. But none of them feel like they quite get to the point, highlight the most useful parts of the Pixel Watch’s capabilities, or capture the essence of what the Pixel Watch should be.
Fortunately, a third-party developer has stepped up to fill that gap.
Pixel Watch watch face for professionals
My friend, allow me to introduce you to my favorite Pixel Watch find: the apt name Pixel Minimal watch face superstructure.
I won’t beat around the bush: this face feels like something should were the default design that appears when you first turn on the Pixel Watch. You might actually think it was created by Google itself — and the goodness goes much deeper than the surface.
JR Raphaelyes to look the Pixel Minimal watch face is distinctly Pixel-like. Even, you might say, Googley. And especially for anyone who’s a fan of the more minimalistic, laconic style associated with Google’s Pixel products and smartphone software, it’s a welcome addition.
But the Wear OS watch face is much more than just a pretty outer layer. It’s the equivalent of a smart watch android launcher – a home screen, indeed, and your personal productivity center. And just like with Android launchers, optimizing that space for maximum efficiency can make a hell of a difference.
Hey boy, does this Pixel Watch face do everything right? Most of all, the Pixel Minimal watch face makes it easy to keep the things you want in the center. This includes being able to choose which widgets (called complications) you see on the main face area, with options ranging from built-in Pixel Watch features like battery level and various health-related items to custom app shortcuts, info calendar and even world time in case you’re dealing with creeps from around the world.
Only it was a huge savings and productivity gains for me. But the best part is the face’s ability to seamlessly integrate with your phone’s notifications and emulate your Android phone’s status bar area – with simple icons that show which notifications are pending for easy ingesting at a glance.
JR RaphaelOf course, you can still swipe up on the Pixel Watch screen to see or interact with any of these notifications. But this kind of at-a-glance overview is an invaluable addition, and so smart for this shape that it’s almost shocking that other watch faces don’t offer it, especially once you get used to its presence.
Also in line with the Android launcher analogy, the Pixel Minimal Watch Face is as customizable as possible. The watch face settings area, which you can access by long-pressing the watch face itself after installing it, allows you to control everything from the size and number of widgets to the style of the clock and the color of almost every visible element.
JR RaphaelIt’s both simple and powerful — and extremely easy to use. It’s exactly what you’d think the Pixel Watch environment would be out of the box.
Pixel Minimal Watch Face free to download and try, though most of its more advanced options and controls require a one-time $3 upgrade to the premium version of the app (which is done through the app itself, via its companion phone). And it’ll work on most Wear OS watches, too, so you can even bring its Googley Pixel-like vibe to your no-Pixel-Watch is wearable if you’re so inspired.
All in all, it’s a great upgrade and an easy add-on that will completely change the way you think about your watch – whether you’ve always been a fan of Wear OS or have just recently been won over again.
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