_posts/2018-10-17-developers-show-off-their-could-be-watch-face-creations.markdown
---
title: Developers Show Off Their Could-Be Watch Face Creations
date: 2018-10-17 11:50:00 -05:00
tags:
- Apple Watch
- tech
excerpt: Apple needs to stop being dumb and open up watch face customization to third-party
developers.
link_url: https://www.macstories.net/news/developers-show-what-they-could-make-if-apple-opened-up-watch-face-development/
---
John Voorhees writing for *MacStories*:
> Last week we linked to [Marco Arment’s article](https://www.macstories.net/linked/apple-watch-face-legibility/) critiquing Apple’s watch faces and calling for Apple to open up watch face design and development to third parties. By the next day, [Steve Troughton-Smith](https://twitter.com/stroughtonsmith/) had an Xcode project up and running that uses [SpriteKit](https://developer.apple.com/documentation/spritekit) to simulate custom watch faces.
>
>…
>
> The experience reminds me of the flurry of activity and excitement during the first months after the iPhone was released when [developers reverse-engineered Apple’s APIs to create the first jailbroken apps](https://appstories.net/episodes/64/) even before there was an App Store. Let’s hope that history repeats itself and Apple opens up watch face development to third parties like it did with apps.
It's fascinating to me that Apple touts the Watch as a deeply personal device, yet doesn't allow a fundamental customization like this.