by Jason Snell
More on the limitations of Apple Watch faces
I like the Apple Watch Series 4 but the watch faces are a mess. It’s nice to hear from watch fan (but not Apple Watch fan) Marco Arment with more specifics about the mess:
By now, we’ve seen Apple’s design range that they’re willing to ship as Watch faces, and while it seems broad at first glance, it’s actually pretty narrow….
The Apple Watch is an amazing feat of technology. It’s a computer. It can display anything. With no mechanical or physical limitations to hold us back, any watch-face design from anyone could plausibly be built, enabling a range of creativity, style, and usefulness that no single company could ever design on its own.
But they won’t let us. In a time when personal expression and innovation in watch fashion should be booming, they’re instead being eroded, as everyone in the room is increasingly wearing the same watch with the same two faces.
As I wrote last week, it’s time for Apple to either rethink its entire approach and give users plenty of options—or it’s time for it to give up its monopoly on face design. But something needs to change.