Galaxy Watch · Personalization

Choose, customize, and manage watch faces

Galaxy Watch faces can be changed directly on the watch by touching and holding the screen, or browsed and customized in more depth through the Galaxy Wearable app's Watch faces tab, where you can also download additional designs.

What you should know

  • On the watch, touch and hold the current watch face, then swipe left or right to browse installed faces and tap one to apply it.
  • Tap the settings gear (or Customize) on a selected face to change its color, complications (the small info widgets like weather or steps), and layout.
  • In Galaxy Wearable on the phone, open Watch faces to browse Samsung's built-in gallery and the Galaxy Store's third-party and My Style custom faces.
  • "My Style" in Galaxy Wearable lets you generate a custom face from a photo or a designed layout, complete with matching color palettes.

Why it matters

Watch faces aren't just cosmetic — the complications you choose determine what information is available at a glance without opening an app, so a well-configured face can meaningfully reduce how often you need to interact with the watch at all.

Best practices

  • Limit complications to the two or three pieces of information you actually check often — an overloaded face is harder to read at a glance, which defeats the point.
  • Favorite frequently used faces (heart icon in the face gallery) so they're quick to switch between via touch-and-hold.
  • Check a new face's AOD layout before committing to it if Always On Display matters to you — not all faces render complications in AOD mode.

Common problems and fixes

Downloaded watch face doesn't appear on the watch
Confirm the download in Galaxy Wearable actually finished transferring to the watch (a progress indicator shows during install) — large or complex faces can take a minute or two to sync over Bluetooth.
Complications show "--" or no data
That complication's source app may lack a needed permission or hasn't synced recently — open the source app (e.g., weather, health) once to refresh its data, then reselect the complication.

Tips and tricks

  • Some analog-style faces support a functional rotating bezel or edge-tap gesture to change complications without leaving the watch face — check the face's own settings for bezel-specific options.

Frequently asked questions

Are watch faces free?

Many are free, but some designer and licensed-character faces in the Galaxy Store are paid; Samsung's own built-in gallery faces are always free.