How to Change Your Apple Watch Face (2026 Guide)

Changing your Apple Watch face takes seconds once you know where to look. This guide covers every way to do it — directly on the watch, from your iPhone, and by adding a new face from Watch Faces Gallery.

Change the face on your Apple Watch

1. Wake your Apple Watch and touch and hold the current face.
2. Swipe left or right to browse the faces you already have.
3. Tap the one you want — it’s now your active face.

Add and arrange faces from your iPhone

1. Open the Watch app on your iPhone.
2. Go to the Face Gallery tab.
3. Pick a face, customize the color and complications, then tap Add.
4. Under My Faces, drag to reorder them.

Add a new design from Watch Faces Gallery

Watch Faces Gallery faces install natively — they become real Apple Watch faces, not a wallpaper inside an app that has to stay open.

1. Open the Watch Faces Gallery app on your iPhone.
2. Browse by category and pick a face.
3. Tap Add — it goes straight to your watch.

What’s the difference between a wallpaper and a complication face?

• Wallpaper faces fill the screen with a design behind the time. Great for a bold, personal look.
• Complication faces show live info — activity, heart rate, weather, date — in addition to the design.

Both install the same way. Browse the full watch-face catalogue to find your style.

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Ready to refresh your wrist? Start with our seasonal picks or the most popular collections.