How to Change the Watch Face on a Galaxy Watch or Pixel Watch
To change the watch face on a Wear OS watch, touch and hold the current face until it shrinks, swipe left or right to the face you want, then tap it. To add a different design, keep swiping to the end and tap the add button. You can do the same from your phone: open Galaxy Wearable for a Samsung Galaxy Watch or the Pixel Watch app for a Google Pixel Watch, tap Watch faces, and pick one. The change reaches the watch in a few seconds.
Change your watch face on the watch
- Wake the screen and make sure you are on the watch face itself, not a tile or a notification.
- Touch and hold the face. It shrinks into a carousel; a Galaxy Watch gives a short vibration as it does.
- Swipe left or right — or turn the bezel on a Galaxy Watch that has one — to move through the faces already on the watch.
- Tap the face you want. It fills the screen and becomes the active face straight away.
- To use one that is not in the carousel, swipe to the end and tap Add watch face on a Galaxy Watch or Add new on a Pixel Watch, then choose from the full list.
Change your watch face from your phone
Each maker has its own companion app, and the watch face controls sit in the same place in both. The phone has to be the one the watch is paired with, and the two need to be connected.
- Open the companion app. That is Galaxy Wearable for a Samsung Galaxy Watch and the Pixel Watch app for a Google Pixel Watch.
- Tap Watch faces. You see the faces on the watch laid out together, which is quicker to scan than one at a time on the wrist.
- Pick a face. In Galaxy Wearable, tap it. In the Pixel Watch app, swipe to it and tap Use on watch.
- Adjust it if you want. Tap Customise in Galaxy Wearable or Edit in the Pixel Watch app to change colours, styles and complications on the larger screen.
Watches from other makers use the Wear OS app or the maker's own companion app, and the watch face section works the same way there.
Galaxy Watch or Pixel Watch: what each one calls it
The gesture is the same on every Wear OS watch. The button labels are not, and that is where most of the hunting through menus comes from.
| What you want to do | Samsung Galaxy Watch | Google Pixel Watch |
|---|---|---|
| Switch to a face already on the watch | Touch and hold the face, swipe, tap | Touch and hold the face, swipe, tap |
| Add a face to the carousel | Swipe to the end → Add watch face | Swipe to the end → Add new |
| Edit colours and complications on the watch | Touch and hold → Customise | Touch and hold → Edit |
| Switch faces from the phone | Galaxy Wearable → Watch faces → tap a face | Pixel Watch app → Watch faces → Use on watch |
| Edit a face from the phone | Galaxy Wearable → Watch faces → Customise | Pixel Watch app → Watch faces → Edit |
| Remove a face | Touch and hold → minus icon, or Manage in Galaxy Wearable | Touch and hold → swipe up on the face |
| Get designs that did not ship with the watch | More watch faces (opens Google Play), or a gallery app | Google Play, or a gallery app |
Labels move a little between software versions, and Samsung spells its button Customize in the US. If a name here does not match your watch, look for the nearest equivalent in the same position.
Edit complications, colours and styles
Complications are the small slots on a face that show live information such as steps, weather, battery or the date. To change them on the watch, touch and hold the face, tap Customise on a Galaxy Watch or Edit on a Pixel Watch, and swipe sideways between the categories: colour, style, then the complication slots. Tap a slot and choose what it should show.
How many slots there are is decided by the face, not by the watch. Some designs offer four or more, and an artwork-led face may offer none, so if a face has no room for what you need, the fix is a different face rather than more editing. For anything beyond a quick colour change the phone app is the easier place to work, because every slot and option is visible at once.
Reorder or remove a watch face
Once the carousel holds more than a handful of faces, the ones you never wear get in the way of the ones you do. Removing is the reliable way to tidy it.
- Remove on a Galaxy Watch: touch and hold the face, swipe to the one you want gone, and tap the minus icon. In Galaxy Wearable, open Watch faces, tap the Manage icon at the top, and tap the minus icon on a face.
- Remove on a Pixel Watch: touch and hold the face, swipe to the one you want gone, and swipe up on it.
- Reorder: neither Samsung's nor Google's help pages document a reorder step, and the option has moved between software versions. Where it exists, it is in the phone app's Watch faces screen — under Manage in Galaxy Wearable — rather than on the watch.
Removing a face takes it out of the carousel, not off the watch for good. The built-in designs stay available under the add button, so you can bring one back whenever you want.
Changing to a face that did not come with the watch
Everything above switches between faces that are already on the watch. A design from outside that set has to be installed first, either from Google Play or from a gallery app on your Android phone that sends it across over Bluetooth. Once it is on the watch it sits in the same carousel and you switch to it the same way: touch and hold, swipe, tap.
Watch Lux is one of those gallery apps. It holds 500+ original faces across 13+ categories, and it works on any watch running Wear OS 6 or later paired to a phone on Android 8.0 or later. Sending a new Watch Lux face replaces the previous Watch Lux face on the watch; the faces Samsung or Google shipped are left alone. You can look through the full gallery in a browser first — the minimal faces and the dark and OLED faces are the two that read best on a round screen, a new collection arrives every week, and the free faces need no subscription.
One limit to know about: Apple Watch faces and Wear OS faces use different formats, so a face cannot move from one platform to the other. If you wear an Apple Watch as well, the matching guide is how to change your Apple Watch face. Watch Lux is free to download on both stores. Pro unlocks the full catalog, with pricing shown in the store you install from, and a purchase on Google Play does not carry over to the App Store or the other way round.
Download on the App Store GET IT ON Google PlayHow do you change the watch face on a Wear OS watch?
Wake the watch, then touch and hold the current watch face until it shrinks into a carousel. Swipe left or right through the faces already on the watch and tap the one you want — it becomes the active face immediately. To use a face that is not in the carousel, swipe to the end and tap the add option. The same gesture works on a Samsung Galaxy Watch, a Google Pixel Watch and other Wear OS watches.
Google's Wear OS guide to changing your watch face documents the same three moves for every maker, and notes that a few watches open the carousel with a sideways swipe instead of a hold. What differs between brands is the wording on the buttons, which is what the table above sorts out.
How do you change the watch face on a Samsung Galaxy Watch?
Touch and hold the watch face until you feel a short vibration and the selection screen appears. Swipe to the face you want and tap it. To pick one that is not shown, swipe to the end and tap Add watch face. From your phone, open the Galaxy Wearable app, tap Watch faces, and tap any face in the list. These steps apply to the Galaxy Watch4 and later, which run Wear OS.
On a model with a rotating bezel, turning it moves through the carousel as well. Samsung's guide to managing watch faces has the current screens. Older Galaxy watches on Tizen switch faces with the same touch and hold, but they cannot run Wear OS faces — the Galaxy Watch faces guide covers which models are which and where Samsung faces come from.
How do you change the watch face on a Google Pixel Watch?
Touch and hold the watch face, swipe left or right to browse the faces on the watch, and tap the one you want. To change its colours and complications first, tap Edit. To bring in a different design, swipe from right to left until you reach Add new. On your phone, open the Pixel Watch app, tap Watch faces, swipe to a face and tap Use on watch.
Google's Pixel Watch help page keeps these labels up to date. What Google ships on the watch, how its photo face works and how to add new designs are on the Pixel Watch faces guide.
Can you change a Wear OS watch face without your phone?
Yes. Every face in the carousel is installed on the watch itself, so touch and hold, swipe and tap works with the phone switched off or out of range. Editing colours and complications on the watch works the same way. What needs a connection is anything that starts on the phone: picking a face in the companion app, or sending a new design across from a gallery app.
This is one of the practical differences between a watch face and a wallpaper. A Wear OS face is a package the watch runs on its own, so the faces you have already added travel with the watch — on a run, on a flight, or with the phone left at home. Stock up the carousel while the two are connected and you can switch freely afterwards.
Why won’t my Wear OS watch face change?
Usually because the touch and hold is not registering on the face itself. Check that a touch lock or water lock is not switched on, that you are on the watch face rather than a tile or a notification, and that the watch is not in a watch-only or battery-saving mode that shows a basic clock. If a change made in the phone app does not arrive, the watch has lost its connection.
Work through it in that order. Water lock on a Galaxy Watch and touch lock on a Pixel Watch both switch the touchscreen off on purpose, and both are released with a hardware button rather than the screen. Press the button once to get back to the watch face before you try the hold. For the phone route, open the companion app and confirm the watch shows as connected.
If the gesture works but one particular face has gone from the list, that is a different problem — usually an older face that has not been rebuilt for the Watch Face Format. The guide to Wear OS watch faces explains that transition. Failing all of that, restart the watch; it clears a carousel that has stopped responding.
Give yourself something to switch to
Swiping between faces is only worth it when the faces are worth swiping to. Watch Lux is free to download, sends a design from phone to wrist in one tap, and adds a new collection every week.
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