Guides
Written by the people who build the app, one at a time rather than generated in a batch. If your question is shorter than a guide, the FAQ probably answers it.
Published so far
How to install watch faces on a Galaxy Watch
The complete first-time walkthrough: what your watch needs, the four steps, and what each screen means.
A watch face is not showing up on your Galaxy Watch
Seven causes, seven fixes, in the order worth trying them — and the one case that genuinely cannot be fixed.
Adding a watch face without a phone
What the watch can do alone, what still needs the phone, and why the phone stops mattering once a face is installed.
Free watch faces for Galaxy Watch — and what “free” actually means
The five business models behind “free” watch faces, how to spot each one, and what our own catalogue costs.
Which watch faces are easiest on the battery
What the dial genuinely costs on an OLED watch, the four levers that matter, and a shortlist from the catalogue.
Which Galaxy Watch models can install new watch faces
The whole range in one table: what each model needs, when it got it, and where the permanent cut-off falls.
Making a watch face the active one — and switching back
Why a face can be installed and invisible, the four steps to switch dials, and how to reorder or remove them.
Wear OS and Tizen: why an older Galaxy Watch cannot take new faces
The 2021 platform split, why a face cannot be carried across it, and what is still available on a Tizen watch.
When a watch face install fails — which failure you actually have
Four routes a face can arrive by, the causes that hide well, and a retry order worth the time.
Moving your watch faces to a new Galaxy Watch
Why there is no transfer, what the backup and your purchases do carry, and the checklist to run before you switch.
Installing a watch face, in four steps
The short version, for anyone who does not need the full walkthrough. It is the same procedure on every supported Galaxy Watch, it takes about a minute, and the watch never leaves your wrist.
- Install Galaxy Watch Faces on your phone
Get the free app from Google Play. There is nothing to sign up for.
- Open it next to your watch
The app finds the Galaxy Watch already paired with your phone. Keep both nearby and Bluetooth on.
- Find the face you want and tap Apply
Browse or search for the face you want, open it, and tap Apply. The first time, the watch asks for permission — accept it on the watch.
- The face installs over the air
The face transfers to the watch wirelessly and switches on by itself. No PC, no cable, no file transfer.
If a face will not install
Nearly always one of three things. The watch is on software older than One UI 8 Watch, in which case the install cannot happen at all — On the watch: Settings → About watch → Software information. The permission prompt is still sitting unanswered on the watch screen. Or the phone and watch drifted out of Bluetooth range part-way through, and it needs another go with the two together.
Those three cover most of it; the troubleshooting guide works through all seven causes, including the one that cannot be fixed. The model pages say exactly which software each Galaxy Watch needs and when it got it.
That is every guide we set out to write. If there is something you wanted here and did not find, tell us — it is the most useful thing you can send us.
Or just try it
The app is free and tells you straight away whether your watch can take a face — which is faster than reading about it.