The 9 best Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 watch faces you need to use

Part of the joy of owning a smartwatch is getting to customize the watch face. You can go with something simple that resembles a traditional watch, or opt for a full-blown dashboard that keeps you aware of your activity stats.

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 is no different, allowing you to choose from dozens of watch faces in the Galaxy Wearables app, or something from the Google Play Store or a third-party app. Since getting my Watch 9, I’ve tried out a variety of faces, and these are among my favorites.

Radial Dashboard

Its default configuration includes complications for a compass, sunrise/sunset, alarms, weather, heart rate, battery, chance of rain, steps, UV index, and energy score. That’s a total of 10 complications.

Of course, you can switch these out with items that work for you. For example, the Weather app on my watch doesn’t refresh properly because I’m using it with a non-Samsung phone. So when I switch to this watch face, I prefer to swap out the complications with ones for events, sleep score, and other data points.

Premium Analogue

If you want a more classic watch face, Premium Analogue combines the appearance of an analog watch with the smart widgets of a smartwatch. I like that this face allows you to add a bit of flair by choosing between different color schemes and patterns for your background. While I go with the green, cloudy pattern, you can choose a black, blue, or white background with a streaked, cloudy, or squared pattern.

The default complications give you the basics: weather, steps, and battery. You also have the date in a small square at the bottom. The watch face also allows you to customize the monogram that appears at the top. For example, I typed in “Megan,” which gave me the “M” initial. This watch face gives you a great balance between modern and traditional design.

Photo Sticker

Photo Sticker is a native watch face for Galaxy Watches that allows you to infuse your watch with personality. A photo anchors the style of your watch face, but you can choose between a variety of cutouts for the picture. This makes it one of the most flexible watch layouts you can get on your watch.

The face also features a digital clock, workout shortcut, emoji, weather, and steps by default. You can choose between a variety of color schemes and change up which emoji you want to feature. While you can switch out your complications, the main drawback of this particular watch face is that it doesn’t let you customize your clock style beyond what a particular sticker style provides.

Glass Frequency

While the Galaxy Wearable app features plenty of watch faces you can choose from, you can also use third-party watch faces on your Galaxy Watch. I occasionally browse Facer for different watch faces since the storefront includes a large variety of styles.

Glass Frequency by Jives is one of my favorite watch faces that I’ve come across on the app, thanks to its colorful and retro-futuristic design. The watch face includes an animated digital clock, step counter, date, battery indicator, and heart rate monitor. The downside is that you can’t customize the layout, data points, or color.

Simple

When I come across watch faces tagged as simple, few actually do simplicity well. But Simple, a watch face available from Samsung, manages to accomplish this. The watch face only includes the time and date — making it perfect for those who are simply using their smartwatch to track health metrics and provide the time.

You can customize the time and date’s color by choosing from a variety of options, but there are no complications available. This really is a watch face aimed at avoiding complexity. I think it’s best for those who want their smartwatch to not distract them, reserving most metrics for the Samsung Health phone app. Of course, if you really want to go with a minimally distracting experience, you can disable notifications on your watch altogether.

Steam Punk 1Bit

I’m not really one to choose a watch face purely for decorative purposes, but Steam Punk 1Bit by DR Pixel is the exception to the rule. The watch face is extremely charming while providing the essentials — the time and the date.

I wish it offered more customization options, like allowing for a few complications. However, if you access most of your metrics on your phone anyway, this makes for a perfect watch face for pixel art enthusiasts.

DiRegardo

DiRegardo by Caen Watches takes minimalism to the next level with a clean watch face that provides just the time. There’s something about the sleek interface that appeals to me, even if it provides no additional information.

Samsung provides a variety of minimalistic watch faces, but this face’s approach to minimalism feels a lot more classic and timeless. Unfortunately, it does not provide options for customizing the background or watch hands.

Photo (customized)

Of the watch faces I switch between, a simple customized Photo layout is the one I use the most. This is because it allows me to set up five complications, my clock type, clock font, clock color, and complication color. Call me sentimental, but looking at my wrist and seeing one of my favorite photos brings me more joy than most other watch options.

With customizable complications, I can focus on what’s most important to me. Usually, this is the date, my daily steps, and my battery. But recently I’ve also included an event complication and barometric pressure to see if it times up with my migraine attacks. It’s the customization available that makes this one of my favorite watch faces to use.

Info Brick

Info Brick is another Samsung Galaxy watch face that puts information and workout shortcuts at the forefront. I enjoy its sleek appearance and its ability to prioritize multiple data points.

The watch face comes with five complications, with the defaults focused on weather, activity data, and exercise shortcuts. I use this watch face when I want to see a significant amount of data at a glance without getting overwhelmed. I also like how extremely customizable it is — you can change the complications, but also the clock style, background color, and complication color. I customized my own complications to include events, steps, and the date.

Of all the watch faces I’ve tried, there is one thing I’ve found disappointing — Galaxy Watch 9 faces don’t yet feature complications for the Vitals feature. Rather, you still have to access it by swiping on your watch face to the summary of your health metrics. Since I’m endlessly forgetful, it means that I rarely remember to check this dashboard daily. However, One UI 9 Watch faces do allow you to see your cardio load and other newer metrics.

If you’re looking to change up your Galaxy Watch 9’s appearance, I recommend exploring the different watch faces on the Galaxy Wearable app or checking out third-party options. If none of them quite suit your needs, you can always use the Photo option to create a custom watch face.