I review new sports watches for my job, and one of the first things I do with every single one is customize the watch face. Frankly, I'm baffled by anyone who sticks with the default face on a watch — you look at this all the time, why not tweak it to suit your preferences?
The best Garmin watches come preloaded with watch faces you can pick between and customize, and there are also a lot of watch faces available in the Garmin Connect IQ app store. Some of these are free, while others tend to cost somewhere between $2 and $5.
These paid ones include a range of ‘Garmin All Stars’ — popular faces from Garmin watches that you can bring to yours if it’s not already on there.
I’ve spent more time than I should have searching the Connect IQ store for watch faces; there are a lot of them to sift through to find the gems available.
While I can’t guarantee my tastes will suit yours, I’ve picked out what I think are the five best Garmin watch faces available below.
Segment 34
Segment 34 is a free watch face available from developer ludw in the Connect IQ store, compatible with most Garmin watches. It features a retro look and is highly customizable, offering a range of colors and customizable stats.
Since it’s free, I install Segment 34 on every Garmin I test as a familiar face that shows the exact stats I want (including active calories, which aren’t available on default Garmin faces), in a clean and attractive style.
Fenix 8 V3 PRO
One of my favorite default Garmin watch faces ever is the Iron Grit face that arrived with the Garmin Fenix 8. This Iron Grit face is available as a Garmin All Star in the Connect IQ store, but it’s a pale imitation of the original when you install it on other watches.
The better option is the Fenix 8 V3 face from developer GreenBlack, which creates the same look and is more customizable even than the original Garmin watch face. It costs $5, but there’s a free version of the watch face you can try first to see if you like it.
Goals
This is a great watch face for those who are moving to Garmin from an Apple Watch and miss the activity rings you get on Apple devices. The Goals face is available in Connect IQ and allows you to select three activity targets and work to fill the ring on the watch face.
It’s more customizable than Apple’s rings, and you can show several other stats along with your target trio. The watch face is free to try and costs $2 for the full version.
Rondo
This bold, colorful watch face is perfect if you’ve opted for one of the brighter Garmin models, like the Forerunner 570. The Rondo watch face costs $5 and shows off a lot of stats in a visually appealing way, so it doesn’t appear too cluttered.
You can customize all the stats on show and also other aspects of the face, like the color and font used to make it suit your device, and it shows up to eight stats at a time, with four of those as sliding scales.
Garmin All Stars — Forerunner 965
This was a stock watch face on the Garmin Forerunner 965, and I used it heavily on that watch, so I’m pleased to see it’s available for other devices as a Garmin All-Star face. The Forerunner 965 face will cost you $5 in the Connect IQ, and I think it’s worth the outlay for the bright way it shows off your stats
You can pick five stats on the face along with seeing the time and date, and you actually get more customization with the All-Star version of the face than the original, because you can reposition the data and adjust the font.
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