apple-hig-watch-faces

---
name: apple-hig-watch-faces
description: Use when creating, reviewing, or adapting shareable configured Apple Watch faces, previews, complications, and compatibility fallbacks.
---

# Curate a supported face configuration

Read [the watch-face guide](../../references/watch-faces.md). The procedure is application advice; sharing a system-face configuration does not create an unrestricted custom face type.

Inspect intended daily/activity use, system face, complication slots/apps, target watch compatibility, distribution route, and create/review/adapt request. Obtain the real configured face or mark any preview simulated. Identify older devices needing a comparable configuration; do not infer universal support from an attractive image.

Curate useful complementary complications, color/images, and honest preview art. Use official high-fidelity framing where appropriate rather than suggesting a different device or unsupported appearance. Explain required app installation and possible face substitution. Provide an immediate compatible alternative for unsupported devices instead of ending at an error. Consult the source's examples while verifying actual target support before promising newer compatibility. iPhone can help configure/share but is not itself a native watch-face surface.

Implement the authorized sharing/configuration artifact or produce a compatibility/preview/slot specification; reviews identify concrete misleading capability and dead-end errors. Do not claim arbitrary custom face rendering APIs.

**Worked transformation:** Before: a hiking app advertises a new proprietary face for all watches, but its shared file configures an existing face and fails on older models. Decision: the capability and compatibility claim mislead. After: describe a curated system-face configuration, show its actual complications, label supported devices, and offer a comparable older-device arrangement.

Deliver the configured face/sharing specification, preview provenance, dependencies, and fallback map. Verify slot usefulness, preview fidelity, missing-app path, supported/unsupported device outcomes, and substitution explanation. Fail for unrestricted-face claims, dishonest preview, or a compatibility dead end. Installation, physical wrist appearance, and actual face acceptance need device execution.

Load [complications](../apple-hig-complications/SKILL.md) for slot variants or [designing-for-watchos](../../../apple-hig-getting-started/.topics/apple-hig-designing-for-watchos/SKILL.md) for wrist-use context.