Tinker Lets You Create Custom Watch Faces for Your IPhone
Every now and then you come across a beautiful app that makes you smile whenever you use it. Tinker is one of those apps for me. It lets you create beautiful analog clock widgets for your iPhone, and the attention to detail is amazing. It has several curated designs to get you started, but you can also add your own watch faces and customize every aspect of the widget. The best part is that it works in standby mode.
In addition to the calendar, the iPhone’s standby mode allows you to view photos, real-time events, or the clock while the iPhone is charging in landscape mode, essentially making it a compelling replacement for a real alarm clock. Tinker adds a lot more functionality to the analog clock widget, and in my opinion the result is much better than the clock widgets supplied by Apple.
I also really like Tinker’s design language, which reminds me of the skeuomorphic designs that iOS used until 2014, when iOS 7 went in a different direction. Tinker’s app icons mimic clock gears, and the buttons have a neat brushed metal look. All this will appeal to those people who love analog watches in the digital age. Once you start creating your own watch face in the app, you can customize four aspects of it: background, hour hand, minute hand, and center. However, you will notice another interesting detail: the watch face accurately shows the current time, even when you configure the widget.
There are several templates available to get you started, and the app will direct you to the Discord server if you need even more resources. You can also download resources from the Internet for free and add them yourself. This gives you a lot of customization options. Once you’ve found or created a watch face, you can easily add it as a widget to your iPhone’s home screen . Tap and hold on an empty part of the Home screen, and then tap the Edit button in the top left corner. Select “Add Widget” and search for Tinker. You can select any of your saved watch faces and add it to your home screen.
Likewise, when you’re in Idle mode, you can long-press on the clock widget and replace it with one of Tinker’s watch faces instead. The app is free for two watch faces and has a one-time $4 unlock to remove this restriction.
I really don’t know why Apple still stubbornly refuses to let you use your own watch faces on the Apple Watch, but if it ever decides to change its mind, Tinker is exactly the app I’d use to customize mine. I don’t care too much about adding complexity to the watch face, but I do care about how it looks. Using Tinker, I’ve already found a few designs that I’d like to use on the Apple Watch instead of the included options. We hope Apple will give in and let you use your own watch faces with Tinker someday.