Garmin AMOLED Watch Faces – Finally Some Worthy Contenders
One of my gripes about Garmin’s AMOLED screens is that the company hasn’t delivered many of its own ‘grown-up’ watch faces that take advantage of the excellent colours and 454x454px resolution. Sure there are many watch faces designed for my Forerunner 965 but I was thinking that, when used outside of sport, I wanted more aesthetically pleasing options, similar to these from Apple & watchbuilder.com:
I am looking for properly drawn hands in a watch face that tries to mimic an analogue watch face. I like this one, though perhaps not in the green colour.
I wouldn’t say I liked the following one, but it includes a useful high-resolution area at the top and graduated colour complications beneath.
This is my favourite and would probably work well with a white case and strap combo
Please feel free to post a link to your favourite high-resolution watch face in the comments
Take Out
These watch faces show just how pretty your watch can look and still incorporate smart elements into their designs. Although I’ve chosen these purely for the on-wrist aesthetics, I’m sure there are other examples of more functional watch faces that still look good and take advantage of the higher resolutions on offer on on the FR965, Epix Pro Gen 2, Venu 3, Descent MK3i and Approach S70.
FYI : Latest sports updates for Apple WatchOS 11
More: watchbuilder.com (454×454 resolution shown)
FYI: From that site, download the zip file, and unpack the PRG file from the ZIP to the APPS folder on your Garmin watch.
Last Updated on 28 January 2026 by the5krunner
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tfk is the founder and author of the5krunner, an independent endurance sports technology publication. With 20 years of hands-on testing of GPS watches and wearables, and competing in triathlons at an international age-group level, tfk provides in-depth expert analysis of fitness technology for serious athletes and endurance sport competitors.
Some of these look great in the pics, as always I am suspicious of CIQ watch faces though because they can be battery hogs.
Do you use these in AMOLED always-on?
i think special coding is required for them to be truly on.
so third party watchfaces that dont have that, even in AOD mode, go blank after a while.
i’ev onyl used the white one for a few days, so can’t really say about battery
They look great for 10 seconds and disappear so even the ugly MIP display is more like an analog watch than this shit 🙂
sort of fair comment i guess.
TL;DR MIP watches allow for CIQ watchfaces to constantly be fully visible, AMOLED watches do not (in this case, CIQ watchfaces can light up 10% of pixels – 10% of the display’s brightness on newer watches – outside of the window of a few seconds after the user turns their wrist to look at the screen.)
Connect IQ watchfaces aren’t allowed to be truly always on for AMOLED devices the same way they can be for MIP devices. For both MIP and AMOLED devices, watchfaces have a concept of “high power mode”, which lasts for a few seconds after you turn you wrist to look at the display – in this mode, everything is possible for watchfaces (all pixels can be lit up or changed during this period of time.) After high power mode times out, the watchface goes into low power mode, where there’s restrictions to save battery life, and in the case of AMOLED, to prevent burn in.
– For MIP devices, an “always active” watchface has a restriction of how many pixels can *change* while it’s low power mode. The entire watchface can be redrawn once per minute. More frequent updates are limited so only a small number of pixels can be changed every second. This restriction typically allows for a seconds indicator to be constantly updated (at least for digital watchfaces). OTOH, it’s not possible for the whole screen to be animated in low power mode.
– For AMOLED devices in AOD mode, an “always on” watchface is subject to more severe restrictions. For older devices, up to 10% of pixels can be lit. For newer devices, up to 10% of the display’s luminance
yes.
although what you say is how Garmin has chosen to make the tech work.
> although what you say is how Garmin has chosen to make the tech work.
Sure, I never suggested otherwise. My point is simply that there’s no “truly always on” CIQ watchfaces for Garmin AMOLED devices. CIQ watchfaces are limited to 10% lit pixels or 10% brightness on Garmin AMOLED devices, outside of “high power mode”, which lasts a few seconds after you turn your wrist.
– For AMOLED devices in AOD mode, an “always on” watchface is subject to more severe restrictions. For older devices, up to 10% of pixels can be lit. For newer devices, up to 10% of the display’s luminance *can be used*.
So for AMOLED devices, a CIQ watchface is going to revert to either “basic mode” (just 10% of lit pixels) or “dim mode” (10% brightness), outside of “high power mode” (when you turn your wrist and the display goes to full brightness for a few seconds.)