Indie App Spotlight: CAMIX 9 is a Garmin face built from owners’ complaints

What Garmin owners complain about

There are thousands of watch faces on the Connect IQ store, and the biggest have been installed hundreds of thousands of times. The low-star reviews under them read like a shared wish list. Priyansh Dwivedi, a software architect and developer of more than 15 years who now works as an independent technology consultant, read that list before he drew a face of his own.

His research between July and September 2026 covered four studies of store reviews, pulled from the store’s own API:

• 2,118 reviews of five incumbent faces with 500,000 to a million installs each.
• 1,097 reviews of 101 Instinct faces.
• 3,000 reviews of the 150 most-installed premium faces.
• 2,134 reviews from faces that reach a MIP watch.

In the incumbent study, 1,094 of the low-star reviews had text, and the same complaints kept coming back:

Complaint in low-star reviews of the five biggest faces	Share of those 1,094 reviews
Customisation too limited: “Fields can only be customized to limited choices for that field. All fields can not be changed to all choices.”	15.9%
Seconds cannot be turned off, or vanish on their own	13.6%
Will not install, or does not support the watch	8.4%
Battery drain	6.2%
Text too small, “font microscopic”	5.1%
A specific field is missing (Body Battery, Pulse Ox, recovery, wheelchair pushes)	4.2%

Limited customisation was first or second in every study that counted it: 15.9% of the incumbents’ low-star reviews, 17.0% on Instinct faces and 16.5% across the MIP set. The premium study added two more points. More than one in ten one- and two-star reviews of premium faces said, in effect, “does not work on my device”, and not one face built for AMOLED only made the top 30.

Those numbers became Priyansh’s standing rules: any field in any slot, a real seconds switch, both screen types from the first release, and type large enough to read. He had wanted to make watch faces since buying a Venu 2 in 2021, and his process runs from research to pen and paper, then Figma, then code. CAMIX 9 is the twelfth face he has published. He had a first beta running on his Venu 2 on the night of 9 September 2026 and published it on 15 September.

How CAMIX 9 works

TL;DR: CAMIX 9 is a camouflage-themed digital face for 66 round Garmin watches, 48 AMOLED and 18 MIP. Large hours and minutes sit inside a camouflage cut-out with the seconds and AM/PM beside them. Ten-segment arcs at the top and bottom each show one of 25 metrics as a gauge. Two data slots on the left each show any of 65 metrics with its own icon. A sub-dial on the right can be a world clock, sunrise and sunset, the moon phase, heart rate zones, a goal gauge, a wind compass or, on 16 models, a live heading compass. A chart under the digits plots one of 12 sources. The always-on page keeps the whole dial, dimmed. Everything can be set from the phone, and almost everything from the watch itself.

Priyansh designed the dial in Figma, soft shadows and gradient strokes included, and wrote the code that draws it on the watch. He reworked that code after launch so the full dial appears without lag when the watch wakes.

Twelve themes ship today: Teal, Blue, Amber, Red, Blaze, Lime, Jungle, Violet, Monochrome, Pink, Brown and Gold. Each recolours the camouflage to match, or the camouflage can be set to Clear under any theme. Hours and minutes can each take white or any theme colour, and AMOLED watches add Fade, Rise and Split gradients and a choice of two layouts, Default or Big Time.

On AMOLED, each sub-dial plays a short animation when the watch wakes, which can be switched off. The moon phase uses 30 photographic frames from NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio. On a touchscreen watch, a touch and hold on an arc, a slot, the chart, the battery, the weather or the sub-dial opens Garmin’s own screen for that metric.

MIP owners have their own controls: four backgrounds (Black, White, Dark Grey and Light Grey), five cut-out treatments (Contour, Camouflage, White, Black and Transparent), and seconds that can be off, shown only while the watch is awake, or shown at rest too.

Worked example: “the font is too small”

Small text was the fifth most common complaint in the incumbent study, at 5.1% of low-star reviews with text. Within two days of launch it was also the first complaint about CAMIX 9. Between 16 September and 17 October 2026, six different people raised it across four channels: store reviews, Reddit, a Facebook group and email. A fenix 7 owner wrote “Small field, hard to see with Fenix 7”. A Reddit user on a fenix 7S wished “the lines and font looked a bit bolder”. One reviewer was “Hoping for a future version that allows an option to increase the data font size”, and a Facebook commenter asked for “a tad bit bigger font for us oldies”.

The first photograph of CAMIX 9 on a real MIP screen, posted by a Reddit user from a fenix 7, put numbers on the problem. Measured against the layout, the time digits stood 37.55 pixels tall while the four smallest labels were 8.56 pixels each. Priyansh’s own verdict that day was “it looks bad.. real bad”. Three changes followed, each in a public release:

Date	Store version	What changed
18 September 2026	V1.3	Every value drawn 1.16 times larger by default, with no setting to find, and a new Contour cut-out for MIP watches so the camouflage no longer competes with the data
27 September 2026	V2.1	A Text size setting (Normal or Large) for the data slots, later retired once each slot learned to pick the largest size that fits its reading
20 October 2026	V4	A Big Time layout on AMOLED: hours and minutes 1.2 times larger, a taller cut-out, both data slots moved down and to the right, and the notification slot hidden to make room

Priyansh designed Big Time around the time itself: digits 1.2 times larger and a cut-out band almost a quarter taller. A beta went out on 19 October and he wore it on his fenix 8 47 mm the same day. On his wrist the hour sat too close to the right edge of the cut-out, so he moved it back into place, and that build is the public V4.

The response came in the reviews. The owner who had asked for a larger data font edited his five-star review after V1.3: “EDIT: Thank you for fulfilling my request and those of others, in the updated version. That’s a developer listening to their customers. Bravo!” The fenix 7 owner who wrote in about small fields replied by mail: “Layout is beautiful. I already purchased.” Downloads went from 100 on 18 September to more than 1,000 by 20 September, the store’s next bracket.

The ask is not closed for everyone. On 17 October a Facebook commenter wrote that the only thing missing was bigger hours and minutes. Big Time went live three days later, and his verdict on it has not come in yet.

A second request moved even faster. In the first four days after launch, six people on Reddit, Facebook, email and the store asked for something other than a world clock in the small dial. Priyansh wanted every option to have its own look inside the circle, and he designed eight candidates on 20 September. Five shipped beside the world clock as a sub-dial picker in V2 on 21 September, four days after the first ask, and a live heading compass became the seventh option ten days later, after a reviewer asked for one.

Counting one row per feature, 24 owner requests shipped in CAMIX 9’s first five weeks, across 8 of its 13 public releases. They include the sub-dial picker, hidden seconds, Celsius and five other unit and format options, larger text, hour and minute colours, Training Status, the Monochrome, Pink, Brown and Gold themes, the Contour cut-out, touch and hold, three world clocks at once, UTC as a zone, the heading compass, swim distance per week and month, wind direction letters, several fixes and Big Time.

Every compatible watch

CAMIX 9 is built for 66 Garmin products, which the store counts as 86 device types because several hardware variants share one product. It needs Connect IQ 5.0 or later and a round screen, so the fenix 6 series, the MIP Instinct models and square watches such as the Venu Sq are not supported. Names follow Garmin’s own grouping in its developer kit, where one entry can cover sibling models.

Family	AMOLED watches (48 products)
fenix 8	fenix 8 43 mm; fenix 8 47 mm and 51 mm (with tactix 8 47 mm and 51 mm, quatix 8 47 mm and 51 mm); fenix 8 Pro 47 mm, 51 mm and MicroLED (with quatix 8 Pro 47 mm and 51 mm); fenix E
fenix 9	fenix 9 43 mm; fenix 9 47 mm and 51 mm; fenix 9 Pro 43 mm; fenix 9 Pro 47 mm; fenix 9 Pro 51 mm
epix	epix (Gen 2) with quatix 7 Sapphire; epix Pro (Gen 2) 42 mm; epix Pro (Gen 2) 47 mm with quatix 7 Pro; epix Pro (Gen 2) 51 mm with D2 Mach 1 Pro and tactix 7 AMOLED Edition
Forerunner	Forerunner 70, 165, 165 Music, 170, 170 Music, 265, 265s, 570 42 mm, 570 47 mm, 965, 970
Venu and vivoactive	Venu 2, Venu 2 Plus, Venu 2S, Venu 3, Venu 3S, Venu 4 41 mm, Venu 4 45 mm (with D2 Air X15), vivoactive 5, vivoactive 6
Instinct	Instinct 3 AMOLED 45 mm, Instinct 3 AMOLED 50 mm, Instinct Crossover AMOLED
Approach	Approach S50, Approach S70 42 mm, Approach S70 47 mm
Descent	Descent G2, Descent Mk3 43 mm and Mk3i 43 mm, Descent Mk3i 51 mm
D2	D2 Air X10, D2 Mach 1, D2 Mach 2, D2 Mach 2 Pro
MARQ	MARQ (Gen 2) Athlete, Adventurer, Captain, Golfer, Carbon Edition and Commander Carbon Edition; MARQ (Gen 2) Aviator

Family	MIP watches (18 products)
fenix 7	fenix 7 (with quatix 7); fenix 7 Pro; fenix 7 Pro Solar Edition (no Wi-Fi); fenix 7S; fenix 7S Pro; fenix 7X (with tactix 7, quatix 7X Solar and Enduro 2); fenix 7X Pro; fenix 7X Pro Solar Edition (no Wi-Fi)
fenix 8 and 9 Solar	fenix 8 Solar 47 mm; fenix 8 Solar 51 mm (with tactix 8 Solar 51 mm); fenix 9 Pro Solar 47 mm; fenix 9 Pro Solar 51 mm
Enduro	Enduro 3
Forerunner	Forerunner 255, 255 Music, 255s, 255s Music, 955 and 955 Solar

The heading compass is offered on the 16 products whose compass a watch face can read at rest: the fenix 8 (43 mm, 47 and 51 mm, Pro, Solar 47 mm and Solar 51 mm), the fenix E, the fenix 9 (43 mm, 47 and 51 mm, Pro 43 mm, Pro 47 mm, Pro 51 mm, Pro Solar 47 mm and Pro Solar 51 mm), both Forerunner 570 sizes and the Enduro 3. Big Time is an AMOLED layout.

CAMIX 9 runs on Priyansh’s own fenix 8 47 mm and has run on his Venu 2, and every other model is tested in Garmin’s Connect IQ simulator. Owners have reported back from the fenix 7, fenix 7S, Forerunner 570, Venu 4, epix Pro 51 mm, Enduro 3 and fenix 9 Pro.

Every data field, and what can be set on the watch

Each of the two data slots takes any one of 65 metrics:

Group	Metrics
Body (10)	Heart Rate, Resting Heart Rate, Heart Rate Zone (to one decimal), Body Battery, Stress, Respiration, Pulse Ox, Sleep Score, Recovery Hours, Body Weight
Activity (16)	Steps, Steps Remaining, Calories, Active Calories, Distance, Floors, Metres Climbed, Intensity Minutes today, Intensity Minutes this week, Vigorous Minutes today, Vigorous Minutes this week, Activity Class, Wheelchair Pushes, Weekly Swim Distance, Monthly Swim Distance, Weekly Walk and Hike Distance
Training (11)	Training Status, VO2 Max, VO2 Max Cycling, Weekly Run Distance, Monthly Run Distance, Weekly Ride Distance, Monthly Ride Distance, 5K, 10K, Half Marathon and Marathon race predictors
Weather, from the phone (13)	Temperature, Feels Like, Forecast High, Forecast Low, High and Low in one slot, Dew Point, Humidity, Chance of Rain, Cloud Cover, UV Index, Visibility, Wind Speed, Wind Direction
Sky and watch (15)	Sunrise, Sunset, Next Sun Event, Moon Phase, Altitude, Pressure, Battery, Battery in Days, Solar Intensity, Notifications, Alarms, Next Calendar Event, Week Number, World Clock 2, World Clock 3

A watch that cannot read a metric does not offer it. Sleep Score needs a newer Connect IQ version and is missing on 39 of the 66 products, and UV Index, Cloud Cover and Dew Point are missing on four more (the Venu 2, Venu 2 Plus, Venu 2S and D2 Air X10). The other parts of the dial have their own lists:

Part	Choices
Top and bottom arcs (25 each)	Steps, Calories, Active Calories, Distance, Floors, Metres Climbed, Intensity Minutes this week, Wheelchair Pushes, Heart Rate, Heart Rate Zone, Body Battery, Stress, Pulse Ox, Sleep Score, Weekly Run, Monthly Run, Weekly Ride and Monthly Ride Distance, Temperature, UV Index, Humidity, Cloud Cover, Chance of Rain, Battery, Solar Intensity
Sub-dial (7)	World Clock (131 cities plus UTC, summer time handled), Sunrise and Sunset, Moon Phase, Heart Rate Zones, Goal Gauge (any of the 25 arc metrics), Wind Compass, Heading Compass on the 16 products listed above
Chart (12)	Heart Rate, Body Battery, Stress, Pulse Ox, Temperature, Altitude or Pressure history, or seven days of Steps, Calories, Floors, Active Minutes or Distance
Bell slot beside the time (9, or off)	Notifications, Alarms, Floors, Recovery Hours, Respiration, Stress, Intensity Minutes this week or today, Training Status code; hidden in the Big Time layout
Always on the dial	Date, weekday, a three-bar battery meter showing percent or time left, temperature with a live weather icon, seconds and AM/PM

Everything is set up in the Garmin Connect app, and most of it on the watch too, through the face’s own settings menu. On AMOLED watches that menu has 28 rows, covering the theme, layout, camouflage, always-on style and brightness, seconds, hour and minute colours, the sub-dial, the arcs, both data slots, the chart, the bell slot, the three world clock cities and every unit and format. MIP watches have 24 rows, with Background and Cut-out in place of the AMOLED-only looks. Choosing a theme on the watch shows a full-screen live preview. The eight goal targets (daily distance, calories, active calories, metres climbed, and weekly and monthly run and ride distance) are set on the phone only.

Battery and always-on

Priyansh has not yet run CAMIX 9 and a stock Garmin face on the same watch for the same hours, so this article gives no battery figure of its own. The nearest test is of Vento FX, his face built on the same power code as CAMIX 9. One rule decides which page is drawn when the screen dims, the dial is painted once a minute into a buffer, each wake draws that buffer plus the live marks, and the resting page is measured under Garmin’s own burn-in limit.

Rory C O’Neill, who reviews Garmin watches on YouTube, put Vento FX on his fenix 9 Pro AMOLED 47 mm on 13 October 2026 and reported his battery test five days later, with always-on display and always-on pulse ox switched on. He had lost “a single day, probably not even a total day” against the five days he typically gets, called that “super surprising”, and said he did not know “what kind of battery optimization is going on”. In the comments under his first video he had already written that the face “hasn’t hurt mine at all”. The two dials differ, so Priyansh expects CAMIX 9 to sit close to Vento FX rather than match it, and a same-watch comparison against a stock face is on his list.

What Garmin’s simulator does measure is the resting page. It scores an always-on page from 0 to 10 for burn-in risk, and at 10 the watch’s screen protection takes over. CAMIX 9 scores 5.43 to 5.70 on a fenix 8 47 mm in the Default layout, and 4.56, 7.36 and 9.59 for Big Time at the Low, Standard and Bright settings. That is a lit-area score, not a battery reading. MIP watches hide the seconds at rest by default. One early owner, not using always-on, reported in September that his battery dropped faster than on the default face while showing many more metrics, and nothing logged since repeats it.

Three more faces from PDx7

CAMIX 9 shares its data vocabulary and its rules with three other faces Priyansh publishes under the store name PDx7:

• Vento FX: a digital face built around three gauge rings and a large time block, with 17 data positions and 65 metrics, each with its own icon, for 48 Garmin watches.
• MAXINOX PRO: a split digital dial that draws on the fenix look, with the hour cut into a black half, the minute into a brushed plate, and a 35-step ladder on the rim that shows the seconds or any of 49 metrics, on the same 66 watches as CAMIX 9.
• Nyxus Pro: a chart-led, data-dense face for Garmin’s premium multisport watches, with four arc plates and two slots on each, for 62 watches. CAMIX 9’s field list started as Nyxus Pro’s.

The dial images are renders from Garmin’s Connect IQ simulator, shown in the watch artwork that ships with Garmin’s Connect IQ developer kit. They are not photographs.

Quick answers

How much battery does CAMIX 9 use?
There is no same-watch comparison with a stock Garmin face yet. Vento FX, built on the same power code, cost a fenix 9 Pro AMOLED reviewer less than a day of his usual five, with always-on display and pulse ox on. Priyansh expects CAMIX 9 to sit close to that, and its always-on page scores 5.43 to 5.70 for burn-in risk on a fenix 8 in the Default layout.

Will CAMIX 9 work on my watch, and will I get every feature?
If the watch is in the lists above, yes, with every metric that watch can read. The heading compass appears only on the 16 models whose compass a watch face can read at rest. If Garmin’s IQ! error face appears right after a store update, switching to another face and back clears it.

How does the CAMIX 9 purchase work, and can I try it first?
CAMIX 9 installs from the Connect IQ store with an eight-hour free trial. When the trial ends, the watch shows a code. Entering it at kzl.io/code and paying once through KiezelPay unlocks the face with no subscription, and future updates are included. The current price is on the store page. After a factory reset or on a new watch, an earlier purchase is restored at kzl.io/unlock.

More information: CAMIX 9 on the Connect IQ store.

Author: Priyansh Dwivedi (PDx7 on the Connect IQ store), developer of CAMIX 9, edited by the5krunner.

If you enjoyed reading this, here is another in the Indie Spotlight series: Indie App Spotlight: Hybrid Smash names every HYROX lap on your Garmin.

Last Updated on 23 October 2026 by tfk the5krunner