Don’t expect third party watch faces anytime soon

I’ve been asking for third party watch faces on watchOS for the last few years and have come to the conclusion we won’t get them - ever.

Apple work closely with brands such as Nike and Disney to create new ones but hasn’t as of yet opened it up wider. Based on this and the lack of focus on allowing developers to build their own I’m sticking my neck out and stating we won’t ever get them.

Apple are very precious about their brand values, I just don’t see them allowing any developer to create something that could potentially tarnish the Apple Watch brand.

The only way I see this happening is with strict controls on reviewing everything. I just don’t see Apple having the staff to do this on top of the already difficult to manage App Store.

I might be being pessimistic here but as with a refresh of Reminders on iOS Apple have disappointed me too much when it comes to my hopes for each WWDC announcement.

I hope I’m proven to be wrong.

Lee Peterson @LJPUK