So you’re now sporting a fantastic new Pebble watch on your arm. It’s a great device, and while you’ve enjoyed learning all about it, and finding apps to use with it, you just can’t find a watch face for it that’s quite… well… YOU! Fear not, thanks to a helpful developer, there’s a handy website that will allow you to upload any photo you’d like, and make a custom watch face with it. Here’s how.
Step 1: Select The Graphic for Your Watch Face
The graphic you use for your watch face can be almost any drawing or photo, black and white or color, that you want to use. In this tutorial, we will of course use the MacTrast logo:
Step 2: Visit the Pebble Watchface Generator Site
Twitter user @prode81 has been kind enough to setup a great website that allows you to upload the graphic of your choice, manipulate the look of the graphic, and how its displayed on the watch face, add either a digital readout, including time and date, or an analog watch face, add text if you wish, and then generate a watch face for you to download and install on your Pebble watch.
The address of the Pebble Watch Face Generator is: http://www.watchface-generator.de
Step 3: Upload Your Photo
On the first screen, you’ll see two options, “Background Color,” and “Background Image.” Select the background color, Black or White, and then click “Choose File,” to select your image to display on the watch face. You’ll see your image appear in the watch face on the left.
After the image loads, you’ll see controls to adjust the size and position of the image on the face. You will also be able to turn dithering on or off, (and set the type of dithering for the image if you so choose), and adjust the brightness of the image.
Adjust the sliders, and once the position and look of your image is to your liking, you’re ready to decide what type of watch face you want on your watch.
Step 4: Set the Type of Watch Face
You’ll have two options for the timepiece part of your watch. You can select analog or digital. Both options are available from the tabs at the top of the screen. If you select analog, you can select the style of the hands and watch face, whether or not there is a second hand displayed, and even which hand is on top of the other one. Experiment here. You’d be surprised at the customization that is available here.
For the purposes of this tutorial, we are going to do a digital watch, so click the Digital tab at the top of the screen.
To begin, click the “Show Digital Watch” toggle to “ON.” You’ll see the following options appear:
- Show Seconds – Select whether or not you want the seconds to display in your digital watch face.
- Font – You can have your digital time display in one of five different fonts.
- Font Color – White or Black. Logically, you’ll probably want the opposite color that you set the background to.
- Font Size – Set the best fit for your chosen font and time display format.
- Alignment – Left, Center, or Right.
- Offset X and Offset Y – Adjust these sliders until the time display is in your desired position of the watch face
Again, experiment with these settings until you’re happy with the display.
Step 5: Add the Date Display
This step is optional, click the Date tab at the top of the page. If you’d like the date to display along with the time, click the “Show Date” toggle switch to “On.” You will have the same basic options here that you had for the digital time display, with the added options of the format you’d like the date displayed in. (“09.09.2013”, “Wed 09.09.2013”, “09/09/13”, etc.)
Again, play with the controls and options here until you have the date display how and where you want it to show on the watch face.
Step 6: Add Custom Text
Another optional step, here you can add text to be displayed on the watch face. I usually skip this step, but the controls are the same as the time and date, adjust the font and position of your text until it’s how you want it.
Step 6: Generate and Download Your New Watch Face
Click on the Generate tab at the top of the page.
Enter the name you want to call your watch face in the “Name” field.
If you don’t wan’t others to have access to your watch face, (but come on, share!), you can set a password on this screen to protect your new watch face.
Now, click the “Create Watchface” button.
You’ll see “Generating watchface, please wait,” while the new watch face is being created, and then you’ll see “Watchface ready for download,” when the watch face is ready for downloading.
You have three options to for the way to get your new watch face onto your Pebble watch.
- Use a QR-Code app on your iPhone to read the QR-code from your display. The app will read the code, and open the download page on your device, you can then download the watch face to your device, opening it when asked with the Pebble app, which will then copy it to your Pebble watch.
- Download the watch face with the provided link, and email it as an attachment to your device, opening the attachment up in the Pebble app, which will then copy it to your Pebble watch.
- Copy and paste the provided link into an email, email it to your device, and click the link to then download and open the file up in the Pebble app, which will then copy it to your Pebble watch.
That’s it. In a few easy steps you can design your own custom watch faces for your Pebble watch. I’ve had my Pebble for a little over a month now, and I’ve made dozens of new watch faces. I actually find it fun, and it appeals to a creative side of me that I didn’t know existed. Give the process a try, and if you create a face you’re proud of and want to share, let us know what the link to it is and we’ll check it out. We can’t wait to see what you all come up with.
Note: If, for some weird reason, you want to try out the MacTrast watch face we created in this tutorial, it can be downloaded at this link.
