watchOS 9 was recently announced with a new Afib History feature, sleep stages in the Sleep app, Medications app, and more. As is customary with watchOS updates, it also adds a bunch of new watch faces to Apple Watch Series 4 and newer models.
New Astronomy, Metropolitan, Playtime, and Lunar watch faces available on watchOS 9
Lunar is a detail-packed watch face that displays a connection between the Gregorian calendar and the lunar calendar that is used in many cultures including Chinese, Islamic, and Hebrew. Lunar supports up to four complications.
Playtime is a dynamic, lighter watch face that was created in collaboration with artist Joi Fulton. Users can rotate the Digital Crown to see the confetti animation of this watch face. Characters are also interactable. No complications can be added to Playtime.
Metropolitan features a class designed with numbers that change in style as the Digitial Crown is rotated. The watch face supports up to four complications and users can customize the colors to fit their personal aesthetic.
Astronomy is a redesign of the original Astronomy watch face and it includes a new star map and current cloud data. Users can choose between the Earth, Moon, and Solar System as the main view. Astronomy supports two complications.
In addition to the new watch faces, the update also features modernized complications on existing ones like Utility, Activity Analog, and background color editing for X-Large, Modular and Modular Compact. There is also a new Portraits face that showcases the depth effect on more photos, including cats, dogs, and landscapes.
The updated Focus mode on iOS 16 also allows users to select an Apple Watch face that is tied to a specific Focus on their iPhone.
The software update will be released to the general public in the fall alongside the iPhone 14 lineup. The first developer beta of watchOS 9 has been released for developers and a public beta will become available in July.
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