Thousands of downloadable watch faces are available on Garmin’s Connect IQ store, each allowing you to turn your sports watch into something more personal.
Changing your watch face means you can add specific metrics and widgets to the home screen, just as you would when customizing the data fields for your workouts. Alternatively, you can select the first one you see with a pretty background.
The collection is growing constantly, with countless options from third-party developers and the in-house team at Garmin.
With every Garmin watch being tested here at Wareable, we’ve downloaded and played around with our fair share of watch faces down the years. Here are some of our favorites.
Garmin watches that support Connect IQ faces
The options highlighted below are ever-changing, but we’ve done our best to include faces seemingly being supported in 2024 with consistent updates.
Plus, we’ve tried to select ones with wide-ranging support for the Forerunner, Fenix, Venu, and Vivoactive models (new and old).
Garmin’s more fringe lines, like the Approach, MARQ, Enduro, and Descent, are almost always supported by developers, too.
Here’s the latest list of Garmin watches that support Connect IQ faces.
Compatible Garmin outdoor watches:
- Fenix 5 Series, Fenix 6 Series, Fenix 7 Series, Epix (Gen 2), Epix Pro (Gen 2), Enduro, Enduro 2, Instinct, Instinct 2, MARQ (Gen 1 and Gen 2)
Compatible Garmin running watches:
- Forerunner 45, Forerunner 55, Forerunner 165, Forerunner 245, Forerunner 255, Forerunner 265, Forerunner 645, Forerunner 745, Forerunner 945, Forerunner 955, Forerunner 965
Compatible Garmin smartwatches:
Compatible Garmin golf watches:
- Approach S60, Garmin Approach S62, Garmin Approach S70
Other compatible Garmin watches:
- D2 Series, Descent Series, Tactix Series, Quatix Series
Face It
The best Garmin watch face might be the one most personal to you, and that’s where the company’s Face It comes into play.
Downloading this option from the Connect IQ Store means you can begin workshopping your watch face with a photo from your camera roll as the background.
For more details, check out our full step-by-step guide on using your own photo as a Garmin watch face. Otherwise, get started by checking the link below.
Night Gleam
There are some really data-crammed watch faces on this list, but the excellent neon-styled Night Gleam is made by Garmin itself, and could easily ship with its premium smartwatches.
Glance Watch face
The main focus of “Glance Watch Face” is glanceability, so it’s designed to show off simple information. Unlike others, the fonts made as large as possible, while still keeping a lot of information on the screen.
Data Lover
Another customizable watch face that shows pretty much whatever you want it to – Data Lover has a focus on weather metrics.
EASY Round
Another data-heavy watch face, EASY Round can access 40 different data fields, so you can customize it your way.
It’s free, but some metrics are paid for – and after 7 days those advanced ones will stop working. But you can customize the watch face so you can show free ones only.
Breeze V2
A nice option if you’re rocking a Garmin with a color screen like the Epix Pro (Gen 2) above or the Venu series, Breeze V2 puts the time front and center and splits things like daily step counts, current outdoor temperature, battery status, and current heart rate up into quarters.
There’s also a more simplified version available, too, letting you ditch those additional stats to show off time, date, and heart rate only if things get a bit too busy for you.
It’s one you’re going to need to pay for, however – £1.99/$1.99 if you want this slick face on your Garmin face.
Parkrun Barcode
If you love a Parkrun (and we’re sure a lot of you do), then you need this watch face in your life.
You can simply display your Parkrun ID and barcode to be scanned along with ICE emergency information if you have any problems on your 5k jaunt.
There is a widget version, too, as shown above, but, if your Garmin doesn’t support widgets yet does allow you to add watch faces, this is a useful one to have for your morning weekend runouts.
Otron
Some of the best Garmin watch faces are the ones that manage to present your stats and data in a really nice, clean manner. Otron definitely fits that bill.
It sticks the time up top and then splits up the rest of the screen to show off information like heart rate, battery, and current temperature with smaller icons below to let you know if you’re being buzzed with notifications and messages.
You can trial the face first and then you’ll need to pay $1.99 to have it for keeps. It’s one that needs to run in the background, which will knock the battery, so that’s something to keep in mind.
There are also Otron 2.0 and 3.0 faces that tinker with that look, but we’d say this is our favorite of the three.
Get more from your Garmin with these in-depth guides:
- Guide to the new Garmin Connect app update
- Every Garmin fitness metric explained
- How Garmin estimates VO2 max – and whether the calculation is accurate
- Garmin Coach vs. Daily Suggested Workouts
- Toughest and rarest Garmin Badges revealed
- Spotify on Garmin: How to add music for offline listening
Summit Watch Face V2
Mixing analog and digital watch looks, Summit gives you room to pick what’s shown on the three digital sub-dials including battery and distance covered.
There are plenty of colored themes to pick from, and it’s now added the ability to show solar intensity data from watches like the Fenix 7 Solar.
You’ll need to permit access to the heart rate sensor, barometer, temperature, and altitude data, but it is one you can download for free and great if you can’t choose between digital and analog watch worlds.
Home-Fit Thrill
An official Garmin face sitting firmly in the data-packed category, this still manages to nicely break up the metrics and make them easy to glance at.
You can adjust the base colors in the face and there are six data fields you can customize to show off your preferred data. That’s built around Garmin’s Move Bar, time, date, and a nice battery status indicator.
You’ll need to permit access to your heart rate data, the barometer, temperature, and altitude information to make the most of this metric-rich option.
Not Enduro
Not Enduro reminds us a lot of the kind of colorful watch faces you’ll find available to Fitbit smartwatch users. It nicely breaks down your preferred stats into a colored bar and drops the time and other watch features below.
You can select from 17 different stats to display and color options to choose from. Just be aware that using it will hog your battery life. It’s a great looker, though, and a great one for Garmin’s AMOLED-packing watches.
Rails
If you like your watch faces crammed with complications, Rails is most certainly one for you.
This face lets you tinker with the icons dotted above and below the rails and you can adjust the thickness of the hours and minutes in the middle too.
You can also mix up the colors if you don’t want to go with the yellow-themed one we’ve featured. You’ll need to give it access to GPS location and sensors if you want to pull in information like weather, heart rate, and elevation.
Crystal
Winner of the best new watch face at Garmin’s 2019 Connect IQ Developer awards, Crystal is a really great example of a watch face that piles on the data without making it feel like a crowded mess.
There are three configurable data fields: heart rate, battery, and notifications.
You can have it display whether your watch is currently connected to your phone and it also incorporates Garmin’s Move Bar. Down the side of the face, you can also assign features like battery life and your step count to complete your data fix.
Line
This watch face deals with the masses of data Garmin devices can churn out by simply putting a line down the screen to separate time from all that other information.
It’s a bit more elegantly done once it’s on your watch, dedicating the right side of the screen to calorie burn, battery life, weather, and heart rate.
On the left, you’ll get the time and date. All in all, it’s a nice alternative to other faces on the Connect IQ Store.
Duck Hunt
If you played the Nintendo classic all those years ago, the duck appearing from the bushes will be a very familiar sight.
Inspired by the game, the animated watch face strips away the metrics and focuses on telling you the time and nothing else. If you don’t need your data on show all day and you loved the game, this is definitely one for you.
Christmas Jumper
This one is only fitting to wear in December (unless you’re a total Christmas fanatic), but it’s also the best watch face you want if you want to make your wrist feel more festive.
It’s been built by Garmin and will let you pick from five patterns that bring that knitted jumper look to your watch face. Crucially, it’ll still display data like battery life, date, and step counts, along with that woolly jumper.
