This year, I’ve decided to try and do something creative, big or small, every day. I figured I’d start with something relatively small, so I got to work on making a watchface for my Pebble Classic that better meets my needs.

The Old

For the majority of the time that I’ve had my Pebble (almost three years, I believe – I backed the original on Kickstarter), I’ve been using Glance as a watchface substitute. While this is a great app with a lot of functionality, there were a few reasons why I decided to switch:

1. Glance is an app, not a watchface. While this often is not too much of an inconvenience, it means that Glance does not get displayed by default when the watch starts, or if an app hides itself (for example, after a SciPomodoro timer ends while the app is running in the background).
2. I don’t use Gmail, and Glance always displays unread Gmail messages on the watchface. There is the ability to see other email counts, but this requires use of the K9 mail client for Android, which I also don’t use. In my case, this meant that it was just noise and extra occupied space.
3. Glance requires a button press to view the Pebble’s battery level. This is information that I would rather have at a glance.
4. Glance includes many features that I am not interested in, such as the ability to view the calendar or send text messages. While these don’t actively interfere with my usage of the app, it meant that I had to do a lot more modification to the shortcuts in the Glance app to try and cut it down to a subset I was happy with.

The New

Given these parameters, I set out to find a watchface that would be able to provide a quick look at my phone’s status and weather. I quickly came upon Canvas for Pebble, an app that allows you to very quickly put together your own watchface (or watchface-like app, if you prefer) that can display a wide range of information about your Pebble and your phone. I spent a bit of time tinkering, and came up with a watchface that I’m very happy with:

If you’re interested, you can download my Canvas design, Status with Disconnection. Note that this link will only work if opened on a phone that has Canvas on it.