Always-On Display Question - New Owner

[Diraan]

So I just picked my watch up today and have been pretty thrilled with it thus far. I'm new to Android Wear, but am slowly figuring most of the settings/features out. One feature that still (might be) eluding me is the always-on display.

I tried googling my problem to no avail. I suppose that it may not be an issue, or too few people have my question.

How does the always-on setting function? I have mine set to 'On', but after a few seconds of inactivity, my watchface switches to some black/white/hideous version of itself until I either flick my wrist or touch the screen. Is this what Motorola meant by always-on? If so, it is going to take a little getting used to, coming from my e-ink pebble steel.

 

[grooks]

It works exactly as you are experiencing it. It switches to a black/white version of your watch face in order to conserve energy. Having a full color face always on and at increased brightness would drain the battery faster.

I've found some watch faces that look good in black/white as well as full color. Some faces have hideous black/white versions.

Sent from my Moto X (2013)

 

[Rhyalus]

Yes, always on means it goes to the dimly lit ambient screen when not in full use.

I chose a watch face that looks good in ambient.

If your watch was always on bright, the battery life would be very bad.

Btw, I don't like the watch lighting up when it detects motion, so I set mine to not use wrist gestures or light up on tilt.

R
(FYI the face I downloaded from Google App Store is called military digital.. It is simple digital time when in ambient mode.)

 

[Diraan]

Thanks for the info. I suspected this was the case. Ignoring my common sense, I had hoped Motorola had found a magic combination of tech that would allow a true always-on face. Until this becomes a reality in a few generations, I'll browse the watchface stores to find one that doesn't look so bad while ambient.

 

[crxssi]

It works exactly as you are experiencing it. It switches to a black/white version of your watch face in order to conserve energy. Having a full color face always on and at increased brightness would drain the battery faster.

Actually, it doesn't matter what is displayed on the screen if it is on- more, less, color, black and white, as long as it is not moving it will use exactly the same energy on an LCD screen. Only the backlight brightness matters. The "standby" mode (or whatever they want to call it screen in that dimmed mode) was mostly designed for LED screens, where the fewer the pixels, the less power it uses. It just doesn't translate well for the Moto 360.

I've found some watch faces that look good in black/white as well as full color. Some faces have hideous black/white versions.

Yep. In this regard (and many others), Watchmaker is WONDERFUL. I picked a face I liked, then just edited the components to look the same in dim/standby as in bright/normal mode.

 

[pwscott]

There are definitely watch faces out there for Watchmaker that look great when they dim...don't give up trying until you find a few you like.

 

[mclarryjr]

I agree with the other and recommend WatchMaker and downloading free faces from facerepo.com IMO better then the paid faces at Play Store.

I'm new to Android Wear and have been playing with WatchMaker this week and the customization you can do is amazing once you learn what your doing. I kinda taught myself just by playing around and just started changing the dimmed faces. Start by selecting a watch face then click on customize watch > from there you can select any part of the watch face from the numbers, hands, date or whatever and go to "Display" and from the select Alway, Bright, Dimmed only, or Never.

A good face that still looks good in the dimmed screen is "Citizen Echo Drive Black" you can download on facerepo.com