Watch Face Lab

1. Getting started

Watch Face Lab is an app for your Amazfit watch. You design a face on the watch itself — by hand in the editor or with AI — and install it as your real watch face. Everything happens on the watch; the phone is only needed to install a finished face and, optionally, to send in text or images.

1. Open Watch Face Lab on the watch. It starts in the main menu.
2. Tap New project to start from a basic face (dial, hands and weekday), or Create with AI to get a complete design.
3. Change anything you like in the editor, then Save it.
4. Choose Build & install in the main menu, pick your saved face and scan the QR code with the Zepp app (see Build & install).

2. Main menu

• Continue — back to the face you were editing.
• Create with AI — describe a face (voice or keyboard) or tap a style; the AI designs it for you.
• New project — a fresh face with a dial, hands and the weekday. If the current face has unsaved changes, you are asked first.
• Open project — your saved faces. Tap one to open it; the bin deletes it.
• Build & install — turns a saved face into a real watch face and shows the QR code to install it.
• Gallery — Publish a face puts one of your saved faces on gallery.typlabs.com for owners of the same watch model; Open on phone shows a QR code that opens the gallery in your phone's browser.

3. The editor

The face is shown in the middle of the screen exactly as it will look once installed (same colours, textures and positions). Around it:

• ☰ (left) — back to the main menu.
• ↶ (right) — undo. Up to 40 steps, including deletions.
• Add — add an element. Elements are grouped in categories (AI & images, Dial, Time, Date, Gauges, Health, Weather, System, Animations, Text). A face can hold up to 17 elements.
• Edit — all options of the selected element. Nothing selected? Tap an element on the face first.
• Save — Save, Save as… and Rename… (see Saving).
• Layers — the list of all elements: select, reorder, lock and delete.
• Preview — the face full screen with the real time and live data.

The line under the buttons names the selected element. While editing, the face shows a fixed sample time (10:08:36) and sample data so nothing moves; only Preview is live.

4. Selecting and moving

• Tap an element to select it — a frame appears around it.
• Hold and drag to move it. Pink guide lines appear and the element snaps when it lines up with the centre or with another element.
• A selected element is always grabbed first, even if another element lies on top of it.
• Tap empty space to clear the selection. Tap empty space again to select the dial.
• Curved text is dragged around the edge (its position on the circle) and in or out (its distance from the edge).
• Full-size analog hands always stay in the centre and can't be dragged; a small analog clock can.
• Locked elements (see Layers) can't be selected on the face — taps go through to what's underneath.

5. Layers

Layers lists every element, front first. For each one:

• Tap the name — select it and go back to the editor.
• ▲ ▼ — move it in front of or behind other elements.
• Lock — protects it from accidental taps and drags (handy for the dial or a big picture). Tap again to unlock.
• Bin — delete it. Undo brings it back.

6. Saving and projects

• Save — saves the current face under its name (the first time you're asked for a name).
• Save as… — saves a copy under a new name. If the name already exists you're asked whether to overwrite it.
• Rename… — changes the project's name.

Only saved faces can be built and installed. Opening another project or starting a new one asks before discarding unsaved changes.

7. Preview

Preview shows the face full screen with the real time, ticking seconds and live sensor values (steps, heart rate, battery, weather…). Tap anywhere to return to the editor. Without the unlock, Preview closes after 10 seconds.

From the dial's Edit menu, Preview always-on shows what the always-on screen will look like.

8. Build & install

1. In the main menu tap Build & install and pick a saved face. Faces without any time element are marked “no time” — a watch face must tell the time, so you can add hands with one tap.
2. The face is built for your watch (this takes a few seconds) and a QR code appears.
3. On the phone, open Developer Mode in the Zepp app and scan the QR code there. The face downloads and is set on the watch.

Installing again a face you changed replaces the earlier version on the watch instead of adding a new one.

Publishing to the gallery

After a build, the QR screen has Publish: your face appears on gallery.typlabs.com, listed under your watch model, and anyone with the same model can install it there with a QR code. Building the same project again and tapping Update gallery replaces the published version. Remove on the confirmation screen takes it down, and so does Face gallery → My published faces at any time (even after deleting the project). The first time, you create an author (a unique name and a password) or log in with one you made on another watch; then you type the face name. Face gallery → Author · log out switches authors.

9. Options most elements share

• Colour — cycles through the palette (each tap the next colour).
• Size — S, M, L, XL.
• Font — Classic, Tall, Tech, Bold, LCD, Italic, Thin, Rounded.
• Background — a plate behind the element so it stays readable: None, Dark pill, Light pill, Sub-dial (round), Window (like a date window), LCD frame.
• Fill (digits and text) — Solid, Gradient (to a second colour) or Outline.
• Italic, Shadow, Glow — glow adds a soft light around digits in their own colour (neon look). These effects are shown approximately in the editor and exactly on the installed face.
• Centre horizontally — puts the element on the vertical centre line.
• Always-on: Shown/Hidden — only when the face uses Custom always-on (see Always-on display).

10. Every element, explained

Dial (background + scale)

The base of the face: the background and the printed scale (ticks and numerals). It can be deleted and added again from Add → Dial.

• Style — Solid, Radial, Sunburst, Stripes, Dots, Carbon, Guilloché, or a picture (AI background or your own photo).
• Colour / Second colour — the two colours of the background.
• AI background… — generate a picture for the dial (1 credit). My photo… — use a photo from the phone.
• Ticks — Full (minutes and hours), Hours, Railway, Applied (raised bars), Chapter ring (05–60), Diver bezel, None.
• Numerals — None, 12-3-6-9, All, Roman. Accent 12-3-6-9 makes those four larger in the accent colour. Numeral font sets their font.
• Scale colour, Accent — colours of the ticks/numerals and of the highlights; 12 o'clock marker adds a coloured mark at 12.
• Always-on — Off, Auto or Custom; Scale in always-on; Preview always-on. See Always-on display.

Analog hands

• Length — Full (centred, the classic clock) or 75 %, 55 %, 45 %, 35 %: smaller hands become a small clock you can place anywhere.
• Small dial — (small hands only) a round dial with minute marks under them.
• Style — Baton, Sword, Slim, Dauphine, Sport, Leaf, Arrow, Pencil, Spade, Skeleton, Needle, Diver. AI character faces add Character arms.
• Width — Regular, Bold, Thin. Lume insert — a luminous stripe in the hands. Finish — Flat or Polished (metal look). Shadow — a soft shadow under the hands, as if they float above the dial (on by default).
• Hour / Minute colours. Seconds on/off, Second style (Needle, Lollipop, Arrow tip) and its colour.

Small analog clock

Analog hands at 45 % with their own small dial, placed below the centre. Drag it anywhere; it has all the hands options above. A face has one set of hands — use Length to switch between full hands and a small clock.

Digital time

The time as hh:mm (follows the watch's 12/24-hour setting). Options: colour, size, font, background, Seconds on/off, fill and effects.

Hours / Minutes / Seconds (split)

Hours and minutes as separate blocks you can place and style independently — for stacked or offset designs. Part switches between hours, minutes and seconds. Add both hours and minutes: a face with only one of them doesn't tell the time.

Sun curve

The sun's path across the day, from sunrise to sunset, with the sun at its current position. Options: curve colour, sun colour, size.

Date

The day of the month. Format — 14.10, 10/14, 14 OCT or just 14. Plus colour, size, font and background (Window gives the classic date window).

Weekday

The day of the week (MON…SUN). Colour, size, font, background.

Weekday strip

All seven days in a row with today highlighted. Letters and Today colours, font, size.

Activity rings

Concentric progress rings that fill up during the day. Rings — Steps · kcal · stand, Steps · kcal, Steps · kcal · stand · battery, or PAI · stress. Outer ring and Second ring colours, Icon in the middle, size.

Edge gauge

A progress arc along the left or right edge of the screen. Data (steps, calories, battery…), Side, colour and Width.

Bar gauge

A segmented bar that lights up segment by segment as a value grows — like a battery or rev meter. Data, Direction (horizontal or vertical), Segments (6–14), Colour and Colour at the end (the segments blend from one to the other), size.

Health, weather and system values

One reading each: Steps, Heart rate, Calories, Distance, PAI (week/today), Standing, Stress, SpO2, Training load, VO2max, Sleep, Recovery time, Floors, Altitude, Monthly runs, Readiness, Fat burn · Temperature (now, high, low), Humidity, UV index, Air pressure, Wind, Sunrise, Sunset · Battery, Alarm time.

• Icon — the small symbol above the value. Label — a word such as STEPS or BPM. Unit as word — writes the unit instead of a symbol.
• Progress ring (values with a goal, like steps) — a ring around the value that fills up; Ring colour.
• Sub-dial hand — turns the value into a small gauge with a pointer, like a chronograph sub-dial; Hand colour.
• Plus colour, size, font and background.

Weather icon

The current weather as an icon (sun, clouds, rain, snow…). Colour and size.

Status icons

Bluetooth off, Do not disturb, Alarm on, Screen lock. Each icon appears only while that state is active. Colour and size.

Custom text

Any short text — your name, a motto. Type it first in the Watch Face Lab settings page in the Zepp app, then add the element (or tap Update text from phone to change it). Colour, size, font, background, effects.

Curved text

Text that follows the edge of the face (the circle on round watches, the rounded rectangle on square ones) — like the model name printed on a real dial. Text comes from the phone, as above.

• Position — Top, Top right, Right … Top left (or drag it).
• Distance from edge — Edge, Near edge, Inner, Middle, Deep.
• Colour, size (S/M/L), font, Update text from phone.

City name

The city of the watch's weather location. Colour, size, Capitals on/off.

World clock

A city and its time (e.g. TOKYO 21:05) from the watch's World Clock app. World clock picks which of the cities you set there (1–4). Colour, size.

Image (AI image or my image)

A picture placed anywhere on the face — a bezel ring, a scene at the top, a logo, an emblem.

• Bigger / Smaller — in steps of 5 %. Fill the face — full size, centred.
• Centre horizontally; drag to place it.

Make one with AI image… (1 credit; chips for steel, gold and racing bezels, mountains, city, space — or describe it) or send one with My image from phone… (see from the phone).

Animations

Small looping animations that move on the installed face while the screen is on (they pause in always-on): Beating heart, Radar sweep, Spinner, Breathing glow, Orbit and Equalizer. The editor shows one still frame. Options: animation type, colour, second colour, size. Up to 3 per face.

AI sticker

A small AI-drawn object with a transparent background (flame, planet, lightning, rose, dragon, wolf — or your own idea). 1 credit. Size and position.

AI background / My photo as dial

Sets a picture as the whole dial. The scale (ticks and numerals) is drawn on top of it if you keep one.

11. Always-on display

Choose the mode in the dial's Edit menu, Always-on:

• Off — the face shows nothing extra when the watch is in always-on mode (black).
• Auto — black with the scale in grey and thin grey hands or the digital time. Simple and battery friendly.
• Custom — you choose. Every element's Edit menu gets Always-on: Shown/Hidden; shown elements appear dimmed, without seconds or plates. Scale in always-on decides whether the dial's ticks and numerals stay.

Preview always-on shows the result; tap to return.

12. Create with AI

Open Create with AI from the main menu.

• Speak — describe the face, e.g. “a dark diver watch with orange hands and the date”.
• Type — the same with the watch keyboard.
• Style chips — Minimal, Sport, Classic, Luxury, Diver, Pilot, Chrono, Neon, Retro for an instant design; Split, Typo and LCD give ready-made digital designs.

Each tap creates one design and costs 1 credit. On the result screen:

• Use this — opens the design in the editor, where you can change anything.
• Again · 1 credit — a new design for the same request. Earlier results stay: use ‹ › to go back to them.
• Back — to the AI screen.

13. Text and images from the phone

Text

The watch has no comfortable way to type long text, so Custom text and Curved text take their text from the phone: open Watch Face Lab's settings page in the Zepp app, type the text, then add the element (or use Update text from phone).

Images

My image from phone… (Add → AI & images) and My photo… (dial) show a QR code on the watch. Scan it with the phone's camera: a page opens where you pick an image.

• For the dial: fit the photo to the screen and send it.
• For an image element: choose a shape (none, rounded, circle) and, for logos on black, use remove dark background to make the black transparent.

The image arrives on the watch in a few seconds.

14. Unlock and AI credits

• Free — the full editor, saving projects and a 10-second Preview.
• Unlock (one-time) — installing faces, unlimited Preview, AI, and 3 AI credits to start.
• AI credits — 1 per AI design (each Again too), AI image, AI sticker or AI background; character faces cost 3. Credit packs: 50 or 150 credits.

The balance is shown on the Create with AI screen; tap it to buy more. Payment opens on the phone through a QR code. Already paid but the watch still asks? Tap I already paid.

15. Tips and troubleshooting

• “Can't build: no time” — the face needs hands, a digital time or hours and minutes. Use “Add hands and build” or add a time element.
• Element hidden behind another — select it in Layers and use ▲ to bring it forward, or lock the one on top.
• Can't select something small — tap it in Layers instead.
• “Type the text in the app settings in Zepp first” — the text field in the settings page is empty.
• “Phone not reachable” — keep the Zepp app open in the background with Bluetooth on; AI, building and transfers go through the phone.
• QR code doesn't install — check that Developer Mode is on and scan it inside the Zepp app (not the camera). If it's been a while, build again for a fresh code.
• Values show samples in the editor — that's intended; Preview and the installed face show live data.
• Undo — up to 40 steps; deleting an element can be undone too.