Nowcast Digital Watch Face

Nowcast answers the question you ask a watch before you step outside: what is the weather doing for the rest of the day? Along the lower half of this digital dial runs a rail of five cells, +1H to +5H, each with a forecast temperature and a weather icon. The next five hours sit right under the time, instead of a five-day list you have to translate into this afternoon.

Weather needs one permission, once. Wear OS does not grant watch faces location access by default, so the temperature shows --° until you allow it: Settings > Security and privacy > Permission manager > Location > Watch faces > Allow while using the app. Everything else on the face - time, date, steps, heart rate, battery and the complication - works the moment you install it.

WHAT IS ON THE DIAL

- The time, large, with the minutes in the theme colour and small seconds beside them
- The weekday, day and month underneath, in your watch's language
- The temperature right now, on the left
- Steps, as an arc and a bar measured against 10,000
- Battery, as an arc with the percentage
- Your latest heart rate, in beats per minute
- The UV index, which turns from green through amber to orange as it climbs
- The five-hour forecast rail

THE FORECAST RAIL

Each cell shows the hour, the forecast temperature and one of three icons: a sun for a clear sky in daylight, rain for rain, snow, sleet and storms, and a cloud for everything else, clear nights included. Temperatures follow the unit your watch uses. The forecast comes from your watch's own weather service, and an hour it has no data for shows --° rather than a guess.

ONE COMPLICATION AND TWO APP SHORTCUTS

Press and hold the dial and open Customize.

- The complication sits on the right, under the heart rate. Out of the box it shows your unread notification count. Point it at another data source if you prefer: it takes short text with an icon, long text over two lines, or an image.
- Two app shortcut slots sit at the bottom, either side of the orange stripes. Give each one an app, and a tap opens it. They start empty.

YOUR CHOICES IN CUSTOMIZE

- Theme colour: Frontline (blue and orange, the default), Lime, Coral, Violet or Red. The theme sets the colour of the date, the arcs and the minutes; the artwork stays the same.
- AM / PM: switch to 12-hour time, with AM or PM beside the hour. Left off, the face shows 24-hour time.
- Seconds: on by default. Switch them off for a calmer dial.

ALWAYS-ON

The always-on screen drops the artwork, the readings and the complication, and keeps the time and the date in dim grey on black, with about 2 percent of the display lit. It shows the time in 24-hour form whatever the AM / PM setting.

GOOD TO KNOW

The printed labels on the dial - FRONTLINE, STEPS, BPM, INDEX and the hour marks - and the Customize options are in English in every language. The step bar is measured against a fixed 10,000, not a goal you set. There is no companion phone app, no account, no ads and no subscription.

SETTING IT UP

Buy it on your phone, then open the Play Store on your watch, where it waits in your library. Press and hold your current face, swipe to Nowcast and tap Customize.

If you have a question, or something is not working right, please write to us at [email protected].