A new “World Timer” face for Apple Watch has been spilled ahead of its release in a WWDC 2021 developer session.
The face didn’t get a mention during Apple’s watchOS 8 announcement on Monday, and isn’t yet available inside the first developer beta. Fans will be hoping it does appear before watchOS 8 makes its public debut.
Apple unveiled a bunch of new features and improvements for watchOS 8, including new Mindfulness and Contacts apps, and more advanced sleep tracking. But unlike previous updates, it’s short on new faces.
Only one, Portraits, got a mention during the WWDC keynote. But it seems Apple has another new face up its sleeve that could make its way into watchOS 8 before it makes its public debut this fall.
Apple Watch’s new ‘World Timer’ face spotted
World Timer is an analog watch face seemingly designed for travelers. It features a world map as its background and a rather large dial that shows the time zones for dozens of major cities around the world.
The GMT watch face, inspired by traditional GMT watches and introduced in watchOS 7 last year, allows Watch wearers to track the time in a second time zone. World Timer lets you see many, many more.
The face is inspired by watches like the Patek Philippe Heure Universelle, introduced in 1937 as one of the first with a world time dial that allowed the wearer to check the time in many major cities.
You can get your first glimpse at Apple Watch’s World Timer face in the “What’s New in UIKit” online developer session from WWDC. It appears eight minutes and 48 seconds into the video.
Coming this fall?
It’s unclear why the World Timer face didn’t make an appearance during Apple’s watchOS 8 announcement, or why it isn’t included in the first beta. It could simply be unfinished or it could have been scrapped.
But, given the severe lack of new faces in watchOS 8, Apple Watch fans will surely be hoping that World Timer does eventually makes its way into the update before it gets rolled out to everyone this fall.
