Watchface: M1

And I wanted to make a post about colors! When I set out to make a watch face, I wanted to allow any of the 64 available colors to be selected, and ideally through a list so it was (fairly) easy to select them. But the problem was how to present a list of 64 colors in an understandable way, by grouping them into categories. E.g. maybe reds, greens, blues or similar would work. But I searched around the web and couldn't find any standard way of presenting a 64 color palette as a list.

Eventually I came across a Wikipedia page listing different color palettes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_color_palettes

And it had a cool image of the 6-bit RGB color cube: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_color_palettes#/media/File:6-bit_RGB_Cube.gif

Seeing this, I realised you could create jagged slices through the cube, going from dark to light, and thought maybe that would work as a way to group the colors together:

Some of the color names I got from http://chir.ag/projects/name-that-color and https://www.color-blindness.com/color-name-hue. Here's a table of all the colors with their RGB codes:

One interesting thing I noticed: each category has a multiple of 6 colors (I guess it's a cube after all …)

And it also made me realise that without the grayscale "colors", there are 60 other real colors. And of course there are 60 seconds … so I had to try a mode where the indicator for each second was a different color.

Settings are grouped into a few main sections, from basic to advanced - see the step by step guide below, to add your first field as the settings are initially tricky!

• Time - main hours & minutes display Seconds indicator - customize appearance and style
• Ring Display - outer circular bar which fills up to show a value like steps count or battery
• Fields - up to 8 of these (each with 6 elements), which can be positioned anywhere. Display things like:
  • Date (choose the elements to display and separators between them)
  • Status indicators (alarm on/off, notifications pending etc)
  • Values like step count, battery percentage
  • Move bar
• Profiles - advanced tool to remember all the settings for the watch face, so you can switch between different styles. These can also be set to automatically activate between specified times.

The best way to change advanced settings for M1(+) is by having the watch face currently active on your watch and using Garmin Connect Mobile or the Garmin Connect IQ Store app on mobile - this allows you to see changes quickly. If the watch face is not the active one on your watch then any changes won't be processed until you next make it the active one. Using Garmin Express will also work, but when you make changes in order for the watch to process them you need to disconnect the watch from the USB cable so the watch face is running (and then connect it again to see or update the settings) - this is particularly slow when retrieving field or profile settings.

Note that in M1(+) the settings only show & modify the values for one field at a time - as specified by Field Number. When you send new settings then Field Management controls if it is turned on or off, and the other field settings below get applied. To modify another field, change the Field Number, position offsets and elements and send the settings again - the other 7 fields are not modified and are remembered by your watch.

Step by step guide for M1(+) on how to add an extra field/row of data underneath the time, displaying steps count:        

1.   Make sure M1(+) is the current watch face on your watch

2.   Open the settings in Garmin Connect Mobile or the Garmin Connect IQ Store app

3.   Make sure Field Management is set to "On" - so the new field will be on

4.   Set the Field Number to 2, to turn on the 2nd field. It was probably on 1 before (which is the field above the time)

5.   Set the Vertical Offset to a negative number which means below the centre (-64 is a good value as the screen is 240 pixels high). In GCM if you have a problem entering the "-", then first enter 64, then move the cursor to the start of the line, and it will let you enter "-". Or copy the text "-64" from another app on your phone and paste it into the settings.

6.   Set Element 1 to be "Steps" (and make sure the color for it is different from the background color)

7.   Set Element 2 to be "Footsteps Icon" (if you want)

8.   Set Elements 3-6 to all be "Not Set" (meaning empty or unused)

9.   Save/send the settings to the watch

10.  The new field should now appear underneath the time!

If you want to show a notification icon instead of steps count, e.g. an alarm icon then do this instead:

6.   Set Element 1 to be “Alarm Icon” (or another icon if you prefer)

6a.  Set “Visible If..” (under Element 1) to be “Alarm On”

6b.  Set “Color” (under Element 1) to be “White”

Now an icon will be displayed only when your alarm is on.

If you also want the icon to change when the alarm is off, then add this:

7.   Set Element 2 to be “Alarm Icon” (or another icon if you prefer)

7a.  Set “Visible If..” (under Element 2) to be “Alarm Off”

7b.  Set “Color” (under Element 2) to be “Red”

Now when your alarm is on there will be a white alarm icon, and when your alarm is off there will be a red alarm icon.

Try changing the elements to different values and colors, or moving the position around.

If you want to turn the field off again, change Field Management to "Off" and send the settings.

You can create 8 different fields this way, one at a time, by changing the Field Number from 1 to 8.

If you want to get back (retrieve) the settings for a field:

1.   Make sure M1(+) is the current watch face on your watch

2.   Open the settings

3.   Set Field Management to "Retrieve"

4.   Set the Field Number to the field you want settings for (e.g. number 1 for the field above the time)

5.   Save/send the settings to the watch

[5b. If you are using the CIQ Store app you must now back out of the settings by clicking the left arrow - if you are using GCM then it closes the settings for you automatically]

6.   Open the settings again - and now the values displayed are for the field you specified

You can now modify the values and send the settings to see them updated.

If you want to turn off a field:

1.   Make sure M1(+) is the current watch face on your watch

2.   Open the settings

3.   Set Field Management to "Off"

4.   Set the Field Number to the field you want to turn off

5.   Save/send the settings to the watch

Some general tips:

• If you turn on or off the outer Ring Display, then also try turning on or off the "Seconds Move In A Bit" setting - this moves the seconds indicators inwards or outwards (and may slightly change their size).
• Try using the "Demo Display" setting (at the bottom) or "Seconds Color Demo" setting to help choose colors. They may help, or they may not!
• Create a Move Bar with different color segments by entering multiple Move Bar elements in the same field.
• You can make Notifications Count only Visible If ... your phone is connected.
• What does the Ring Display show when you hit your daily steps goal?
• It should be cheap to run anyway, but if you really need to optimise battery usage this is my guess for the Seconds Indicator options from cheapest to most expensive: off, show on gesture, refresh every minute, refresh alternate minutes, refresh every second.

Playing with different representations of the 64 color palette

These are the "field" settings:

Field Font - selects which size of font to use for the fields (the same font is used for all of them). There are 3 sizes of custom font, and 5 system fonts.

Field Custom Fonts Weight - if you select to use one of the custom fonts for fields, then use this to also select a weight (line thickness) for the font.

Field System Fonts Case Override - if you select to use one of the system fonts, then you can use this to force day & month names to be all upper or lower case, or allow them to stay mixed case (with the first letter capitalized). Note that the custom field fonts only contain capital letters, so with those you have no option!

Field Name Font When Custom Unsupported - the custom field font only supports numerals, some punctuation, the Latin alphabet plus some diacritics. So if you are using the custom font and your watch is using a system setting for a non-Latin alphabet then M1 can't correctly display day and month names in your language (but the custom font can still be used to display numbers). In this case the day and month names are instead displayed using one of the system fonts - you can use this setting to specify which particular system font should be used (for day & month names) depending on which looks best to you. Or if you don't like the mix of numbers in custom font and names in system font, then you can just use a system font for everything by customizing the "Field Font" setting above.

Field Move Bar Off Color - when this is set then it specifies the color for every move bar segment displayed in any field to use when it has not been activated yet, and is drawn in outline. (Leave this unset or blank for move bar segments to keep their color when inactive.)

E.g. normally a move bar might look like this as segments fill (at 60, 75, 90, 105, 120 minutes):

But if you specify the "Move Bar Off Color" as Dark Gray (color number 1) then it would look like this instead:

<image redacted> - forum won't let me load it!

(Note that the colors of individual move bar segments can be customized and set when you add the move bar to a field - see below.)

Status Move Bar Alert Trigger - if you want to have a status indicator for when the move bar reaches a specific number of filled segments (from 1 to 5), then use this setting to specify that number of segments! This is used in conjunction with the "Visible If …" settings for field elements (see below): "Move Bar Alert Triggered" and "Move Bar Alert Not Triggered". The different segments of the move bar get activated after a certain number of minutes of inactivity: 60, 75, 90, 105 or 120 minutes respectively. So if you don't want a move bar visible all the time, you could make a single icon appear after 90 minutes of inactivity by setting "Status Move Bar Alert Trigger" to 3. Or you could make a whole move bar appear. Or you could make one thing disappear and something else appear instead (e.g. change the color of your daily steps goal).

Status Battery High Percentage - if you want to display status indicators for high, medium or low battery on your watch, then this value specifies the threshold for high battery percentage (0-100%). Use this in conjunction with the "Visible If …" settings for field elements (see below): "Battery High" and "Battery Medium" (between high and low).

Status Battery Low Percentage - if you want to display status indicators for high, medium or low battery on your watch, then this value specifies the threshold for low battery percentage (0-100%). Use this in conjunction with the "Visible If …" settings for field elements (see below): "Battery High Or Medium" (above low), "Battery Medium" (between high and low) and "Battery Low".

2nd Time Zone Offset (M1+ version) - set the 2nd time zone offset in hours from UTC by entering a positive or negative integer.

Then the important part for managing individual fields:

In M1 Lite, there are 3 fields and settings for all 3 fields are available to see & edit at the same time. All the settings for field 1 first, then field 2, then field 3.

In M1 and M1+, there are up to 8 fields, but in order to fit within the limitations of CIQ the settings for only one field at a time are available to see & edit - your watch just remembers the other 7 fields. Read the post with a step by step guide on how to add an extra field in this thread (above).

Field Management - lets you specify whether the field is "Off" (not visible), "On" (always visible) or "Show On Gesture" (only visible for 10 seconds when you use a glance gesture to look at your watch).

In M1(+) there is also "Retrieve" which is used to get back the settings for one of the fields that the watch is remembering. See the afore-mentioned step by step guide. When you use Retrieve then no other settings get applied. Just set Field Management to Retrieve, set the Field Number you want the settings for, save/send the settings, make sure the settings are closed if you use the CIQ Store app, reopen the settings and values for the field you specified will be there now.

Field Number To Manage - this setting is only needed in M1(+) and specifies which of the 8 fields (numbered 1 to 8) you are changing or retrieving the settings for.

Field Vertical Offset - the vertical offset of the field from the centre of the display in pixels. Positive values are upwards (above the centre) and negative values are downwards (below the centre). The screen is 240 pixels high, so you can specify a number between 120 and -120. (64 seems to be my favourite …) Note that in GCM it can be hard to enter the minus sign - it won't let you enter a minus if nothing else is in that setting - first you have to enter a number, and then click to move the caret to the start of the line before the number, and then it lets you enter the minus sign. Or you can copy & paste a number from another app … hoping Garmin fix this problem!

Field Horizontal Offset - the horizontal offset of the field from the centre of the display in pixels. Positive values are to the right, and negative values are to the left. The screen is 240 pixels wide, so you can specify a number between 120 and -120.

Field Horizontal Justification - specifies where the field is aligned horizontally relative to the horizontal offset you specified above. "Centre" means the field is centred about the offset. "Left" means that the left edge of the field is placed at the horizontal offset, so it extends to the right. "Right" means that the right edge of the field is placed at the horizontal offset, so it extends to the left. 

When you are choosing the justification think about what elements are in the field, and if any of them will change in width (e.g. number of steps throughout the day) and how that will affect the space the field takes up. I often use left & right justification when I need to position two fields next to each other because I'm using more than 6 elements in a row (e.g. with status indicators turning on and off).

Element settings x 6 - each field can have 6 elements which are displayed horizontally on the same row. For each element there are 3 settings you can select: what is displayed (the element itself), when it is displayed (it is visible if …) and the color to display it in.

Element X - specifies the item displayed in this element of the field

• Time And Date - choose items from this section to display the date in your preferred format. Where the description says "XX" or "XXXX" then that is a version which always displays with a fixed number of digits (2 or 4 respectively) padded with leading zeroes.
• ISO Week numbers - the first week of the year always includes the first Thursday, and the first day of the week is set in your system settings (so it isn't strict ISO Week numbering unless your first day of the week is set to Monday).
• Calendar Week numbers - 1st January is always in the first week of the year, and the first day of the week is set in your system settings. (So the last few days of the actual year, may be in the first week of the next Calendar Week year).
• For 2nd time zone (M1+) use "2nd Time Zone Hours" + optional separator + "minutes"
• Sunrise and sunset (M1+) - sunrise and sunset are calculated for the current day. Next sun event can be sunrise tomorrow (if your time is after sunset today). These calculations require a GPS lock after you first install the watch face or if you have a large change in location. To do this start an activity, e.g. a run or hike, wait for GPS lock, stop the activity and discard it. You can enable altitude adjustment using the "Sunrise/Sunset Altitude Adjustment" setting right at the very bottom - this then takes account of your current altitude above sea level, which can make a few minutes difference to the times. The Altitude Adjustment setting is global, and is not saved in any of the profiles, so it will affect any profile you use.
• Separators - mainly used to format the date and time, e.g. a space between day & month, or a colon between hours & minutes.
• Shapes And Icons - mainly used as status indicators or placed next to a value to show what that value is for.
• Values And Bars - various useful & interesting values to display! For ones that have variable units (distance and altitude) use your system settings to switch between metric and statute.
• Move Bar - displays a standard move bar with 5 segments which fill up incrementally to indicate your inactivity after X amount of time [60, 75, 90, 105, 120 minutes). Use the "Field Move Bar Off Color" setting above to set a color for off/unfilled segments if you want it different from the color you specify for the field element itself which is then used for the on/filled color only. If you want each segment of the move bar to be a different color then enter multiple Move Bar elements in the same field and give them different colors. 
• Heart Rate (M1+) - updates once a minute normally, or every second when you use a glance gesture to look at your watch (high power mode for 10 seconds).
• Heart Rate Bars (M1+) - displays a mini bar graph of heart rate over the last minute [12 bars of 5 seconds each). Updates once a minute normally, or every second when you use a glance gesture to look at your watch (high power mode for 10 seconds), or every 5 seconds when you first switch to the watch face (e.g. from a widget). Bar height is scaled as a fraction of your Zone 5 Maximum (from your user profile). <image redacted> - forum won't let me load it!
• Heart Rate Axes (M1+) - add this as an element either before or after the Heart Rate Bars element to display some simple axes (in a different color to the bars). Vertical height corresponds to your Zone 5 Maximum heart rate. The appearance of the axes is slightly different depending on whether you add this element before or after the bars: <image redacted> - forum won't let me load it!
• Active Calories (M1+) - shows the number of calories burned so far in the day, above the value accounted for by your BMR x 1.2. (The 1.2 is a standard scale used for sedentary/resting activity). Currently the automatic BMR is calculated using the Mifflin-St. Jeor equation - but this is different from the equation that Garmin seems to use so I'll adjust this once I know what it is. You can override the automatic calculation if you want by entering a value in the "Non-Active Calorie Override" setting (right at the bottom) - e.g. get the Resting Calorie value from the Garmin Calorie Widget at exactly 12:00 noon and then double it for the whole day.
• Smart Intensity Goal (M1+) - a "smart" fraction of the normal intensity weekly goal that depends on how many days of the week have passed so far. On day 1 of the week, the goal is 1/7th of your weekly goal. On day 2 of the week, the goal is 2/7ths of your weekly goal. And so on.

Visible If … - controls when this element of the field is visible. When an element is not visible then it doesn't leave a gap - the elements to either side are placed next to each other. Mainly use this to show/hide/change status icons.

• On - element is always visible.
• Do Not Disturb On / Off - visibility controlled by whether "do not disturb" is on or off for your watch.
• Alarm On / Off - whether an alarm is set or not.
• Notifications Pending / No Notifications - whether any notifications are pending or not.
• Phone Connected / Not Connected - whether your phone is connected by Bluetooth to your watch or not.
• LTE Connected / Not Connected - whether your watch is connected to LTE or not. If your watch does not have LTE then this element is always invisible if you use either of these settings.
• Battery High Or Medium - whether your watch battery is in the high or medium zones (see the Status Battery High & Low Percentage settings above). Use this if you only want to show two battery states, with Battery Low.
• Battery High / Medium / Low - whether your watch battery is in the specified zone (high, medium, low) (see the Status Battery High & Low Percentage settings above).
• Move Bar Alert Triggered / Not Triggered - whether the move bar has reached your specified level and triggered or not (see the Status Move Bar Alert Trigger setting above).
• AM / PM - whether the main time is in AM (morning) or PM (afternoon). E.g. if your watch is displaying times in 12 hour mode then use this to display an icon or "AM"/"PM" depending on whether it is morning or afternoon. 
• 2nd Time Zone Is AM / PM (M1+) - whether the 2nd time zone is in AM (morning) or PM (afternoon).
• Next Sun Event Is Rise / Set (M1+) - whether the next sun event at your location is sunrise or sunset. E.g. use this to change an icon which is next to elements displaying Next Sun Event Hours & Minutes.

Color - select the color for the element. Try making separators and icons different colors than the elements either side of them.

(placeholder post for profile settings)

A guide for exporting & importing profiles.

First your M1 watch settings need to be saved in one of the profile slots. If they already are then skip to exporting below.

1. Make sure M1 is the current watch face on your watch
2. Open the settings in Garmin Connect Mobile (GCM) or the Garmin Connect IQ Store app - the settings will now hold the values for whatever display is currently shown on M1
3. Set Profile Management to "Save Profile"
4. Set the Profile Number to the profile slot you want to save the settings to - this can be any number from 1 to 24
5. Save/send the settings
6. If you are using GCM then it will have automatically closed the settings, but if you are using the CIQ Store app then it is important that you manually back out of the settings by tapping the left arrow (otherwise the values of settings can't be updated by the watch)

Step by step guide for exporting a profile:

1. Make sure M1 or M1+ is the current watch face on your watch (whichever you want to export from)
2. Open the settings in Garmin Connect Mobile (GCM) or the Garmin Connect IQ Store app
3. Set Profile Management to "Export Profile"
4. Set the Profile Number to the profile slot with the settings you want to export - this can be any number from 1 to 24 for user profiles (or 25+ for one of the pre-set profiles)
5. Save/send the settings
6. M1 should now be temporarily displaying the profile you chose you export (if it wasn't already doing so) so you can verify it was the right one - after 2 minutes the display will revert back to normal
7. If you are using GCM then it will have automatically closed the settings, but if you are using the CIQ Store app then it is important that you manually back out of the settings by tapping the left arrow (otherwise the values of settings can't be updated by the watch - critically the export text strings!)
8. Re-open the settings in Garmin Connect Mobile (GCM) or the Garmin Connect IQ Store app
9. Scroll down to the bottom of the settings where there are 3 settings containing text strings:

• Export/Import Profile Text - contains the settings for everything except fields
• Export/Import Fields Text - settings for fields 1 to 4
• Export/Import Fields Text - settings for fields 5 to 8

An example of what these strings look like:

• 0,0,Icons,0,1,false,4,3,2,3,false,0,1,0,2,1,2,3,10,19,false,false,0,0,19,63,6,3,0,24,-1,1,75,25,false,false,false,0,-1
• 40,122,1,58,0,3,21,0,3,53,3,3,53,4,0,21,0,3,56,0,3,60,95,1,36,0,3,0,0,3,0,0,3,0,0,3,0,0,3,0,0,3,60,145,1,35,0,3,0,0,3,0,0,3,0,0,3,0,0,3,0,0,3,120,120,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0
• 120,120,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,120,120,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,120,120,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,120,120,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0

These strings will be reset back to blank when you next perform another change to the settings on M1, so now you need to make a copy of them! It's a pain the first time you do this, but it gets easier as you do it more often. I tend to copy the strings to a OneNote file which automatically syncs to the web & my PC, or you can copy them to a text file, or your own notebook of choice.

On my Android phone I press and hold to select the string - sometimes I then need to select an option via the ":" to "select all". Then press and hold again and select the option to "copy". Switch app on your mobile device and paste the string to save it. Repeat for all 3 strings. 

Step by step guide for importing a profile:

1. Make sure M1 or M1+ is the current watch face on your watch (whichever you want to import to)
2. Open the settings in Garmin Connect Mobile (GCM) or the Garmin Connect IQ Store app - the settings will now hold the values for whatever display is currently shown on M1
3. Set Profile Management to "Import Profile"
4. Set the Profile Number to the profile slot you want to import the settings to - this can be any number from 1 to 24
5. Paste your 3 profile text strings into the 3 text fields in the settings: Export/Import Profile Text and 2 x Export/Import Fields Text. Note that the profile text must go in the correct text string. Whereas the field text could be swapped - this would just swap the field numbers.
6. Save/send the settings
7. M1 should now be temporarily displaying the profile you chose you import so you can verify it was the right one - after 2 minutes the display will revert back to normal
8. If you are using GCM then it will have automatically closed the settings, but if you are using the CIQ Store app then it is important that you manually back out of the settings by tapping the left arrow (otherwise the values of settings can't be updated by the watch)
9. Note that the imported profile will have copied any start and end activation times - so now reopen the settings and check those if you want to know when it will activate.

Now copy the imported profile to your M1 watch settings if you want it to be the default display

1. Open the settings in Garmin Connect Mobile (GCM) or the Garmin Connect IQ Store app - the settings will now hold the values for whatever display is currently shown on M1
2. Set Profile Management to "Copy Profile To Watch Settings"
3. Set the Profile Number to the profile slot you want to copy to the main watch settings - this can be any number from 1 to 24 for user profiles (or 25+ for one of the pre-set profiles)
4. Save/send the settings
5. If you are using GCM then it will have automatically closed the settings, but if you are using the CIQ Store app then it is important that you manually back out of the settings by tapping the left arrow (otherwise the values of settings can't be updated by the watch)
6. M1 will now be displaying the profile you chose you copy. (If you have any automatic profile activations set up then it will keep displaying it for 2 minutes and then allow profile activations to happen as normal)

Thank you for your great and quick support! It works perfect!!!  :-)