Second Hand on stock watchfaces

I like the standard OOTB watchfaces but don't need the second hand...presumably as it is the bit of the face which moves most there could be a battery saving by dropping it. However can't seem to configure the face that way? I know there are other analog faces but none I like ( some are horribly pixelated).

Any suggestions?

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Former Member over 6 years ago +1

Hey folks, was thinking the same thing here, but after some research (and looking at Fenix 5 teardowns that support this), it turns out the stock watch faces are actually rendered by a separate, low-power…

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0 HeliosJim over 6 years ago

Many of the watch faces are configurable so you can change colors and data, so check carefully to see if you can find one that can be configured as you like it. I like Steam Gauge, but you didn't say what look you prefer.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

Hey folks, was thinking the same thing here, but after some research (and looking at Fenix 5 teardowns that support this), it turns out the stock watch faces are actually rendered by a separate, low-power ARM chip on the watch (same one that does the all-day WHR and step tracking, I think). The power impact is negligible compared to the little green blinkies on the back of the watch constantly checking HR.

The high power/low power 1/min switch only happens for ConnectIQ custom watch faces that get downloaded, since they have to run a special MonkeyC VM or something to that effect on the bigger ARM chip. So those will sometimes skip the second hand for continuity (since they only get woken up to cough up a new frame every minute or so, or every second if the watch is "awake").

FWIW, I've had my stock watch face ticking away for the last three days with all-day HR, occasionally poking at the screen, and recording 2-3 workouts a day, and I'm still at 80% battery. Always-on phone sync, backlight behaviors, and GPS tracking all will eat battery way more significantly.