Apple Watch California Face - Unique colors you didn’t know about
Update 2/4/25 @ 6:47PM - this article also applies to the Typograph Watch Face.
Since the beginning of Apple Watch, Apple releases new colors for Apple Watch face customization during different seasons.
Out of the 130+ custom colors to choose from, there are only 4 colors that standout to give you a unique and more professional watch face experience.
Let’s look at the California watch face.
This watch face gives you 21 black watch faces…
followed by 14 full-screen color watch faces.
If you add every custom color as an option, you get over 130 extra black watch faces to choose from, but only 4 of them give you a full-screen color effect.
Take a look for yourself:
How long did it take me to screenshot all these faces? Follow the time…
These four colors are: Clover, Starlight, Red, and Abyss Blue.
These colors are located under the Fall 2021 season.
English Lavender and Dark Cherry are also in the Fall 2021 Season, but they don’t get the special treatment.
Not sure if this was meant to be, but I’m all for the full screen effect. These four colors seem to be coded in watchOS like the 14 default full-screen colors even though they’re custom colors.
These four colors are distinct from their closest resembling default watch faces and have their own unique look:
Evergreen (default) vs Clover.
Watermelon (default) vs Red.
Navy Blue (default) vs Abyss Blue.
Among all these default colors, the custom Starlight color falls somewhere in between Gold and Light Titanium.
The only reason why I think these 4 colors are special is because besides Midnight (which is just fancy for Space Gray, a default color since the Apple Watch’s inception), the Series 7 aluminum models came in Green, Starlight, (PRODUCT) RED, and Blue. There are many shades of red to choose from, but the red from Fall 2021 resembles (PRODUCT) RED. I think Apple wanted matching watch face colors with the debut of these new colors and the newly remodeled edge-to-edge screen on the Series 7.
Most of the 130+ optional colors are tiny hexadecimal variations from the standard colors, but these 4 colors legitimately give you a fresh look at the California watch face.