Clock Faces Information Post

[EmersonFitbit]

Hey everyone! 

Now that Blaze is finding its way into the hand of our users, we thought we'd provide a bit more information regarding clock faces, and how you can interact with your Blaze in different ways! Here's the run down of the four default clock faces: 

Original: 

The time is shown in analog format using an hour-hand and minute-hand. Those dots that go around the circumference of the watch area indicate minutes of the hour. The step icon at the top of the screen is the primary statistic, which is displayed in the progress dial as well (the circle surrounding the clock). The icon at the bottom of the clock is your stat cycle, where you can tap the display to cycle through all of your primary stats for the day as well. 

Flare:

Flare consists of 3 main elements: time, date, and activity level. The Flare on the outside will follow the current minutes to the hour while also displaying the activity for the hour. The more you move in the hour, the further out the Flare will extent. Click here for more details.

Zone: 

This clock shows the time over a color-changing background that corresponds to your heart rate. The HR Stat, HR zone and date can be toggled with this clock face, meaning you can cycle through and see what you want to see.

Pop: 

With Pop, your clock-face will consist of 4 main elements: time, steps, HR, and calories. While your heart rate icon on this screen does not indicate HR zone (the HR circle is always full), both the steps and calories statistic will update to be reflective of your step/calorie burn goal for the day!

We hope this helps. As always, questions and feedback are welcome and appreciated. If you'd like to see new clock faces (or changes to existing ones), please add your vote/comments to this Feature Request with specific changes you'd like to see.

[nursejackie]

I would love to see a second hand added to the face. I had a charge HR and ONLY upgraded because I thought the new face had one. I am happy with the blaze but it would make it much easier at work to have a second hand on the face, not have to scroll through to the stop watch to get heart rates, etc

[SteveH]

@nursejackie someone has created a feature request for this. If you'd like to add your vote you can find it here:

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Feature-Requests/Show-seconds-day-of-the-week-on-the-screen/idi-p/59...

[ajefri]

I actually did come here to see if there is any progress made on this issue that would make me regret getting rid of my blaze so quickly. To answer your question, I bought a Garmin Fenix 3 HR. Yes, it's 3 times the cost of a Blaze, but boy what a world of difference. I won't give a review on all its features since my intent is not to advertize for a competitor's product here, but the fact that there are hundreds of clock faces to choose from is truly refreshing!

The Blaze is supposed to be some sort of a smart watch. Yet being able to choose a clock face that gives you all the information you want on a look you find appealing is the most basic thing a smart watch should be able to do. When I got my new watch I actually had to spend a considerable time going through all the clock faces until I found the one that makes me 100% satisfied. It was worth the effort.

So after that to come here and find people are still pleading with Fitbit to at least add a second hand to one of the faces or change the background color, not even daring to ask for a new face, is really sad.

Fitbit really screwed up with the Blaze. It's an expensive tracker, abeit a good tracker at that, masquerading as a smart watch. 

[SunsetRunner]

Same here
Surge owner, but multiple replacements due to battery and quality issues. Jumped to the blaze as what should have been a similar experience, but massively disappointed with the faces and switch off screen.

Now using the garmin vivoactive hr and features, that completely wipe the wall with my blaze ecoerience. Sorry to be leaving behind my fitbit ecosystem and yearly premium membership. And not even some sort of acknowledge from the mods on the warchface requests? They seem so busy on all the other generic queries?

[Rich_Laue]

@ajefri you mention it as a smart watch, this is where I disagree with Fitbit.. The Blaze is an activity tracker first with some smart features second.. The AW is touted as a smart watch with some activity tracking, but even with this the no 1 thing the AW does is a remote display and control for the phone, hardly anything to claim as smart. 

[Lordrobs]

Here is the thing though, did anyone else read anything from Fitbit to say that additional faces would be released before buying their Blaze? I certainly never saw anything mentioned about it and assumed that it was the four faces that we were stuck with but hoped for more in the future.

To buy the thing and then say all the faces are no good does kind of beg the question... why buy it in the first place?!

[cenetti]

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Lordrobs wrote:

Here is the thing though, did anyone else read anything from Fitbit to say that additional faces would be released before buying their Blaze? I certainly never saw anything mentioned about it and assumed that it was the four faces that we were stuck with but hoped for more in the future.

To buy the thing and then say all the faces are no good does kind of beg the question... why buy it in the first place?!

---

Here is ceo talking about how blaze's hardware is capable to have 3rd party apps and expect blaze to get more fetures over time.

https://youtu.be/5mZG8TuqSX8?t=2m32s

Also on many occassions, mods here admitted that the team is working on new watch faces, etc. 

So, its not so outrages to expect more functionality from a $200 tracker. Especially when you compare it to rest of the market in the same price range. I think everybody here understands blaze will never be an apple watch or android wear with thsousands of apps and watch faces. But a few more watch faces to choose from.. is all people are asking for six months, every day ? Come on now....

[AnnahMaria]

The thing is, I bought the fit bit blaze based on an advertisement of a picture of the fit bit blaze that displayed a watch face that they don't even have now.

So no, many people did not assume the fitbit only had four watch faces as many of us are red pretty much a false advertisement.

[Lou_R]

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@wkel24 wrote:
It will not happen.
The mods are staying away from this. The blaze is a dinky toy watch

---

As a "watch" I'd probably agree but clearly this company is not making "watches", Fitbit has their own foci, communities (like this, tracking with friends, etc.).  But the Blaze is a step INTO the watch market, designed to be more in the "smartwatch" market - the company should either be consistent with that approach or stick with their other models.  If they want Balze to be in the 'watch" market - additional clock faces are sort of a no-brainer, especially if they have the ability for 3rd party add-ons (they could let developers offer a collection of faces for a few bucks, could allow/encourage more apps like meditation heart tracking, preset quick replies "I am driving, either call or I will reply when I stop" type stuff and more).

I chose and bought this Blaze for this new entry of their features into the "watch" market.  It is OK for what it is but it also clearly has potential to be a LOT more and really compete in the "watch" market - but only if they incentivise and facilitate the add-ons - at least this is my opinion.  So far, I am less than impressed for it being even what it is - yesterday I sat for meditation, went thru the settings and changed HR from "auto" to "on" so I could see what happened to my HR during the meditation, when I came out - HR had switched to "off".  True, it does all it claims to do - but that's probably a fraction of what its potential is even without a chip upgrade.

[Fands]

"A Fitness Watch That is as Stylish as it is Smart"

isn't this the direct current advertisement? i just looked in the store...

notice both words that dance around smart watch?  

this might not be verbaturm i am on the run for work--if i am not accurate please correct me, thanks!

phoeey--false advertising indeed...you should see what they just wrote to my facebook posts and questions.

the annoyed customers are not going away--they are just advising others to beware of what you are not getting.  

[racertempo]

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@Lordrobs wrote:

Here is the thing though, did anyone else read anything from Fitbit to say that additional faces would be released before buying their Blaze? I certainly never saw anything mentioned about it and assumed that it was the four faces that we were stuck with but hoped for more in the future.

To buy the thing and then say all the faces are no good does kind of beg the question... why buy it in the first place?!

---

Totally agree.  SEVERAL people on here have complained stating that they bought the Blaze because of the reminder to move that would be coming the future, and now they are angry it is not here.  And my personal favorites are people who complain that it is not waterproof or does not have GPS.....afte they bought the product.

[racertempo]

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@ajefri wrote:

I actually did come here to see if there is any progress made on this issue that would make me regret getting rid of my blaze so quickly. To answer your question, I bought a Garmin Fenix 3 HR. Yes, it's 3 times the cost of a Blaze, but boy what a world of difference. I won't give a review on all its features since my intent is not to advertize for a competitor's product here, but the fact that there are hundreds of clock faces to choose from is truly refreshing!

The Blaze is supposed to be some sort of a smart watch. Yet being able to choose a clock face that gives you all the information you want on a look you find appealing is the most basic thing a smart watch should be able to do. When I got my new watch I actually had to spend a considerable time going through all the clock faces until I found the one that makes me 100% satisfied. It was worth the effort.

So after that to come here and find people are still pleading with Fitbit to at least add a second hand to one of the faces or change the background color, not even daring to ask for a new face, is really sad.

Fitbit really screwed up with the Blaze. It's an expensive tracker, abeit a good tracker at that, masquerading as a smart watch. 

---

But at 3x the price Fibbit could have better faces.  The garmin products in the same price range as the Blaze don't have faces as nice as the Blaze.  In fact, at the price-point no one has faces like the Blaze.  You can't compare a $200 product to a $600 product.

"A considerable amount of time" to find a watch face you like out of 4 to choose from?  How long did you spend with the Fenix 3 since there are "hundreds" to choose from?  If must have taken days to find a face you were happy with out of the hundreds.

No one is really masquerading it as a smart watch, you said it yourself, it is a good "tracker" that at the price-point is a better buy than the Garmin products at the same price point.  The Vivosmart HR ($150), vivosmartHR+($220), and Vivoactive ($250) all do not have color face options as nice as the Blaze.  The Vivoactive has different color faces, but they are boring looking......AND the big kicker, all 3 of these Garmin trackers around the same price have ugly straps that are not interchangable (and yes the Charge HR strap was ugle too).  This is where the Blaze outperforms at the price-point. 

[racertempo]

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@wkel24 wrote:
Agree the blaze is a fashion watch, aimed at people who want to wear a low level fitness, mostly step counting smartwatch looking device. Which it us and does its things well, excluding the "pretty" watch faces available (24 pages of people on this thread agree)

I personally want my watch to look like a sports watch. The garmin vivoactive hr fits the slot that fitbit can not provide me at the moment. The Blaze definitely does not out perform it.

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I focused my statement on the Blaze outperformning the Garmin at the pricepoint on the look alone, as all Garmin in the price range are the standard rubber bands that cannot be changed.  At least the Alta can be changed along with the Blaze to make them look less like rubber.

[usapastime]

It's terrible at counting steps, though!  We were riding in the car & my steps were increasing, not moving at all!!  As well, if I move my hand back and forth, it believes I'm taking steps, too!!

[racertempo]

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@wkel24 wrote:
The garmin range has changeable straps too. Falls in the price band of the surge and blaze in my country

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What the heck is the Garmin "range".  It is not listed on their website and I can find nothing about it on the interweb.

[racertempo]

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@wkel24 wrote:
Apologies for going off topic with watch straps fitbit vs garmin .. Back to the inadequate watch face options....

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But that is the point and it is on topic.  No competitors have watch faces in that price range, certinly not Garmin or Tomtom, It is not fair to compare a $600 Garmin to the Blaze and call the Blaze inadequate because it does not have what the $600 tracker has.

[Lou_R]

"Night mode" ?  Yes, Blaze has dimming.  However, on a couple of rare occasions - and I do not know how to get the watch to repeat this - I did briefly see the "Zone" watchface iluminate without the background color.  So, the Blaze is capable of just the digits illuminated without the background color.  For dark environments like movie theaters (where phone and watch screen illuminating can be and is distracting for others) and middle of the night (sleep time), even the dimmed full color screen can demand more eye adjustment to focus on the digits.  Perhaps a "night mode" (optional - user on/off - under settings on the atch itself) that would illuinate the digits and leave the background black - would be a simple and easy option for FitBit to offer.  Frankly, I am not a fan of the Zone background colors (yet Zone is my preferred watchface of the 4 currently offered) and if this were an option - I'd probably use it all the time.  At least this would be one easy, simple and quick additonal watchface FitBit could probably roll out immediately with minimal effort.

Another "easy" option might be to all users to change watch faces (at least as long as there are only these 4) on the watch under settings. This could allow users to chage to Original or Flare for dark environment (movie theaters and sleep times) for easier viewing without the need for additional focus from the background light.  However, I still think the other (zone w/o background color) would be a better option - at least for me - and this "night mode" feature could also be on/off (along with dimming) on the watch under settings so we do not have to pull our phones out for such on-the-fly adjustments to the screen.

[Rich_Laue]

@usapastime as for counting of steps, your Blaze is mounted on the arm and is looking for atm motions that are conducive to arm motions that happen when the feet are moving. 

As for steps accumulated while in a car, this will depend on the surface of the road and how stiff the vehicles suspension is. Unfortunately every digital step tracker on the market may count a bumpy ride as steps. Just do your own search, Fitbit has unlike some of the other companies allows you to remove these false steps. 

[bbarrera]

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@racertempo wrote:

But that is the point and it is on topic.  No competitors have watch faces in that price range, certinly not Garmin or Tomtom, It is not fair to compare a $600 Garmin to the Blaze and call the Blaze inadequate because it does not have what the $600 tracker has.

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Not agreeing with that statement, but maybe we have different definitions of watch faces. Garmin has Connect IQ - third party apps specifically for adding watch faces and customizing the fields displayed on watch. During an exercise (e.g. run or walk or bike ride), watch 'faces' are organized as pages, and there are usually several pages you can flip between. On each page you can normally configure the fields that appear. For example scroll down to Running section of this review and this other review for an example of the level of customization. Those are $250 trackers, and again Connect IQ on Vivoactive HR exists specifcally so you can "customize your device with watch faces, data fields, widgets, and apps." Ditto with Apple Watch, customization is app dependent, and watch faces can have fields from apps. This is all going to the next level this fall with the 3rd major revision of watchOS (and apps will be a lot faster).

Hope that helps clarify its not a feature limited to top of the line devices.

[Rich_Laue]

Doing a search of connect IQ, it seems to be limited to Garmin products, as your 3 examples nicely point out. This would rule out Fitbits ability to add this feature.