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In its current iteration, the Apple Watch’s ability to show a certain photo (or photo album) as a customized watch face is technically present, but to do so means you need to choose your desired photo by swiping on the Apple Watch itself, from a pre-selected photo album, and then customize it from there. There is also the “Photo Album” feature, which will automatically rotate through the pictures available in a select album, but even Apple has apparently conceded using a custom photo could be easier.
As a result, as initially discovered by Watch Generation, Apple has added a brand new option to the built-in share sheet within Photos in iOS 11. Now you can choose a specific photo you want, hit the share functionality, and there will be a new option called “Create Watch Face.” It’s pretty straightforward, and long overdue.
Once the user adds the photo, it will be added directly into the watchOS watch face selection, where users can either choose to show it without any alterations to the photo itself, or as a new Kaleidoscope effect that Apple is introducing in watchOS 4. Another new function: Choosing an album to rotate through can be done from the Apple Watch app directly, choosing 10 different images to transition between, instead of depending on a specific album that’s created in the Photos app.
So while custom watch faces were possible to a certain extent in the current iterations of iOS and watchOS, it looks like Apple wants to make that process a lot easier, both for single images and ones you might want to rotate through in an album.