I would like to have a watch face that allows the user to select either an analog clock or a digital clock for the same face. With help from folks here, I’ve figured out how to create multiple hand styles and multiple backgrounds on my watch faces, but not sure how to create multiple clock types (analog or digital). I attached 2 screenshots of the face design: One with the analog clock hands and one with the digital clock.
Any help is much appreciated!
Hello, the principle is the same, the guide is the same.
What can not be done this way is to have one styles set to swap the hands/digits and another set to pick hands style on top of it. Unfortunately only the top image of masking group has the style option. I dont think it will explain how to merge the sets, but I also attached an archive with example file you can try to unzip and inspect…
AnaDigi.zip (702.2 KB)
i have a trick, you can follow this, if you like…
analog and digital.zip (1.0 MB)
@Hardiki
That is a great example
@smolnar18 you can have one clock with non transparent background and hide the other clock with it. Now you can choose the style of first clock to be visible or invisible.
so when its visible it would hide the other clock underneath since it has non transparent background.
You can example
Analog hand
5 pairs of styles (1 style of the hand, another transparent mask)
Same for digital clock but reverse.
Group the styles..like this you can swap
With 5 different styles for analogue or digital
Wow! Thanks everyone for all the answers!
@Hardiki, I reviewed the wfs file you made for me and it is absolutely what I want. But I’m still a beginner (and non-tech), so it raised a lot of “how to” questions. I realize you or the rest of the folks here may not have time to answer, but I’ll ask, just in case.
I’ll keep playing with it and review yours and the other answers provided, but it seems pretty mysterious to me at the moment.
Again, thanks, everyone!
To understand masking you can follow this blog:
Use Masks to Get Creative with Watch Faces | Samsung Developer
By transparent image I mean any image that has a see through background (like PNG). And non-transparent would have solid backgrounds (like JPG/PNG).
@smolnar18 In your resources you need an image 450x450 px , that is Completely Transparent for Tap to Show and Hide Masking . I could send you one but I am away at the moment . Perhaps one other kind Maker will post one Here for you . You can not make that on WFS . I always use PNG for Images with transparent backgrounds . JPG can not be transparent as far as I know . It takes a bit of testing to learn how to use Masking to your satisfaction . Keep at it .
Welllll, you are all wonderful!!! I took bits and pieces from each of you and finally figured out how to do it. I have suspicions that my final solution isn’t exactly how any of you did it, but it’s close and, more important, it WORKED!!! Yeaaa!
You can only mark one reply as the solution, but you all contributed greatly to a solution that worked for me.
Thank you all for your kindness and patience!
Oh, and in case you’re curious, here’s my project. Feel free to criticize or suggest better ways to do anything.
TestAnaDig.wfs.zip (3.3 MB)
Brilliant . I can not check that right now . I rememberex I had a Budget GFX ( Sketchbokk Pro ) on my Tablet and made this for you quickly . File it it will be useful some day .
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Done. Thanks, @russellcresser.
I personally dont think all Topics have to be Flagged as Solved . These topics can be be left open for us Noobs .
I have 2 more questions I hope somebody can answer.
Why are some transparent .png files actually seen as transparent by WFS and others are not? I created a totally transparent, 450x450 file in Photoshop 2025 and exported it as a .png. It was most definitely transparent. However, when I attempted to use it for this project, it showed up as solid white. @russellcresser, I also downloaded the one you attached, but it also came out solid white. However, when I used one from somebody here (sorry, lost track of who sent it, but it was 120x120), that one was actually transparent and is the only one that worked.
Can I have more than 2 selectable dials? I was able to make a watch face with both analog and digital dials, as you can see from my project file above. My next step is having more than just the two dials. I.e., can I have 2 or more hand styles AND one the digital style? I tried it with just adding one more set of hands. The closest I came was having 3 dials: one digital, one analog, and one that showed both at the same time (obviously, not what I wanted).
I re-read @Peter’s post and it sounds like it cannot be done. Is there any non-programming work-around to accomplish this?
Here’s the finished project that I downloaded to my watch. It has analog hands and shadows, the digital dial, 4 complication tap pads, and an AOD design. I also right-clicked the thumbnails for the selectable dials in the Customization Editor and replaced them with actual pictures of the face with the appropriate dials.
Lions_Analog_Digital.wfs.zip (2.7 MB)
Of course you can.
You can add up to 10 styles and mix them as you like, like 5 different digitals in row and 5 analog in row, or 2 digitals, 5 hands and then another 3 digitals, or just one digi and all other hands etc.
I tried to explain the old thread, it does not matter if you alternate texts or images, each one would have same number of alternative styles of masking image, all transparent but one (which would be either full color or white for texts, or the actual design of hand) in the position of its number in the set sequence. It is hard to describe just in words (in foreign language on top).
I tried to better describe the layers in my example.
AnaDigi.zip (634.4 KB)
What I wanted to say earlier was, that you can not use one style set to switch between analog and digital in general and then two full sets one of hands other of digital styles, if they are all in same place or overlap. In such case all alternatives have to be in one mixed set of styles.
If you placed them to separate areas, you could use full limit of two style sets. You would just mask whole one set at time with different background cut in third set of background styles and show digital or analog (or both or none if you wanted that option too).
@Peter, you are so kind to take so much time to create this great example for me, thank you.
I find I am (again) deeply out of my league. There is so much I don’t understand when I look at the Masked layers in the example. I have just begun playing with it to see what I can learn. I un-masked a mask/layer group hoping it would shed some light on it, but still am in the dark. I’ll keep at it. 
Sorry I made a mistake and overcomplicated the example with shade layers for the time strings a and b. Also using memory saving stretched 1x1 images is not very graphic.
To create what is here called a mask group, you need at least two elements, top one has to be image. Now to better understand what it does, I rather call it projection than mask.
Imagine the upper layer as a light from a beamer. It can be seen only on surfaces it points to (the layer below it). The transparent areas do not bear nor reflect anything. The result is visible picture where these two intersect.
Now if we want to display like 5 different compositions of multiple things (multiple hands, various digits), we have to aim beamer on each thing, each beamer with set of 5 picture frames. Lets call each picture frame a style. The beamers are all linked together (the style sets are merged), so all cast the same frame number at time. To see only one of the compositions at a time, only one frame in respective set has to bear real image, others have to be blank.
P.S.: Now I think, we could save masking groups (beamers) for additional hands set, if we planned them all in same place and same size, there just would be multiple frames with different hands to project. (I guess, this rather added to further confusion than explanation).
