{"id":298232,"date":"2025-07-28T10:27:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T10:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/298232\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T10:27:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T10:27:15","slug":"i-test-garmins-for-a-living-and-i-install-this-free-connectiq-watch-face-on-all-of-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/298232\/","title":{"rendered":"I test Garmins for a living and I install this free ConnectIQ watch face on all of them"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s easy to underestimate the importance of a great watch face on a sports watch, and given the dazzling AMOLED displays now available on the best Garmin<\/a> watches in particular, it\u2019s worth spending some time considering what you want to see on your wrist 90% of the time.<\/p>\n

The range of preset watch faces on Garmin devices is OK, but when I\u2019m testing them over several weeks or months, I find I get bored of the stock options available, which is when I turn to the Connect IQ app store for more watch faces.<\/p>\n

There are a couple of standout options in the app store, one being GB Fenix8 Like PRO<\/a> that lets you bring the standard watch face from the Garmin Fenix 8 to other devices, which costs $4.99 (there is a limited free version as well).<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

My favorite face at the moment is completely free, however. It\u2019s called Segment34 Mk II<\/a> and is available on most Garmin devices, even including the new Garmin Venu X1<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been using the face on both the Venu X1 and Garmin Forerunner 970<\/a> during my long-term testing of both watches; here\u2019s why I like it so much.<\/p>\n

It has a simple, effective layout<\/p>\n

\"Garmin<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Future)<\/p>\n

While the Segment34 watch face doesn\u2019t necessarily offer more style than standard Garmin faces, its simple layout is visually-appealing and allows you to see a lot of stats clearly at the same time.<\/p>\n

Packing a lot of data onto a watch face without it looking unpleasantly cluttered is not easy and it\u2019s something I think a lot of the faces in the Connect IQ app store get wrong. This face shows your stats but has enough space around them to look organized and clear.<\/p>\n

Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips.<\/p>\n

The always-on face is clear<\/p>\n

Even when the display is dimmed, the Segment34 face shows the time clearly thanks to the large, bright numbers, so you don\u2019t have to turn your wrist to see it.<\/p>\n

This is a failing of many faces on AMOLED watches, which are too dim to read the time without turning your wrist, especially when outdoors.<\/p>\n

You can also customize some stats that show on the always-on display, so I have the temperature on there, for example. Speaking of customization\u2026<\/p>\n

It offers lots of stats and customization<\/p>\n

\"Garmin<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Future)<\/p>\n

Garmin does offer more customization of its standard watch faces than most sports brands, but the Segment34 face goes a step further in allowing you to adjust almost every element of it.<\/p>\n

There are preset colors, which I stick with, but you can customize these to your exact preferences if you like, and you can change the style of the numbers as well.<\/p>\n

You can then choose the exact stats you want across the entire watch face, to the point where I ended up running out of stats I wanted to show and hid those areas to have more blank space on the face.<\/p>\n

If you like complete control over what you see when you flick your wrist, this watch face is for you.<\/p>\n

It shows active calories<\/p>\n

\"Garmin<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Future)<\/p>\n

Active calories is a stat available on Garmin watches, but on the preset faces you can only see total calories burned each day.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t find this stat useful because it includes \u2018resting calories\u2019 that are set at around 2000kcals burned per day automatically, which is a rough estimate and feels low for me based on tests I\u2019ve done as well as online calculators.<\/p>\n

As a keen runner I monitor my active calories fairly closely during marathon training<\/a> to make sure I eat enough to offset what I burn so I don\u2019t lose weight, and having this stat on show is more useful that total calories.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t hit battery life hard<\/p>\n

If you go hunting for new watch faces in the Connect IQ app store then you have to be wary of increased battery drain when using third-party apps, especially when using the always-on setting with AMOLED watches.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve found that with the Segment34 watch face I\u2019ve maintained the same battery life on the Forerunner 970 and Venu X1 as when using standard Garmin presets, so you can rest easy on that front.<\/p>\n

More from Tom’s Guide<\/p>\n

Today’s best Garmin Forerunner 970 and Garmin Venu X1 deals<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s easy to underestimate the importance of a great watch face on a sports watch, and given the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3160],"tags":[1685,53,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-298232","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gadgets","8":"tag-gadgets","9":"tag-technology","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114930388063560010","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}