Comparison

Watch Faces vs HRV

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Watch Faces

Personalize your Apple Watch with a vast collection of designer watch faces and customizable complications. Create your own designs or explore thousands of options, including weather data, countdowns, and battery widgets. Unlock premium content and remove ads with a subscription.

Highlights
  • Thousands of watch faces
  • Design and customize watch faces
  • Weather data and forecasts
  • 1-Click Widgets (battery, WiFi)
  • Countdown timers
  • Health data complications
Features
Read full description

WatchMaker, the #1 watch face platform in the world, with millions of smartwatch users, is finally available on iPhone and Apple Watch! Personalize your Apple Watch with over 150,000 watch faces and powerful complications. Features exclusive to WatchMaker: • Access a collection of over 150,000 watch faces • Discover new designs from creators around the world • Create your own watch faces or customize existing designs • Share your watch faces with friends and the WatchMaker community • Display weather data and forecasts • One-tap widgets including battery (watch and phone), Wi-Fi and more • Countdowns for birthdays, holidays, Christmas and special events • Personalize your Apple Watch with unique faces for every style and occasion Compatible with all Apple Watch models running supported versions of watchOS, including Apple Watch Ultra 3, Ultra 2, Ultra, Series 11, Series 10, Series 9, Series 8, Series 7, Series 6, SE (3rd generation), SE (2nd generation), SE (1st generation), Series 5, Series 4, Series 3, Series 2 and Series 1. Apple Watch Series 3 and older: some watch face styles may not work correctly due to watchOS limitations. Live Watch video faces are limited to 2 seconds and work only when the Always On Display feature is turned off. Privacy Policy: https://getwatchmaker.com/privacy Terms of Use: https://getwatchmaker.com/terms Requested Access Photos Required to save watch faces to your device and set them as Apple Watch faces. Notifications Required to receive updates, new content and app news. Calendar Used to display calendar events and information on watch faces. Apple Health (HealthKit) Used to display health and fitness data in complications, including active energy, activity, flights climbed, heart rate, steps and distance.

About

HRV

This app analyzes heart rate variability from Apple Health and Apple Watch to provide actionable insights into your daily stress, energy levels, sleep quality, and recovery. It uses scientific visualizations and dual HRV metrics to help you understand your autonomic nervous system activity.

Highlights
  • Dual HRV metrics (SDNN + RMSSD)
  • All-day stress curve
  • Energy (Body Resources) reserve tracking
  • Nightly Sleep Score
  • Personalized Recovery score
  • Interactive trend charts
  • Apple Watch complications
Features
Read full description

HRV Tracker — private, on-device insights from your iPhone and Apple Watch. Turn heart-rate variability, heart rate, sleep and activity data from Apple Health into clear views of stress, recovery and energy. Track both SDNN and RMSSD, calculated from available beat-to-beat intervals. iPHONE APP • Home dashboard for HRV, Recovery, Sleep Score, Stress, Energy, Activity, heart rate and weight • Today view comparing your day so far with your usual pattern at the same hour • Detailed HRV, Sleep, Activity, Strain and Weight views • Behaviour logging for habits such as alcohol and caffeine • Daily and weekly coaching • Interactive daily, weekly, monthly and yearly charts PERSONAL INSIGHTS Explore which parts of your routine are associated with changes in HRV, sleep, stress and other measurements. • Influences screened against chance • Stronger findings separated from preliminary and descriptive patterns • Combined effects for pairs of behaviours • “Moving Together” comparisons between health metrics • U-shaped relationships • “Compare Everything” matrix and influence explorer • Personal experiments in Labs Insights describe associations; they do not prove cause and effect. TODAY & COACH Compare today’s readings with similar hours from your history. Coaching can consider sleep, recovery, stress, energy, activity and events such as workouts, late coffee or mindfulness. A separate note summarizes the previous seven days. AI-written coaching requires an Apple Intelligence-compatible iPhone running iOS 26 or later, with Apple Intelligence enabled and available for your device language. Other devices retain their scores, insights and standard app-written coaching summaries. Coaching is generated locally; health information is not sent to an external AI service. KEY SCORES Stress — A continuous 0–100 physiological-load score. When both signals are available, it combines 40% HRV with 60% heart rate. It continues with heart rate alone when no nearby RMSSD exists. The curve shades sleep, excludes workouts and identifies missing watch periods. Stress reflects physiological activation, not emotional stress. Energy — An all-day 0–100 estimate of how much you have “in the tank.” It recharges during sleep, taking Sleep Score and sleep stages into account, and responds to calm, stress and physical effort. Compare it with your usual reserve at the same time. Sleep Score — A nightly 0–100 score blending duration (35%), continuity (25%) and restfulness (40%). Restfulness considers overnight HRV, heart rate and physiological load. Scores personalize as your history grows. Recovery — Compares RMSSD with your history at a similar time of day. iPhone uses up to 30 previous days without including a reading in its own reference. Apple Watch uses a shorter local history, so its quick score may differ. Activity — Combines movement with sustained effort. Workout load uses heart rate when enough readings are available; otherwise it is estimated from workout type and duration, so yoga is not treated like intense cardio. The Activity page shows what contributed to the score. APPLE WATCH • Native Recovery and Stress views • SDNN and RMSSD at a glance • Stress and HRV charts • Complications and widgets • RMSSD from available heartbeat series • Support for dense chest-strap readings • Cached baseline for faster opening DATA & PRIVACY HRV Tracker analyzes Apple Health data on your devices. Your health history is not uploaded to an HRV Tracker server. AFib History on a compatible Apple Watch greatly increases beat-to-beat sampling and is strongly recommended for complete RMSSD, Stress, Energy and Recovery views. With infrequent measurements, some curves and insights may remain incomplete. HRV Tracker is intended for personal information and wellness. It is not a medical device and does not diagnose or treat any condition.

Screenshots

Watch Faces4 screens
HRV4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: HRV at 100% against Watch Faces's 52%. HRV also leads on ads (none vs shown) and monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases). Watch Faces's advantage is update cadence (weekly vs every 6 weeks) and ratings volume (5.7K vs 4). On price, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Watch Faces sells 15 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per 7 days and HRV sells 5 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

HRV holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Watch Faces has 5.7K ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 52% of Watch Faces's written reviews are positive against 100% of HRV's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Watch Faces ships an update weekly, HRV every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 21, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Watch Faces versus HRV: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterWatch FacesHRV
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (5.7K ratings)4.8 (4 ratings) — better
Positive reviews51.9% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings5.7K — better4
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 6 weeks
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad, Apple Watch
Requires iOS15.6 — better18.6
Further details — not scored
Size47 MB13 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperWatch Faces & WidgetsPhilippe Gerin

Customer experience

Watch Faces

All ratings5,721 ratings
Positive86.8%
Neutral3.9%
Negative9.3%
Written reviews1,114 reviews
Positive51.9%
Neutral5.7%
Negative42.5%

HRV

All ratings4 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Watch Faces

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Faces don't sync properly
  • App crashes frequently
  • Subscription issues
  • Compatibility problems with newer watches

Requested features

5 requests
  • More free watch faces
  • Better Apple Watch support
  • Ability to save/export custom faces
  • Improve weather integration
  • Add more customization options

HRV

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

15 purchases

Watch Faces

Subscriptions7
  • WatchMaker VIP3 Days trial$3.997 Days
  • WatchMaker Unlimited$4.991 Month
  • Monthly WatchMaker Pro1 Month trial$7.991 Month
Show 4 more
  • WatchMaker VIP3 Days trial$7.997 Days
  • Yearly WatchMaker Unlimited$19.991 Year
  • Yearly WatchMaker Unlimited3 Days trial$24.991 Year
  • Yearly WatchMaker Pro3 Days trial$29.991 Year
One-time8
  • Starter Pack!$0.99
  • Paid Watchface!$0.99
  • Paid Watchface$1.99
Show 5 more
  • PRADO Watch Faces Volume 1$1.99
  • WatchMaker Premium$5.99
  • Lifetime Full Collection$6.99
  • Premium for lifetime$9.99
  • Lifetime WatchMaker Unlimited$12.99
5 purchases

HRV

One-time5
  • Bronze Supporter$1.99
  • Bronze Supporter Tier$1.99
  • Silver Supporter2 variants$4.99
Show 2 more
  • Gold Supporter2 variants$11.99
  • Platinum Supporter2 variants$44.99

Questions

Is Watch Faces free?
Watch Faces is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is HRV free?
HRV is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Watch Faces or HRV?
HRV is rated higher. Watch Faces averages 4.5 out of 5 from 5.7K ratings, while HRV averages 4.8 from 4 ratings.
Do Watch Faces or HRV have ads?
Watch Faces shows ads; HRV does not.
Which is updated more often, Watch Faces or HRV?
Watch Faces ships an update weekly, and HRV every 6 weeks. Most recently, Watch Faces was updated on September 24, 2026 and HRV on September 21, 2026.

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