Ocean Watch vs The Wave Clock
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Ocean Watch
Access tide predictions for over 3,300 stations across the US and Caribbean. Visualize tide data with stunning graphics and an interactive almanac. Plan your activities with offline access to predictions and custom notes.
- 3,300+ tide stations
- Stunning graphics and visualizations
- Offline tide predictions
- Interactive almanac
- Integrated station map
- Custom notes and images
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Find your tide. Ocean Watch tracks tides at 3,300+ stations on every US coast, on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch. It works offline. • Offline forecasts. Decades of data and the prediction engine are built in, so the tide is there when the signal isn't. • Tidemarks. Set a height so you know when the water will float your dock or expose your beach. • Beauty with insight. Interactive graphs and visualizations that let you feel the flow over time. • Plan ahead. The Almanac lets you travel into the future and pick your window for fishing, sailing, surfing or paddling. • The big picture. The Weeks at a Glance view lets you see the monthly trends as the moon waxes and wanes. • The little picture. Apple Watch, no iPhone needed. Every station on your wrist, with always-on complications. • Widgets. The tide on your Home Screen and everywhere else. • Area Map. See what's here and where you're going. • Share and export. Send the current tide as a picture, or export a week as CSV or PDF. • Your place is special. We've supplied gorgeous local photographs for many areas, and you can add your own. Stations outside the US and Caribbean have limited support.
The Wave Clock
This app provides real-time oceanographic data for coastal locations. View wave heights, periods, and tide information at a glance through an intuitive analog interface. Customize updates for your favorite spots.
- Customizable coastal location updates
- Intuitive analog interface
- Wave heights and period display
- Tide heights and trend
- Real-time oceanographic data
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Allowing us to view the ocean to us in a brand new way is the Wave Clock! The wave Clock is a simple intuitive clock to see everything we need for our favorite spots on the coast at a glance. The Wave Clock offers: •Customization to give constant updates for your coastal location of interest out of many hundreds of locations •Intuitive analog interface •Wave heights and period •Tide heights and trend The Wave Clock queries real-time oceanographic databases customized to the location of your interest and displays the information in an intuitive analog interface. The Wave Clock app can show you at glance or sit on your desk to give you an accurate view of just what’s happening out there. Just set it up for your location so that you don’t have to search to see what’s happening when it matters … NOW!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Ocean Watch at 4.8 against The Wave Clock's 4.0. Ocean Watch also leads on ratings volume (2.7K vs 5) and review sentiment (74% vs 57%). The Wave Clock's advantage is monetization model (free vs paid) and iOS requirement (15.6 vs 26.0). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Ocean Watch holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Ocean Watch has 2.7K ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 74% of Ocean Watch's written reviews are positive against 57% of The Wave Clock's.
Ocean Watch ships an update every 9 months, The Wave Clock every 6 months. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 1, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Ocean Watch | The Wave Clock |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (2.7K ratings) — better | 4.0 (5 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 73.6% of reviews — better | 57.1% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 2.7K — better | 5 |
| Update frequency | Every 9 months | Every 6 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 15.6 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 137 MB | 153 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Blue Bright Labs LLC | Wave Cast, LLC |
Customer experience
Ocean Watch
The Wave Clock
Bugs and requests
Ocean Watch
Reported bugs
4 issues- App crashes when trying to open tide station details
- Tide data sometimes stuck on wrong location
- Apple Watch app not syncing or updating correctly
- Issues with the app's widget not displaying accurate information
Requested features
5 requests- Add water temperature and wind speed data
- Improve Apple Watch complication to show more detailed tide information
- Expand coverage to more locations, especially in Canada and other countries
- Add ability to set tide alerts or notifications
- Improve stability and reliability to reduce crashes
The Wave Clock
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Ocean Watch
No in-app purchases
The Wave Clock
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Ocean Watch free?
Is The Wave Clock free?
Which has better reviews, Ocean Watch or The Wave Clock?
Do Ocean Watch or The Wave Clock have ads?
Which is updated more often, Ocean Watch or The Wave Clock?
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