Minimal Binary - Digital Watchface

The Minimal Binary watchface is inspired by the book Snow Crash. One of the ideas in the book is that hackers can directly process information that is presented in a binary format. Because of this, and because I like to explore new technologies, I decided to design a binary watchface design for the Garmin smartwatches. Minimal Binary is the result. --- SUPPORT MY DESIGNS I would like to dedicate more time to developing minimal watchfaces. You can help me by making a small donation or becoming a member for €3 a month. You'll receive automatic updates about new and existing designs. And it will increase the amount of new designs I make. Interested? Visit https://ko-fi.com/edriessen --- The design uses four rows of squares. You start counting binary numbers from the right. On each row, the right-most square represents 1, the one left to that 2, the one left to that represents 4, and the left-most square is 8. When a square is filled, it is active and 'counts'. For example: when the square for 1 and 8 are active, the value for that row is 9. The watchface uses a separate row for each number in the 00:00 format: X0:00 - the first row represents the first hour number. 0X:00 - the second row represents the second hour number. 00:X0 - the third row represents the first minute number. 00:0X - the fourth row represents the second minute number. It might be hard to get without seeing it, so I added some explainer images. These are included in the images on this watchface page in a three-step 'how to read' guide. These should help you process the binary information that is presented in the watchface and read time in this unique format. The design now supports three layouts: - Partial grid that only shows squares that are used. - Full grid that fills out unused sqaures for a balanced look. - Instinct design optimised for those watches. - AMOLED support: squares changes from fully filled to thicker outlined squares to reduce active pixels in low power modes. Besides that, you can set it to show or hide the battery indicator. Based on your time settings (24h or am/pm) the design includes an indicator for PM. This is a small white bar in the top right corner (see screenshot 2). ---- Beta features: - Custom square size (beta): set your own value to use for the square sizes (0 = auto scaling) ---- If you like the watchface, there are multiple ways you can support my work: - Write a review :) - Send me an image of your watch using the feedback form (I love those) - Support my free designs at https://ko-fi.com/edriessen If you have any idea or suggestion, feel free to reach out. Interested in developing your own watchface? I wrote a blog about my experience developing this watchface: www.edriessen.com/2022/06/21/developing-a-minimal-watchface-for-the-garmin-forerunner-55-and-other-watches/. ----- Known issues: after updating the watchface to a new version, the screen sometimes goes blank. This is easily fixed by moving into your watch menu and returning to the watchface. I currently don't know how to fix this. Not sure if it's just a developer issue I run into when testing. ----- Ideas: #1: Highlight square borders in a color when an alarm is set. #2: Add am/pm indicator for 12h setting (added in v0.5). #3: Make battery display optional (added in v0.8). #4: Slightly increase square sizes for watches with bigger screens (added in v0.6). #5: Split layout and use of battery indicator (added in v2.0).

Like my design? Support my designs at https://ko-fi.com/edriessen 3.3 Add setting to disable the PM indicator when using 12hr mode. 3.2 Add setting to disable low power mode design (see v3.1). 3.1 Add custom design for low power modes of AMOLED screens. 3.0 Move towards a fully customizable grid (beta). 2.2 Add support for Epix Pro series watches. 2.1 Change location of battery icon in full grid layout. 2.0.1 Fix layout issue. 2.0 Changes in how the layout works. You can now set the layout and use of the battery indicator independently. This allows you to set the battery indicicator on or off with any layout. Also added support for new models (7X pro, Forerunner 165 series, and Venu Sq 2). 1.2 Add larger layout for 280x280 screens (e.g. 7x) 1.1 add support for new devices (descent mk3, forerunner 265 & 965, 7x solar, venu 3, vivoactive 5) 1.0 reduce minimum api level from 3.2.0 to 3.1.0, making the design accessible to more users. 0.9 add custom design for Instinct 2 and 2S as a test. It's available through the watch settings. 0.8 add watch setting for layout type (partial grid with battery, partial grid without battery, and full grid without battery) 0.7: rewrite code (no functional changes) 0.6: increase square sizes for larger screens (300px +) and square watches (e.g. sq). 0.5: add visual indicator for pm for 12h settings. 0.4: add support for 12h and 24h settings. 0.3: add support for more devices. 0.2: fixed issue with hour indicators. 0.1: initial release.