Mobvoi, maker of the Android Wear-based Ticwatch lineup, is currently holding a contest in collaboration with Facer wherein aspiring watch face designers can create their own designs with an easy-to-use drag and drop system, and the top five designs will all win a TicWatch S, with the best designer also getting a $300 cash prize. Facer has teamed up with Ticwatch to make the Ticwatch Creator, a web app that allows easy watch face creation and submission. Just about anybody who has a good idea for a watch face can make that idea come to life, and this service will continue even after the contest is over in order to allow anybody from first-time designers with a cool idea to professionals wanting to give back to the smartwatch community to make and submit watch faces. The contest runs through May 21.
The tool itself, seen in the screenshot attached below, starts you off with a blank smartwatch face. It shows you a preview of what your watch face will look like in real time as you add and change set pieces, with options like fonts, transparency, and effects on board. You can grab and move individual pieces, and even rotate and resize them, giving you near-complete control over the entire design process. Once you’ve made a design you’re happy with, you can check it out in live mode to see what it will look like on an actual Ticwatch E or S unit, with the different hands and other parts actually moving. Once you’ve checked out your design and ironed out any flaws you noticed while it was in motion, you can submit it to Ticwatch’s design team, and if they like it, it’ll end up available on Ticwatches worldwide.
For those not in the know, the Ticwatch S that’s up for grabs for the top five designers is an affordable premium Android Wear 2.0 smartwatch that’s designed to offer a great experience without breaking the bank, and do it in style. It costs $199, and functions as both a good smartwatch and a decent fitness tracker. It does lack bezel controls, LTE, and NFC, but for the price point and build quality, those flaws can be easy to forgive. That’s especially true given the specs; the Ticwatch S’ stylish body is IP67 certified, and has a MediaTek MT2601 chipset under the hood, paired with 512MB of RAM and 4GB of storage. With the power-sipping processor, you can expect about two days of battery life on average, even given the generous 1.4-inch 400×400 display. The cheaper TicWatch E, at $149, is mostly the same, but tones down the design and durability just a bit while keeping most of the same features.