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Apple

Gallery: Five Apple Watch apps that add serious value to your watch face

By Brandon Vigliarolo July 7, 2016, 1:27 PM PDT Brandon Vigliarolo on Twitter bviglia

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Gallery: Five Apple Watch apps that add serious value to your watch face

How useful is your Apple Watch?

iStock/Jacob Ammentorp Lund

How useful is your Apple Watch?

Sometimes it feels like you just have an expensive Casio on your wrist, doesn’t it? I’ve definitely had moments where I wished my Apple Watch could do more. The Watch is easy to use and wear, but getting real value out of it means cramming as much into the watch face as possible.

Here are five apps whose watch face complications stand out. To find out more about customizing your Apple Watch face and maximizing its value check out the article version of this gallery here.

iStock/Jacob Ammentorp Lund
Gallery: Five Apple Watch apps that add serious value to your watch face

Want more weather data?

TechRepublic/Brandon Vigliarolo

Want more weather data?

There aren’t a lot of weather apps out there that include humidity complications—or customizable complications—that I could find. The exception to that rule is CARROT Weather.

CARROT Weather is goofy, which might not be for everyone. It features geeky jokes, a snarky sense of humor, and even fictional locations like Mount Doom, Nakatomi Plaza, and Springfield (from The Simpsons).

TechRepublic/Brandon Vigliarolo
Gallery: Five Apple Watch apps that add serious value to your watch face

Make the complications work for you

TechRepublic/Brandon Vigliarolo

Make the complications work for you

If you prefer your weather serious, don’t let that stop you from giving it a try: there’s a lot of customization options you won’t get with other Apple Watch apps. You can set complications to show humidity, UV index, wind speed, and other weather data that you really want to know about.

Customizable complications come at a price, though: the app itself is $3.99 and it will cost you another $1.99 for customizable features.

You can get CARROT Weather here.

TechRepublic/Brandon Vigliarolo
Gallery: Five Apple Watch apps that add serious value to your watch face

Don't get lost in translation

TechRepublic/Brandon Vigliarolo

Don't get lost in translation

If you’re headed overseas for business you’ve probably spent time picking through the app store for a good translation app. iTranslate is one of the most popular available, and the Apple Watch complication is only making it more so.

Its watch face complication shows appropriate phrases to use throughout the day, and tapping the complications allows you to speak phrases and get an instant translation. Worried about expensive data charges while traveling? You can access offline mode for $19.99. A bit steep, but not if you want to impress those potential foreign investors.

iTranslate is free on iTunes.

TechRepublic/Brandon Vigliarolo
Gallery: Five Apple Watch apps that add serious value to your watch face

Travelling to an unfamiliar city?

TechRepublic/Brandon Vigliarolo

Travelling to an unfamiliar city?

I had a hard enough time figuring out the bus routes in my relatively small college town—there’s no way I’d want to show up in a city like New York, Boston, Tokyo, or London without someone guiding my every step. Citymapper is that app, and its watchface complication features turn-by-turn navigation that shows subway arrival times, the number of stops you need to ride, the name of the station to get off on, and more.

You can also toggle between subway, car, walking, and bus travel so that you’ll never get lost in the big cities of the world again. Citymapper features transit data from nearly 30 cities, and more are being added all the time.

Citymapper is completely free on iTunes.

TechRepublic/Brandon Vigliarolo
Gallery: Five Apple Watch apps that add serious value to your watch face

Control your workflow right on your wrist

Workflow

Control your workflow right on your wrist

It’s happened to all of us who rely on smartphones: you want to perform a task, but you have to go from app to app to do it. Workflow is designed to eliminate that hassle, and it can do it all right from your watch.

Workflow on iOS lets you set up apps to run in a sequence that executes a specific task. Let’s say you want to save a PDF version of a website and then email it to someone: you can set up a program to do just that.

Workflow
Gallery: Five Apple Watch apps that add serious value to your watch face

Launch workflows from your watch face

Workflow

Launch workflows from your watch face

Most of the “apps” you create in Workflow can be launched right from your watch face too. Take the above picture for example. Tap it and it will message your significant other with your ETA home. It reads your GPS location, uses the Maps app to determine how long the drive will take, then sends it in a text all with one tap.

Workflow is just $2.99 on iTunes.

Workflow
Gallery: Five Apple Watch apps that add serious value to your watch face

Stay focused to get things done

OmniFocus

Stay focused to get things done

There are a lot of productivity apps out there, and Omnifocus 2 claims to be the king of them all. It had better be—the iOS app costs $39.99. If you’re willing to pay that much you’ll be joining the ranks of the users who have overwhelmingly given it five stars.

The watch face complication gives you a look at upcoming tasks, including a total number you have coming due. It also tells you what’s coming up soon, what you may have missed, and how many tasks you have due today.

OmniFocus
Gallery: Five Apple Watch apps that add serious value to your watch face

GTD ... on your wrist

OmniFocus

GTD ... on your wrist

Omnifocus 2 based its design on the “Getting Things Done” philosophy. If you’re a fan of GTD Omnifocus may be a natural fit. The price tag is steep, so be sure to give it a thorough look before committing.

Omnifocus 2 is available on iTunes.

OmniFocus
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Gallery: Five Apple Watch apps that add serious value to your watch face

Any complications you love?

iStock/Sasha_Suzi

Any complications you love?

Five standout apps is hardly all there is on the Apple Watch. Are there any you’ve found to be particularly useful? Let us know in the comments!

iStock/Sasha_Suzi
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By Brandon Vigliarolo
Brandon is a Staff Writer for TechRepublic. He's an award-winning feature and how-to writer who previously worked as an IT professional and served as an MP in the US Army.
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