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Swiping Watch faces always display 10:09 before exact time

I did not see it with WatchOS 9 or before, but since WatchOS10.2 which reintroduced the Swipe to change faces, the time always displays first as 10:09:31 before setting the correct time one second later. Why is it so ? Is it only me ? Is there a setting to change ? It is really inconvenient.

Apple Watch Series 5

Posted on Dec 13, 2023 1:34 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jan 14, 2024 12:09 AM

I have submitted feedback asking them to put it back to as it was before. Perhaps if enough of us do it, it will change ?

75 replies

Jan 4, 2024 11:41 AM in response to claudeFromToulouse

Yes mine does this as well. It definitely didn’t use to happen before OS10. So the new toggle they have put in haven’t actually put the functionality back exactly the same as it was before. It is clearly much better now that you can actually swipe between the watch faces but the implementation seems rushed and very amateurish and annoying. The toggle needs to put it back properly to the way it was before OS10. Perhaps in the next update ?

Dec 13, 2023 3:06 PM in response to claudeFromToulouse

There are other posts that report the same thing.


The watch faces that are not currently on the screen DO NOT get updated until they are the watch face on the screen.


The 10:09 number is what you generally see on any watch advertisement picture, because of the symmetry of the hand placement. This has been carried over to digital watch displays for advertisements as well.


I'm sure Apple is being cute by having the watch faces that are not being updated, display 10:09 as the time before it gets updated. Just a guess.

Jan 24, 2024 6:19 AM in response to BobHarris

I did file a bug report: Dec 13, 2023 at 11:31 PM – FB13466486


Yes, the hour selection is intentional.


The problem is not the value, it is that when the screen appears it shows a time that is not the actual hour just to update 1 second later. This 2 steps set up is not very clean, at least if we refer to usual Apple's standards for UI perfection…

Dec 28, 2023 1:27 PM in response to claudeFromToulouse

It's been driving me nuts too. I did notice though that most of the info i'm interested in is available when swiping up from the bottom. For example, the date. I miss having a date complication on the Snoopy screens but love the animations especially the apropos ones like raining and waking up. I should probably take some time to arrange the info screens to my liking. (I'd love to see Calvin and Hobbes too.)

Jan 27, 2024 1:33 PM in response to alexrparr

alexrparr wrote:

Yes, but what you are saying is a bit ridiculous - of course it’s a bug - not sure why you keep saying that! It would take an apple developer 5 seconds to see that!!!

Because the value 10:09:30 is not a random number, and Apple uses it in its marketing, along with just about every other watch and clock maker.


And, while I never worked for Apple, I’ve bern a paid software developer 50 years, and I’ve seen stranger things intentionally put into software.


For all we know, it is a battery saving issue. Maybe they were expending power updating all the watch faces the user configured, and found they could save power by not doing that, but did not want the time from the last use of that face to be there for the first tick, the chose to store it away with 10:09:30. Or maybe it is a bug from originally eliminating left/right swipe, and the restoration was fast and dirty, with a quick paste of a 10:09:30 image on the display, until the normal watch face code could do the more complex display generation. I do not know, as I do now work on any code that has a GUI interface, but I do know sometimes you find it is easier to let existing code do its thing, that it is to have redundant code initialize the first appearance.


But you have pointed out it has been multiple releases, with an assumed lots of reporting to Apple (not here, as Apple does not look here for bug reports), yet it has not changed. So either the watchOS 10 rewrites made it hard to initially display the current time for 1 second, or it is intentional, or not enough of the over 200 million Apple Watch users have complained to register with an Apple decision maker.

Jan 4, 2024 6:49 PM in response to RAA-1

RAA-1 wrote:

Yes mine does this as well. It definitely didn’t use to happen before OS10. So the new toggle they have put in haven’t actually put the functionality back exactly the same as it was before. It is clearly much better now that you can actually swipe between the watch faces but the implementation seems rushed and very amateurish and annoying. The toggle needs to put it back properly to the way it was before OS10. Perhaps in the next update ?

My guess is that it is unlikely to change, as 10:09 and 30 seconds is a magic watch number for just about every manufacture of wrist watches in their marketing.


But in any event, Apple is not here. This is a user-to-user technical support forum.


You can send Apple feedback via:

Feedback - Watch - Apple


If enough users send feedback, it is more likely a decision maker will see it, and maybe take action.


Jan 27, 2024 1:17 PM in response to alexrparr

alexrparr wrote:

Yes, but what you are saying is a bit ridiculous - of course it’s a bug - not sure why you keep saying that! It would take an apple developer 5 seconds to see that!!!

I think perhaps you don't understand the meaning of the term "bug". It means "an error, flaw or fault in the design, development, or operation of computer software that causes it to produce an incorrect or unexpected result, or to behave in unintended ways.


It does not mean "a programming or interface choice made by the developers that I don't like".


You can let Apple know your thoughts on the matter here:


Product Feedback - Apple


Apr 20, 2024 1:58 PM in response to moscheja

moscheja wrote:

Yes, that is very annoying ...
It seems so, that nearly nobody uses direct swiping of Watch faces...
If I would be a responsible programmer in the Apple team, the bug would be already fixed...

Not if it is intentional. We have been through 8 updates since 10.0 was released, and nothing has changed. That tells me the change is intentional.


But you should tell Apple how you feel via

Feedback - Watch - Apple


May 13, 2024 9:22 AM in response to claudeFromToulouse

claudeFromToulouse wrote:

That's not the point. The question is not about 10:10:30 or 10:09:31. It is about having the watch display a totally wrong hour each time you swipe.

Think about it. If you want the new watch face to display the correct time immediately, how would that have to be implemented? I can think of 2 ways:


  • “hide” the face until it updates to the correct time - then you could complain about the second delay instead of complaining that it displaying a placeholder for a second
  • Update all watch faces in real time, including the ones not currently viewing. As you can have dozens of watch faces in the background, this would put a significant drain on the battery, and you would then complain that your watch had poor battery life.

Swiping Watch faces always display 10:09 before exact time

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