Honor magic watch dial making

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Made a dial for my dad's Honor Magic Watch, which is suitable for presbyopia.

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Please note that this post was published in June 2020 and some of its content might be outdated.

Software Needed

When I just started to collect art source, I saw someone saying that I needed to code xml files directly in order to create the dials, which made me feel very ridiculous. Luckily, Huawei has already released a software to assist in dial creation, the HwWatchFaceDesigner, which makes the whole process of creating a dial as easy as editing a picture in PhotoShop.

First, click on the hyperlink below to jump to Huawei’s official website to download the Huawei Watch Dial Development Tool, then unzip the file after downloading and double-click HwWatchFaceDesigner.exe in the extracted folder to open the software.

Huawei's official website

Usage

In the extracted folder there is a Chinese-English bilingual user manual (relative path . \document\user's manual.pdf), but you can also access the user manual directly from the help menu of HwWatchFaceDesigner. As the user manual already explains in detail how to use the software, I would like to avoid going over the details here and will only list some useful notes that are not in the manual.

  • The resolution of the Honor Magic Watch is 390*390.
  • Leave the dial preview empty when creating a new project, when the design is complete then take a screenshot to PS to export the preview in different resolutions.
  • The maximum number of layers on the dial is 25.
  • Some icons that are fixed in position can be combined with the background image as a single image in PS in the end, to prevent exceeding the maximum number of layers
  • The first image added to the Select Image option in the Week setting is not valid, you can just add an image as a placeholder, the second image indicates Monday
  • A blank png image needs to be selected for the third position of the Select Image option in the AM & PM settings
  • You cannot use ctrl+z as a shortcut to the undo function, you can only click on the undo icon in the menu bar above, and you cannot undo it once you have saved it

Image Materials

To create the dials, you will need a variety of image materials in png format, here are the sites I used to download the image materials.
freepik - background images, there is a limit to the number of downloads per day if you are not registered
webgradients - Gradient colour schemes
iconfinder - Icons, this site has an online editor, there is an Open in icon editor option when you click to open the image, you can adjust the colour of the material online, so you don’t need to import it into PS to adjust it again

Many image materials need to be paid for, it is recommended to check the free option when filtering

Install the dial

The current version of the Huawei Sports Health software does not allow you to add your own dials, but you can use older versions of the software to do so. Here is the download link.

Extraction Code: mpbm

The installation steps are as follows

  • First copy the exported hwt file to your phone
  • Once the device is successfully connected go to the dial market
  • Click on the three dots in the top right corner to open the drop down menu
  • Click on Privacy Statement
  • Remove the Huawei theme service
  • Exit and re-enter the Dial Marketplace
  • Re-authorise the Huawei theme service in the pop-up window
    • Click on the three dots in the top right hand corner again and there will be an additional Add Dial option in the drop down menu
  • Click on this option and the software will ask you if you are a developer, click Yes.
  • Find the hwt file you copied into your phone, click and install it

If you are not satisfied with the current dial and need to uninstall it, you have to reinstall the latest version of Huawei Sports Health and go to the My menu in the Dial Market to delete it. The old version of the software cannot delete custom dials directly in the Dial Market, which makes me feel silly. So I would recommend to make sure the dial design is perfect before installing it, otherwise the whole process of installing it again will be very tedious with a very slow dial installation on the watch, the progress bar only moves forward by one percent per second!

My Outcome

The dials I made and their source files have been uploaded to my Github, so you can check them out and download them if you wish by clicking on the links below.

Source files Dial Download