Google Pixel Watch
Launched at the Made by Google event in October, 2022, Google's first foray into smartwatches required an equally intelligent type system to go alongside it. Designed to complement the primary typeface, Google Sans, Colophon designed a limited 0-9 character set variable font which would be exported as four static instances for four corresponding watch face design variations.
- Typeface
- GW Variable
- Comissioner
- Year
- 2022
- Styles
- Variable
- Coverage
- Redacted Number Set
- Classification
- Display
- URL
- store.google.com
Heavily inspired by traditional pilot-style watches, the type used a uniquely flexible design system ranging from a narrow, gas-pipe style typeface to a wide and bubbly type. Three variable axes — Weight, Width & Rounding — allowed the Google design team to test the parameters of each customizable style, finally landing on four different watch faces available to users, all using a static cut of the variable typeface:
1 — Luxury
A classical watch face displaying all twelve numerals. Additional “complications” (set in Google Sans) include localised times, heart rate, pedometer and weather.
2 — Field
A contemporary, quick-view design with a focus on accessibility. ‘Field’ includes a 24 hour variant that switches between numerals 1-12 and 12-24 as it moves from AM to PM.
3 — Modern Pilot
A contemporary take on the traditional pilot watch face design — even including smaller, rotated numbers in between 12, 3, 6 & 9.
4 — Diver
“Diver” uses a set of custom designed indices and contains almost no typography, with some variants including small tertiary numbers in a bold and rounded cut. An AOD (Always on Display) variant uses inline indices to save on battery (thinner lines = less pixels activated = more battery saved)
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