Which Watch Emojis Are The Best?

October 06, 2021

Imagine for a moment that you are an emoji. You are yourself, only pixelated. You have your taste, your style, and your same exact budget (sorry). You are an emoji with a soul.?Now imagine that emoji-you is wearing a watch. What would this watch look like? It would be flat, obviously. But what else? Google, Apple, Facebook, Samsung, Microsoft C?the great minds at Big Emoji C have been diligently trying to answer this question, and together they have created enough watch emoji to fill a virtual showroom. Some, like Google, go full Scandi with a crisp, clean dial and leather strap. Others, like Facebook Messenger, embrace the illustrative nature of the task, serving up a goofy bracelet of a watch that could only be at home in a cartoon. All this to say, the design of watch emoji is as varied as the design of watches themselves. And as in the real world: Not all of it is good. In fairness, creating an emoji is a uniquely heady challenge. Are you designing a watch? Or are you designing the idea of a watch? asked Cliff Kuang, a UX designer and author of the book, User Friendly: How the Hidden Rules of Design are Changing the Way We Work and Play.?? Because we love a good debate, we decided to indulge this philosophical musing and get to the bottom of what makes a great emoji watch. To help us out, we asked Kuang and two other experts from totally different backgrounds C Weston Cutter, founder of Haven watches, and Justin Walters, a designer and watch collector C to weigh in on 10 watch emoji, giving us their first impressions and ranking them on a 1 to 10 scale for style (does it look good?), utility (would this be a useful watch to wear?), and accuracy (does it actually look like a watch?). All this in the service of deciding once and for all which emoji watch reigns supreme.?Here they are, from worst to best. Dont agree with the rankings? Take it to the comments. Microsoft Cutter: This is a horrible watch. At a glance, I cant tell which is longer the hour or minute hand. If you think about watches as representing or attracting a certain audience, I have no idea who Microsoft would try to sell this watch to. Maybe people who had Microsofts old Mp3 player, Zune. Maybe its the Midwest in me for thinking, Well, maybe they're doing something, and I just don't understand it. But I dont think so. I think it just sucks.Kuang: It actually looks like a watch that I can't place. Maybe it was Alessi. Its a little overdone as an emoji because it has a black border around the entire shape, which is competing with the bezel. But it also doesn't extend all the way around the bezel. Its basically a Dieter Rams Braun watch, but the black outline is mystifying.Walters: This has to be the worst watch emoji Ive seen. The hands are the same length, so not really sure what time it is. If you squint your eyes until you can barely see it, it still looks terrible. Can someone give Satya Nadella my info and I'll send him a few new options??Cutter:Style: 1 | Utility: 1 | Accuracy: 1Kuang:Style: 1 |? Utility: 1 | Accuracy: 2Walters:Style: 0 | Utility: 1 | Accuracy : 2?Total: 10 Facebook Cutter: This is a Skagen, right? Its just really simple; really basic. Part of me thinks these lugs are attempting to be full-on wire lugs, like in early trench watches, but I don't know. Theres two things that are just awful about this watch, however: what's going on with the case to allow the strap to terminate as it does in the picture? What black magic is that? Also: Is that crown a cruel joke? What even is that? It's a fundamentally failed watch emoji because of that.Kuang: It basically looks like a NOMOS Glashutte. As a watch, I find the lugs hideously far apart. They are so spaced out and disproportionate to the actual watch face. And the width of the band is also way out of proportion. That thing would almost look like a wristband. That said, the bezel is nice and the crown is fine. But the watch would actually have a lot of annoying details if extrapolated into three dimensions.?Walters: That has got to be a Daniel Wellington. Its a bit boring, although they have put time into designing this one. There is proper shading on the lugs and the dial has depth from the bezel. I think there is also shading under the hands. Not bad. I mean, even the crown is small like on the?Daniel Wellington. Copy and Paste.?Cutter:Style: 2 | Utility: 3 | Accuracy: 2Kuang:Style: 7 |? Utility: 5 | Accuracy: 4Walters:Style: 3 | Utility: 3 | Accuracy: 7Total: 36 Messenger Cutter: This literally looks like the watch that that Papa Bear would be wearing in the Berenstain Bears books. Its sort of sweet it feels almost nostalgic. It doesn't even have a buckle! Maybe its elastic? Maybe they found a way to make leather elastic. I feel like if you could look at this closer youd see an old Hamilton or Helbros or Omega badge; the only thing inaccurate about this is it would for sure be gold-plated.Kuang: It looks like a New Yorker cartoon watch. It feels like some poor bastard had to draw it with some amount of expressiveness to convey brand equity or something. Theres something uncanny about it. I dont like it.Walters: This is another clip art-inspired emoji watch. This immediately makes me think of a watch that would be in a kids cartoon. Wobbly lines and balloon hands. Its not serious. Its a bit fun.?Cutter:Style: 4 | Utility: 2 | Accuracy: 7Kuang:Style: 3 |? Utility: 4 | Accuracy: 4Walters:Style: 5 | Utility: 4 | Accuracy: 6Total: 39 OpenMoji Cutter: This is the watch John Connor would wear if there were an animated series of The Terminator. Its an abstraction of a watch, and its ridiculous, but its got the great style of poured concrete staircases in 1960s-70s municipal buildings put up when brutalism was hot.Kuang: I swear to God they used to sell this watch at the MoMA store. It looks like 8-bit, and I hate 8-bit shit. I dont like chiptune music. I dont like intentionally retro technology C things that harken back to Nintendo cartridges and Game Boys and stuff. And I dont like this, either. Also: Why did you not do the outline on the crown all the way around? Why did you need a crown at all if youre trying to create the ultimate economy and pixels?Walters: I need to accept that the length of the watch hands dont matter when it comes to watch emoji. In the most basic way possible, this emoji works. It looks as though it couldve been created when the first Apple computer came out. Its a watch and I think thats what they are going for. Its nothing more. Interesting that they decided that it needs to be square.?Cutter:Style: 7 | Utility: 5 | Accuracy: 3?Kuang:Style: 1 |? Utility: 6 | Accuracy: 4Walters:Style: 4 | Utility: 3 | Accuracy: 6Total: 39 Emojidex Cutter: This looks like something I would buy. Its amazing. It looks like it has a black PVD case, although its shiny so maybe it was polished. There are four screws in the bezel, which is crazy. It also has a weirdly hidden seconds hand that kind of starts and then goes away. The best part is they actually have chronograph pushers, but theres no chronograph, meaning this is either just bonkers-level stuff, or its a deep, deep reference to some old doctors watches, which had single-minute chronographs. The watch is incoherent, but I love it. Its a total goofball, outsider watch.Kuang: What is this horrible-looking watch? With this ugly orange-and-blue face and illegible hands? It has all the details of a watch; they even put a screw-down bezel on there. And then they have some sort of stopwatch button on the left. There are multiple interfaces on this, presuming it has all these functions that you would find in a very complicated analog watch. But I dont know. I just find it completely nonsensical. If youre going to build a sports watch, why would you make the hands so small and dainty like a dress watch??Walters: Im guessing this was inspired by a Linde Werdelin chronograph? Its surprisingly terrible. It somehow feels flat and three-dimensional all at once. Its not just a bit too much, its a lot too much. Also, what is Emojidex, and why would they choose such a complicated watch emoji??Cutter:Style: 10 | Utility: 10 | Accuracy: 5Kuang:Style: 1 |? Utility: 1 | Accuracy: 1Walters:Style: 3 | Utility: 6 | Accuracy: 4Total: 41 WhatsApp Cutter: This one is almost all yes for me. It mostly works. The crown is in the right place and is the right size. The lugs look good. They are actually trying to make it representative. If it came to life, it would probably be cool. Not sure if its a steel or PVD case, but either way I would wear it. The only real beef I have is that WhatsApp has allowed their emoji makers to align the hands crappily. If you look, its six minutes after 10, but the hour hand wouldnt be between 10 and 11; it would be closer to 10. I know thats annoying and dumb, but it pisses me off.Kuang: Its just really unattractive to me the fact that the lugs are polished metal and then everything else is black. Imagine if a G-Shock became an analog watch. And then the hands have some sort of weird rounded thing that has no relationship to the radai. Youve got this sort of pointless skeuomorphism with the shadow of the pin in the middle of the hands. I hate the look of brown and black together, and then when you throw orange in there, its like, Oh my God, are you trying to be tech-forward? Are you trying to be traditional? What are you trying to be? Its not blending all of the things; its just a hodgepodge of all the things.Walters: There seems to be a theme of Autodromo / Braun style dots over the center of the dial. Without judging the placement of the hands, its not bad. I like the red seconds hand and the lugs seem to have a nice gradient to them.?Cutter:Style: 8 | Utility: 8 | Accuracy: 6Kuang:Style: 1 |? Utility: 5 | Accuracy: 6Walters:Style: 6 | Utility: 5 | Accuracy: 7?Total: 52 Samsung Cutter: Thats a Moser, right? The weird, super-black one that they did? I like it, I guess. But I also dont know what the hell theyre doing. Like, is that a PVD-coated case? And the lugs are crappy. Im not entirely sure why, left to their own devices, they chose 2:30 for the time setting. But it has the most realistic watch strap in the bunch.Kuang: This is weird. You can tell they tried to make a smartwatch, but they actually combined the smartwatch with a skeuomorphic representation of a heritage watch. Look at the stitching on the band, which I think is actually pointless filigree. I immediately think: Is this trying to be an analog watch or a digital watch? I actually think its in the mushy middle where its neither, and that, to me, would make a really unattractive watch.Walters: ??I actually dont care so much about the hands being at 1:30. I kind of enjoy this one. There is depth to it. I can respect the use of highlights. The reflection on the crystal is okay, and there is a name on the dial. They tried to make it look like a smartwatch. Just not one they make. I actually went as far as to see if they sell something like this on their site. They dont.?Cutter:Style: 5 | Utility: 7 | Accuracy: 8Kuang:Style: 1 |? Utility: 5 | Accuracy: 6Walters:Style: 7 | Utility: 5 | Accuracy: 10Total: 54 Google Cutter: Nothing flagrantly wrong here, and I like that our omnivorous overlords bothered making the hour plots fauxtina lume. Thats rad. The lugs are weak, but the crowns great. The hands are meh. Im distressed to not see a seconds hand, but maybe Patek fans will like that. In terms of looking at it in comparison to what the analog version of it would be, this is a pretty classic mid-century watch, but it really doesnt work. If this were an old Omega, Id pass.?Kuang: As an emoji, its really successful. You cant say its a specific watch, which I think is a win. Its an idea, a representation of a watch, and in that respect, I think its actually well done. Its simultaneously high fidelity but almost universal. Theres a world in which you could see this watch on a person, and it would be quite nice. I like how the lugs are not so spaced out from the body of a watch. Im not a big fan of the brown on brown. I wish they would have just made all that stuff black. But I do like the proportion of the bezel to the tick marks on the face.Walters: This looks like clip art. There are no shadows on the dial, but there are highlights on the case and strap. Also those are some pretty tiny lugs.?Cutter:Style: 6 | Utility: 6 | Accuracy: 4Kuang:Style: 8 |? Utility: 10 | Accuracy: 10Walters:Style: 4 | Utility: 2 | Accuracy : 8Total: 58 LG?? Cutter: The LG is kind of badass. It looks like something that would have come out in the early 2000s when people were excited about connected watches. I would wear a watch like this. It looks like Girard Perregaux.Kuang: So the LG one is kind of interesting just because theyre clearly just being like we know good design, therefore heres the Dieter Rams watch. Thats it, thats the move. But theyve done some things to degrade the purity of the original Dieter Rams design. Those hands look like the hands of a Seiko wash but theyve been put on to the design of a Dieter Rams watch. Its like, Hey, were gonna take a classic design and make it worse. Its a very off-brand move.Walters: Its the most realistic-looking watch emoji out of the bunch, apart from the Apple Watch. Its a bit boring though. This could be a watch sold at Target, not that thats a bad thing; its just a bit cheap. I like the use of no lugs though. Makes me wonder if it has hooded lugs or if its integrated into the case somehow, or if the designer completely forgot them.?Cutter:Style:? 8 | Utility: 8 | Accuracy: 7Kuang:Style: 7 |? Utility: 8 | Accuracy: 10Walters:Style: 3 | Utility: 2 | Accuracy: 7Total: 60 Apple ?? Cutter: This is Apple at its bloodless best. Theres nothing inherently bad about this watch and yet I hate it, in the same way every non-New Yorker I know hates the Yankees. If I were an emoji person I imagine I wouldnt have free will; if I did, Id try like hell not to wear it. That said, I respect that they at least give a seconds hand.Kuang: This is quintessentially Apple. They didnt go the route of Im going to convey the idea of an Apple Watch. Its like, no, this is a straight-up picture of an Apple Watch. I could go to the website and pick out exactly which one this is. I can even tell you how much it costs. It has a lot more chrome and a lot more design polish and detailing, but its all in service of this sort of Appleness that theyre trying to communicate. With this emoji, youre evaluating the actual Apple Watch, whose design was led by one of the best designers in the world, Marc Newson. I guess by default, this is going to be remembered as a modern design classic.?Walters: Yeah. Its an Apple Watch. Id be strange to see anything else.?Cutter:Style: 3 | Utility: 4| Accuracy: 10Kuang:Style: 7 | Utility: 10 | Accuracy: 10Walters:Style: 8 | Utility: 9 | Accuracy: 10Total: 71 JoyPixels ?? Cutter: This has the best lugs of any watch emoji were looking at (other than the glorious Emojidex). This legitimately looks like a watch youd be able to buy, and theyve gone one step further than everyone else and have made markers at 3/6/9! And a blue strap! Thats love in the emoji watch world.?Kuang: This looks basically like a Swatch to me. Its a traditional watch design. It's fine ... except is it branded? Thats annoying to me. Samsung did it, too. It feels like two companies that are trying to back their way into some sort of brand recognition moment. But, like, you dont have an iconic watch device. So dont try it.Walters: This one is good. It has vintage-style hands, a clean dial with 12, 3, 6, and 9 hashes, and they have gone so far as to put their name on the dial. They chose 9:00, which is a little more interesting than 10:10. I like this one.Cutter:Style: 9 | Utility: 9 | Accuracy: 9Kuang:Style: 7 |? Utility: 7 | Accuracy: 8Walters:Style: 7 | Utility: 8 | Accuracy: 9.2Total: 73.2 Liz Stinson is the executive editor of Eye on Design, published by AIGA. Her writing on design has also appeared in Wired, Curbed, Gizmodo, Architectural Digest, and The Wall Street Journal Magazine. To read her complete HODINKEE archive, click here.