How to set up your new Apple Watch: 5 things to do first

If you’ve got a new Apple Watch, going from the box to your wrist won’t take very long at all. You’ll need an iPhone with the latest version of iOS 13 installed, of course, but other than a few steps and a little waiting, Apple has made the whole process incredibly simply, whether you’re starting from scratch or upgrading from an older model.

But just because you’re all set up doesn’t mean your watch is yours yet. Here are five things you’ll want to do first.

Set up your watch faces

This may seem obvious, but with so much to do on your Apple Watch, it’s easy to overlook. Everything you need to swap out faces is right on your wrist, and to get to the carousel, you simple need to force-press your watch’s screen. The current face will shrink and give way to a carousel of additional ones, and you can easily swipe left or right to choose the one you want.

If none of the preset options are to your liking, you can browse all available faces by swiping all the way left and tapping the plus symbol. Inside, you’ll be able to scroll through every available watch face, and tapping on one will add it to your carousel.

Christopher Hebert/IDG

Up to 35 different faces can be added to your personal gallery, and that includes different configurations of the same face. If you really like the California face, for instance, you can store several different colors and designs to make it easy to switch to a different style.

Choose your apps

The Apple Watch setup offers the option to install every available Apple Watch app from your phone onto your watch, which you should do. The next thing you should do is switch from grid view to list view (by force-pressing on the app home screen) so you can actually see which apps are installed on your wrist.

Christopher Hebert/IDG

Then the fun can begin. OK, it’s not all fun—testing a bunch of apps on a tiny screen can get tedious—but you’ll want to go through them to see which ones you want to keep. Just because you like an app on your phone doesn’t mean you’ll like it on your watch. You’ll want to spend some time going through each one to find your favorites.

Then you can go find more. Now that watchOS 6 has made its way to all supported devices, you’ll do all of the searching and installing right on your wrist. Just launch the App Store on your watch, and you’ll be able to browse thousands of apps at your fingertips. Some are arranged into editor’s choice categories like the iOS App Store and you can also see a list of trending apps, but as always the best way is to search for what you want, either by asking Siri or using the Scribble tool.

Pick your complications

Back to the watch face. We split this up from choosing your complications because complications rely on apps,…