We have posted before about Apple’s new pride face for the Apple Watch, with strings found on a beta version of iOS 11.3. After that release, Apple removed all assets related to the new face from iOS and watchOS. That, however, has changed today with the release of iOS 11.4 and watchOS 4.3.1.
New strings found on iOS explain that the new face is “inspired by the rainbow flag” and that “the threads of color move if you tap the display.” There is also a placeholder image which will probably be displayed in the Watch app on iOS when you browse for faces. On watchOS, we found video assets used to render the watch face, so watch the preview at the bottom of this post and also instructions on how to enable it before the intended release date.
Every time you touch the screen, the face is going to move in a different way.
But there’s a new piece of information we found that is rarely present inside the software: its release date. The new Pride face is set to become available on Monday, June 4th at 12 pm PST. Thus, it will probably be announced during the WWDC Keynote and made available immediately afterwards.
How to enable the new Pride Watch face before Monday
Since the new face is already present on watchOS and it is enabled based on the current date and time from the system, you can actually enable it before Monday. We do not recommend this tho, since changing the time on your devices can have bad consequences, including loss of health data, so do it at your own risk.
All you have to do is change the time on the iPhone that your Apple Watch is paired to. Go to Settings → General → Date & Time, turn off the option to set automatically and set the date and time to next week, any day after June 4th. If you have beta profiles installed, you may need to remove them before the new face shows up.
After enabling the new face, you can change the time back. We recommend doing that as quickly as possible to avoid any issues to your system.
