building-garmin-watchfaces

To develop Garmin Connect IQ watch faces in Monkey C, you can use a comprehensive framework that provides toolchain management, automated project scaffolding, and simulator-based testing workflows to streamline the development process across diverse hardware targets.

Checking Garmin device capabilities like vector fonts and graphics pool size is done through device vetting, which automatically reports and asserts hardware capabilities to ensure your watch face design is compatible before committing to it.

To prevent janky redraws and crashes in always-on display watch faces, you need performance optimization that includes managing per-frame budgets, utilizing caching strategies, and applying strict memory management to avoid exceeding hardware constraints.

Scaffolding and testing Monkey C watch face builds requires specific dependencies including python3, openssl, and gio to manage the toolchain, execute automated project scaffolding scripts, and run simulator-based testing workflows.

The best way to automate screenshotting simulator output for Garmin watch faces is by using the included workflow automation scripts, which manage simulator output capture and sideloaded builds on physical devices.

Garmin watch faces violate always-on display burn-in rules when device-specific AOD constraints are not followed, making it necessary to assess hardware capabilities and implement proper caching and display strategies before finalizing the design.