News – Page 3 – Reed Works

Time Flies version 5.0.0

What’s new

This update brings some significant changes:

• Features aligned on MIP and AMOLED devices

As much as possible, the available options and their behavior are now consistent between all devices regardless of the display technology. Most importantly this brings the gesture related functions such as alternate DBox or dynamic hand style to AMOLED devices (NOTE: it is only applicable if you use the Always On Display).

• 6 configurable layouts defining all visible screen components

It is now possible to quickly change the layout and color theme of your watch face for different occasions. On compatible devices, you can do this very easily without reaching for your phone, by using the watch face ‘Customize’ option on your watch.

The predefined configurations also help you figure out how the available face design options (hands, marks, background, data, etc.) work. All configuration changes are kept but can be reset back to the default if needed.

• 2 more themes

This allows more options to define and switch different color and background themes.

• Data fields Opt1 – Opt4 can be configured as circles

This, together with the changeable DBox position, opens many new ways for creating your favorite watch face style. In addition, in the circle mode you also get a circular data level indicator around the perimeter.

• Alternate time or UTC hand option

If enabled, this extra hand uses ‘Outline’ style if the main hands are ‘Solid’, or ‘Outline’ with a different color when the main hands are shown as ‘Outline’ too. Operates in 12 or 24 hours mode.

• Launching widgets by touch (if supported by the watch)

This works with the Opt 1 – Opt 4 data and the DBox.

If a related widget can be found, it will be launched after a long press. Note that the activation of this feature may depend on your watch system settings and power state.

• DBox can be shown on the right side

Note that it will become visible only when Opt 3 data is set to ‘Off’.

• Date in DBox always in English

DBox uses a custom LCD font which is not suitable for many non-English languages. To avoid unpredictable date appearance in DBox, now the date is always shown in English there, regardless of the system language setting.

• Body battery, stress and temperature graphs

Graph x-axis:

Body battery – 12 hours
Stress – 4 hours
Temperature – 6 hours

• Extended hand width range

This is to help our friends who like to see the hands really FAT!

Updating from an earlier version

Because this update is a big departure from the version 4.x.x, some of the previously defined settings will be lost after the update – hands, marks, gauges, data.

However the unlock key will be kept, unless some unexpected Connect IQ error occurs.

On older devices like fenix 5 or forerunner 245, this update removes the ‘always on’ second hand and makes premium some features that were free before. For those who would rather have it as it was, there is a new app on the store called ‘Time Flies Legacy’. It is an exact copy of Time Flies 4.12.1, completely free. But it will not be updated except for major bug fixes, if any are found. It is available for download here: https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/eddbbfc5-c98c-49dd-b07d-5da8f3605f5b

Gradient version 3.1.0

What’s new

Added stress and altitude graphs

The duration of the stress graph is 4 hours (updated every 3 minutes) and altitude graph 6 hours (updated every 2 minutes).

The icon and text in combined fields now centered

Two font sizes for Data 3 – 10

This is controlled by a new setting ‘Big data font’ (by default ‘On’).

On most devices a smaller font option has been added which can be activated by setting ‘Big data font’ to ‘Off’. This allows longer data to fit better on the screen.

However, on some devices which come with enormously large system fonts (Venu family, Forerunner 265 and 965), the smallest available font was used already, so the only possible option was to add a larger font. The effect of this is that after update your fonts will appear bigger, which may be useful for those who want better readability. Otherwise, to revert to the previous size, set ‘Big data font’ to ‘Off’.

Added climb (meters or feet) data option

Fix for status icons (phone connected, do not disturb, notifications, alarms) not updating immediately on some devices

Rails version 3.1.0

What’s new

More OWM weather data:

Air quality (1 = best, 5 = worst)
Humidity with dew point

These options require own OWM API key.

Climb

Daily meters or feet climbed.

Text data fields font size

The text data fields (Date, Weather location, Free text) font size can be set from 0 to 4 (these are the text sizes available in Garmin’s Connect IQ system).

Some devices do not have all 5 font sizes onboard. If you have one of these, font size increment/decrement might not always produce visible effect.

Instinct Pro version 2.6.0

What’s new

This release adds some more data points and ways of presenting them.

New data

Resting HR
Climb (m or ft)
Option to show weather with feels like temperature in addition to current temperature
Option to show humidity with dew point (OWM only)
Second date field allowing different date format (separated by | symbol in date format field)

Alternate circle number format

The existing ‘Circle number’ option was renamed to ‘Circle number 1’ and another option called ‘Circle number 2’ was added.

‘Circle number 2’ generally allows the same choice of data as the main data fields (except date and weather location), and uses the same font and icon.

If ‘Circle number 1’ is set to ‘Off’ and ‘Circle number 2’ is set to something else, the ‘Circle number 2’ will be shown in the circle. Note that you can alternate the circle number format between different data sets.

Resting Heart Rate

On compatible devices (Connect IQ 3.2.0 or higher) it shows “The user’s seven day average resting heart rate (bpm)”. On older devices it shows “Heart rate in beats per minute (bpm)”, whatever that is (It could be entered manually or otherwise the watch has some obscure way of calculating it).

Second date field

An additional date option called ‘Date 2’ was added. The date format for ‘Date 2’ is defined after the format for ‘Date’ in the ‘Date format’ field. The two formats are separated by the “|” symbol.

So for example, in the picture shown above, the ‘Date format’ is “n D|N y”.

There are at least two ways it can be used:

1) A long date can be split in two to make it fit better on the screen
2) Alternate longer/shorter date can be used for different data sets to make it fit with the defined layout

Distance units

In an earlier update, the distance unit (km or mi) was removed to reduce the space occupied by the distance field. But this turned out to be unpopular with some users, so now there are options to choose the daily/weekly distance with or without the units.

Added existing data options in new places

Battery days option added for Data right or Data left (depending on the device)
Solar intensity option added for top and bottom lines

Instinct Pro version 2.5.0

What’s new

Open Weather Map (OWM) Air Quality Index

The scale ranges from 1 to 5:

1 = Good
2 = Fair
3 = Moderate
4 = Poor
5 = Very Poor

As with other OWM data, this may or may not work, depending on your API key validity, which depends on the evolving OWM policies.

Currently, it should work with a “Current weather and forecasts collection” key created before August 2022, or with a “One Call by Call” subscription (free up to 1000 API calls per day – Instinct Pro will not exceed 300 calls per day).

Instinct Pro version 2.4.0

What’s new

Dataset switching by gesture

You can choose how many datasets you want to switch by gesture (from 0 to 4).

Switching datasets requires double gesture, to minimize unintended switches when you move your hand for other reasons than looking at your watch.

When you raise your wrist the first time, an indicator bar appears between Data 3 and Data 5. It shows which data set is currently active – the number of bar segments (1 to 4) reflects the currently active set.

While you see the bar, move your wrist again to cycle to the next data set. This movement must be completed within the ‘Gesture timeout’ defined in the settings, or before the bar disappears. If you find it difficult to get the dataset to switch, try making the timeout longer.

Waking up to full display by gesture in power save mode

If you set ‘Full on gesture’ to ‘On’, wrist movement while in power save mode will activate the regular full screen display for about 10 seconds.

Two configurable data line gauges

They are located above (Top line) and below (Bottom line) the time and present the same collection of data as the circle arcs or highlight.

3 new entries have been added for line gauges at the end of the ‘Color setup’. First for line background color (applicable to top/bottom), second for top line foreground, last for bottom line foreground (foreground color reflects the selected data current level/progress). Remember that each entry has two colors for black and white screen background (this applies to AMOLED devices too even though white screen background is not supported).

If you don’t want to see these new data lines, on monochrome devices just set them to ‘Off’. On color devices, the background color will still be visible, so to hide it completely, you will need to edit the ‘Color setup’ to change the line background colors to black and white (white does not apply to AMOLED devices).

For example, with yellow accent:

Before: 61,56,63,0,60,56,56,52,63,56,62,0,60,0,63,0,61,0,61,52,56,56,61,0,61, 0

After: 61,56,63,0,60,56,56,52,63,56,62,0,60,0,63,0,61,0,61,52,0,63,61,0,61,0

Live HR in the circle

This is the new default setting for the circle number. If you have ‘Live HR’ selected for more than one data field, only one of these fields will be updated live, the rest will update according to your ‘Data update’ setting.

Removed the gap between hours and minutes in 24h time format

Rails version 3.0.0

What’s new

New time font option

Select ‘Opt4’ from the ‘Time font’ list.

Date field now configurable to allow showing bottom icons text instead

This allows much more information to be shown in the bottom icons. Since the Date is no longer displayed in the bottom field, it can be selected for Opt1 – Opt6 data fields. The choice of data points for the top and bottom icons is now the same.

Launching widgets by screen press

This is only possible on devices with touch screen which run ‘System 6’. According to Garmin, it will not become available on Venu, D2 Air and Venu Sq / Music.

In Rails, these elements are sensitive to touch:

Top icons
Bottom icons
Left data icon
Right data icon
Opt1 – Opt6 data icons
Bottom field (if set to date)

A long press on any of the above launches an associated app (if available).

New data options

• Next calendar event time data option

This is only available on System 6 devices, and will not work unless your watch firmware is updated to System 6.

• Battery days icon option

Only available on compatible devices (notably, not on Forerunners).

New power save mode showing big hollow time

Option to activate full screen on gesture when in power save mode

Allows to display full screen information for about 10 seconds on gesture.

RW Sensor

A widget to show the watch sensor data

The options depend on what sensors are available on your device.

At most you will get:

-HR (up to 6 hours)
-SpO2 (up to 8 days)
-Body battery (up to 24 hours)
-Stress (up to 4 hours)
-Watch temperature (up to 6 hours)
-Barometric pressure (up to 6 hours)
-Elevation (up to 6 hours)

The graphs can be zoomed in/out and scrolled left/right.

Several graph styles are possible, depending on the device.

Some options can be adjusted directly on the watch by pressing the menu button.

Besides the graph, the timestamp of the first and last sample of the current span is shown, as well as the duration in seconds between samples.

Operation

Operation is very simple:

1) Use the Select button or a screen tap to switch between Select/Zoom/Scroll modes (depending on the device input capabilities)

2) Use the Up/Down buttons or swipe up/swipe down to move in the currently selected mode

On top of that, the basic settings (Graph style, Glance/Preview span, marker lines) are accessible by the Menu button while in the main display (so it won’t work when you are in glance or preview).

Graph styles

Line
Area
Colors

Color mapping depends on the type of the graph:

HR: according to the sport for which the current activity retrieves heart rate zone thresholds, or ‘generic’ if there is no activity:

zone 1 – gray,
zone 2 – blue,
zone 3 – green,
zone 4 – yellow,
zone 5 – red

Body battery:

<= 25 – red,
<= 50 – yellow,
<= 75 – green,
<= 100 – blue

Stress:

<= 25 – blue,
<= 50 – green,
<= 75 – yellow,
<= 100 – red

SpO2:

<= 92.5 – red,
<= 95.0 – yellow,
<= 97.5 – green,
<= 100.0 blue

Elevation, Pressure, Temperature:

lowest 25% – blue,
lower medium 25% – green,
upper medium 25% – yellow,
highest 25% – red
Color line, Smooth, Sticks

The colors change gradually from blue (lowest) to red (highest).

The appearance of these modes depends on how many colors your device can show.

Download

This app has two additional copies on the store. If you install them, you can display multiple glances showing different data configurations simultaneously.

Download 2

Download 3

Night & Day version 2.11.0

What’s new

Weekly activity distance (run, cycle, swim)

It is only available on compatible devices (generally those running CIQ 3.3.0 or higher).

Shows the distance recorded in run, cycle and swim activities since the beginning of the week.

The beginning of the week (Saturday, Sunday or Monday) is defined in Garmin Connect User Settings.
Compass showing heading, bearing and speed

It displays meaningful data only when there is an activity running in the background.

While recoding an activity you can switch to the watch face by a hotkey or a screen swipe.

The compass field contains 4 numbers:

1) Heading – This is the direction the watch is facing
2) Bearing – This is the direction in which the watch is moving. If stationary, it will show the same value as heading
3) Speed in m/s
4) GPS signal quality (0 = GPS is not available, 1 = last known GPS fix, 2 = poor, 3 = usable, 4 = good)
Escape character in date format

Entering ‘=’ in the date format will cause the next character to be taken literally (not substituted with a date component).
Bug fix for the seconds sometimes displayed incorrectly

Instinct Pro version 2.2.0

What’s new

4 configurable datasets for quick changes of displayed data

How this works:

A new ‘Dataset’ setting option was added for quick changing of the displayed data configuration. It allows to choose sets Opt1 to Opt4. Each set keeps the configuration for the main data fields, left and/or right data fields (depending on the device), and the circle.

You will start with Dataset Opt1 which keeps your existing data setup. When you choose a dataset that was not used before, it will begin with the default settings. Then you can can select the data that you want in this set and save the settings.

The next time you switch to this set from another, your configuration will be restored.
Switching between datasets can be done quickly on the watch, without the need to reach for the phone

NOTE: This is only possible on watches running CIQ 2.3.0 or higher.

How this works:

When you go to the watch face selection menu on your device, besides the ‘Apply’ option, you will see ‘Customize’ if your device supports it. When you select it, you will be able to cycle between the 4 data sets by pressing the select key or tapping on the ‘Dataset’ option. Once done, press the exit key.
Switching color themes on the watch

How this works:

Press the select key or tap the ‘Theme’ option. Then press the exit key.
Escape character in date format

How this works:

If you enter ‘=’ (equals sign) in the ‘Date format’ field, the following character will be taken literally, i.e. not substituted by its assigned data.

So for example ‘=n’ will show an n instead of the day name.

If you input ‘Garmin’ in the ‘Date format’, you will get something like Gar1iFri or Gpr1iFri (depending on the time of the day), but if you input ‘G=ar=mi=n’, you will always get Garmin.
Military Date Time Group (DTG) option for some data fields
Removed units in distances to save screen space
Changed wind speed ‘kn’ (ISO recommendation) to ‘kt’ (used in aviation)