Version 1.0 — A feature-rich firmware for SQFMI Watchy smartwatches
ElijaxApps is a comprehensive firmware for Watchy smartwatches built on ESP32-S3. It integrates 76+ watchfaces from the community, a unified UiSDK framework for consistent rendering, and a full suite of network-enabled apps for productivity and diagnostics.
- 🎨 76+ Watchfaces — Analog, digital, retro, pixel art, and game-themed designs
- 🌓 Dark/Light Theme — Global theme with automatic bitmap inversion
- 🛜 Network Apps — WiFi connectivity, NTP sync, weather, ping, traceroute, port scanner, DNS lookup, WHOIS, DuckDuckGo search, news reader, and more
- 📱 BLE OTA Updates — Over-the-air firmware updates via Bluetooth
- ⏰ Built-in Apps — Alarm, chronometer, timer, accelerometer, moon phase, sunrise/sunset, Morse code game
- 📖 Text Browser — View and scroll through text documents
- 🔧 WiFi Manager — Easy setup and connection management
76+ watchfaces with themes from retro LCD displays to modern digital art
Click to expand full watchface list (76 total)
- 7_SEG — Classic 7-segment LCD display
- 7_SEG_LIGHT — Light variant of 7-segment
- Analog — Traditional analog clock with hands
- Bad_For_Eye — High-contrast glitch aesthetic
- Bahn — Railway station inspired design
- Basic — Minimalist time display
- BCD — Binary-coded decimal representation
- beastie — BSD daemon mascot
- Big_Time — Large, bold digits
- Binary — Binary time representation
- BinaryBlocks — Block-based binary clock
- BotWatchy — The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild HUD
- Brainwork — Collection of artistic designs
- BTTF — Back to the Future time circuit
- Calculator_Watchy — Functional calculator interface
- Calculateur — French calculator design
- Calendar_WatchFace — Monthly calendar view
- Captn_Wednesday — Nautical themed display
- Castle_of_Watchy — Castle of Heart game inspired
- Chaos_-_Lorenz_Attractor — Mathematical visualization
- Chronometer — Professional chronograph layout
- CityWeather — Location-aware weather display
- Dali — Surrealist melting clock
- dkTime — Danish design aesthetic
- Digdug_Watch — Dig Dug arcade game tribute
- DOS — MS-DOS terminal interface
- erika_Type — Typewriter inspired font
- Exactly-Words — Written time format ("ten thirty")
- Hobbit_Time — The Hobbit themed design
- Jarvis — Iron Man AI interface
- Kave_Watchy — Jet Kave Adventure HUD
- Keen — Commander Keen game aesthetic
- Kitty — Cat photo with time overlay
- Last_Laugh — Batman Joker theme
- LCARS — Star Trek computer interface
- Line — Minimalist line-based time
- MacPaint — Classic Mac bitmap art
- Mario — Super Mario Bros. pixel art
- Marquee — Isometric billboard scene
- Maze — Random maze with time
- MetaBall — Animated blob simulation
- Mickey — Mickey Mouse cartoon style
- Multi_face_Watchy — Multiple face switching
- Orbital — Planetary orbit visualization
- Pip-Boy — Fallout game interface
- Poe — Gothic literature tribute
- Pokemon — Pokémon Game Boy style
- pxl999 — Pixelated weather display
- QArtCode — QR code with custom image
- QLock — Word clock (quarter, half, o'clock)
- QR_Watchface — Pure QR code time
- Re-Dub — Reggae/dub aesthetic
- Revolution — French Revolutionary calendar
- S2Analog — Circular analog layout
- Shadow_Clock — 3D shadow projection
- Shijian — Chinese characters time
- Skully — Skull pixel art
- Skykid_Watch — Sky Kid arcade game
- Slacker — Linux terminal theme
- SmartWatchy — Feature-packed smart display
- Spiral_Watchy — Spiral time visualization
- Squarbital — Square orbital animation
- Squaro — Blocky digit design
- Star_Wars_Aurebesh — Star Wars alien script
- StarryHorizon — Night sky with stars
- Stationary_Text — Fixed text layout
- Steps — Step counter focus
- SW_Watchy — Star Wars Galactic Basic
- Sundial — Sun position timekeeping
- Tetris — Tetris block arrangement
- The_Blob — Morphing blob animation
- Triangle — Geometric triangle pattern
- TypoStyle — Typography focused design
- Watchy_Akira — Akira anime aesthetic
- Watchy_PowerShell — Windows PowerShell terminal
- WatchySevenSegment — Advanced 7-segment with stopwatch
- X_marks_the_spot — Treasure map style
- About — Firmware version and device info
- Accelerometer — Real-time motion sensor data
- Alarm — Set wake-up alarms with vibration
- Buzz — Manual vibration motor test
- Chronometer — Stopwatch with lap timer
- Timer — Countdown timer
- Time — Current time and date display
- Connect WiFi — Quick WiFi connection
- Setup WiFi — WiFi network configuration
- Sync NTP — Manual time synchronization
- DNS LookUp — Resolve domain names to IPs
- DuckDuckGo Search — Privacy-focused web search
- News Reader — RSS feed reader
- Ping — ICMP echo request diagnostics
- Port Scanner — TCP port availability checker
- Postman — HTTP API testing tool
- Traceroute — Network hop visualization
- Whois — Domain registration lookup
- Moon Phase — Current lunar phase calculation
- MoonRise — Moon rise/set times
- SunRise — Sunrise/sunset calculator
- Morse Game — Learn Morse code interactively
- Radio — (placeholder for future extension)
- Text Browser — Read long text documents with scrolling
- Theme — Toggle between dark/light modes
- Firmware Update — BLE OTA update interface
All watchfaces and apps use the UiSDK (Unified Interface SDK) for consistent rendering. The SDK provides:
- Display wrappers — All drawing primitives (pixels, lines, shapes, text, bitmaps)
- Theme system — Automatic dark/light mode with polarity-aware inversion
- Spec-based UI — Declarative layouts using structured specs (
UITextSpec,UIImageSpec,UIMenuSpec, etc.) - Font registry — Centralized font management
- Input helpers — Debounced button reading
#include "sdk/UiSDK.h"
void draw(Watchy &watchy) {
UiSDK::setPolarity(WatchfacePolarity::BlackOnWhite);
auto &display = watchy.display;
uint16_t bg = UiSDK::getWatchfaceBg(BASE_POLARITY);
uint16_t fg = UiSDK::getWatchfaceFg(BASE_POLARITY);
UiSDK::setFullWindow(display);
UiSDK::fillScreen(display, bg);
UiSDK::setTextColor(display, fg);
UiSDK::setFont(display, &FreeMonoBold18pt7b);
UiSDK::setCursor(display, 30, 100);
UiSDK::print(display, "Hello Watchy!");
UiSDK::displayUpdate(display);
}👉 See SDK_REFERENCE.md for complete API documentation
- SQFMI Watchy (ESP32-S3 variant recommended)
- USB-C cable (for programming and power)
- PlatformIO (CLI or IDE)
- Python 3.x (for build tools)
- Git (for cloning repository)
-
Clone the repository:
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/ElijaxApps-watchy cd ElijaxApps-watchy -
Install dependencies: PlatformIO will auto-install all dependencies from
platformio.ini -
Build the firmware:
platformio run --environment esp32-s3-devkitc-1
-
Flash to device:
platformio run --target upload --environment esp32-s3-devkitc-1
-
Monitor serial output (optional):
platformio device monitor --environment esp32-s3-devkitc-1
-
Set WiFi credentials:
- Navigate to: Menu → Setup WiFi
- Select your network and enter password
- WiFi credentials persist across reboots
-
Sync time:
- Navigate to: Menu → Sync NTP
- Connects to NTP server and updates RTC
-
Select watchface:
- Hold MENU button (top-left) for 2 seconds
- Navigate with UP/DOWN buttons
- Press MENU to confirm selection
.
├── src/
│ ├── apps/ # Built-in applications
│ ├── os/ # OS core (menu system, watchface dispatcher)
│ ├── sdk/ # UiSDK framework (UiSDK.h, UiTemplates.h, Fonts.h)
│ ├── settings/ # Persistent settings storage
│ ├── watchy/ # Watchy hardware abstraction (Watchy.cpp, RTC, display)
│ └── watchfaces/ # 76 watchface implementations
├── examples/
│ └── HelloWorldApp/ # Minimal example app
├── tools/ # Python scripts for watchface import/analysis
├── include/ # Platform-specific headers
├── lib/ # External libraries (if any)
├── test/ # Unit tests (placeholder)
├── platformio.ini # PlatformIO build configuration
├── partitions_8mb_huge_app.csv # ESP32 flash partition table
├── sdkconfig.esp32-s3-devkitc-1 # ESP-IDF SDK config
├── SDK_REFERENCE.md # Complete UiSDK API documentation
├── FIRMWARE_MANUAL.md # User manual (buttons, menus, apps)
├── THEME_SYSTEM.md # Theme/polarity deep dive
├── LICENSE # GPLv3 license
├── AUTHORS.md # Credits and contributors
└── README.md # This file
- SDK_REFERENCE.md — Complete UiSDK API reference
- FIRMWARE_MANUAL.md — User guide (buttons, menus, features)
- THEME_SYSTEM.md — How theme inversion works
- examples/HelloWorldApp/ — Tutorial app
- tools/watchface_polarities_report.md — Watchface polarity analysis
Contributions are welcome! Please follow these guidelines:
- Fork the repository
- Create a feature branch:
git checkout -b feature/your-feature - Use UiSDK functions for all display operations (see SDK_REFERENCE.md)
- Set watchface polarity correctly (
UiSDK::setPolarity()) - Test with both themes (dark and light mode)
- Submit a pull request with clear description
- Create folder
src/watchfaces/YourWatchface/ - Implement
YourWatchface.cppwithdraw(Watchy &watchy)function - Add entry to
src/sdk/WatchfaceRegistry.cpp - Add menu item to watchface selector
- Set correct
WatchfacePolarityinUiSDK::polarityForFaceId() - Build and test with both themes
👉 See examples/HelloWorldApp/ for reference implementation
- QArtCode watchface: May hang on slow network (timeout added, but slow servers can still cause delays)
- Memory constraints: With 76 watchfaces compiled, ROM usage is ~68% (4.8 MB / 7.0 MB available)
- Deep sleep accuracy: RTC drift mitigation implemented (microsecond alignment), but crystal tolerance affects long-term accuracy
Workarounds and fixes are documented in FIRMWARE_MANUAL.md
This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 (GPLv3).
You are free to:
- ✅ Use this firmware on your Watchy device
- ✅ Modify and redistribute under the same license
- ✅ Use for commercial purposes (hardware sales, etc.)
You must:
⚠️ Disclose source code when distributing⚠️ Include a copy of GPLv3 license⚠️ State changes made to the original code
See LICENSE file for full terms.
- SQFMI (squarofumi) — Original Watchy hardware and firmware
https://github.com/sqfmi/Watchy
- Elías A. Angulo Klein (crossplatformdev)
Firmware integration, UiSDK framework, theme system, app suite, build system
This firmware integrates 76+ community watchfaces. See AUTHORS.md for complete credits.
Notable contributors:
- Bill Eichner — Multi_face_Watchy, Slacker, Calendar_WatchFace
- peerdavid — BTTF, LCARS, BCD, Steps, Jarvis
- My-Key — Castle_of_Watchy, Kave_Watchy, Skykid_Watch, Digdug_Watch, Dali
- rontalman — Marquee (pixel art)
- 75thTrombone — BotWatchy resources
- ...and many others (see AUTHORS.md)
- Adafruit GFX Library — Graphics primitives
- GxEPD2 — E-paper display driver
- ESP32 Arduino Core — Espressif ESP32 support
- NTPClient — Network time synchronization
- WiFiManager — WiFi configuration portal
- QRCode — QR code generation
- ArduinoJson — JSON parsing
- Sunset / MoonPhase / MoonRise / SunRise — Astronomy calculations
Full dependency list in platformio.ini
- Watchy Official Discord: https://discord.gg/watchy
- SQFMI Forum: https://forum.sqfmi.com/
- Reddit: r/Watchy
Report issues: https://github.com/yourusername/ElijaxApps-watchy/issues
Discussions: https://github.com/yourusername/ElijaxApps-watchy/discussions
- ✨ Initial release
- ✨ 76 integrated watchfaces
- ✨ UiSDK framework with theme system
- ✨ 20+ built-in apps (network, astronomy, games)
- ✨ BLE OTA updates
- ✨ Comprehensive documentation suite
- 🐛 Fixed clock drift issue (microsecond deep-sleep alignment)
- 🐛 Fixed QArtCode hang (HTTP timeout + fallback)
- 🔧 Mass SDK migration (all watchfaces use
UiSDK::*functions)
Built with ❤️ for the Watchy community
If you find this firmware useful, please ⭐ star the repository and share with other Watchy users!
