Designer Stories: Michael O’Day

Every month in Designer Stories, we spotlight the creators who are shaping the future of watch design on Facer. This month, we are proud to feature Facer Award winner Michael O’Day, whose standout creation, MOD-3495 Bold Weather, earned the title of Best Analog Watch Face for Apple Watch.

MOD-3495 Bold Weather is a masterclass in balance for the Apple Watch. It blends classic analog aesthetics with modern functionality, delivering weather-forward utility in a design that feels both confident and refined. The result is a watch face that not only looks striking at a glance, but also enhances the everyday experience of the wearer.

In this interview, Michael shares a closer look at how he approaches design, the tools and workflows that support his process, and the inspirations that continue to shape his style.

Tell us about yourself!

I’m retired, with Facer as kind of hobby-job that provides both a creative and technical interest along with providing my wife and I with a retirement income stream from royalties on the faces we create.

We live on a large sandy Island surrounded by the fresh water of the Murray River on one side and on the other, the salt water of the mouth of Murray as it pours out into the great Southern Ocean at the bottom of Australia.

With no children, but a number of fur-babies, we live a quiet life with our boat tied up at the bottom of the garden and a road bridge nearby that takes us to a little old historic town for supplies and beyond to the moderate sized city of Adelaide about 45 minutes’ drive away.

Other than watch face design, my hobbies over the years have included everything from kite-flying, wind-surfing, hiking, photography and astro-photography. The latter two, in particular, have consumed an enormous amount of free time over the years. 

I love the look and feel of B&W photography that one can achieve in a dark room and more recently, with computer tools.

And as for astronomy, I have not re-built it yet, but at our previous home I built an outdoor observatory for my 12” Newtonian reflector telescope and spent many freezing hours in the dead of night capturing hundreds of images to stack together to bring out the faint nebula and stars in colourful images.

What sparked your interest in watch face design, and how did you discover Facer?

I sort of stumbled into it. I can’t remember where now, but I came across a discussion online about people being able to use an app called Facer to create their own watch faces if they have a smartwatch. Up until that point, I had never heard of Facer and nor had I given any thought to buying a smartwatch. But now I was intrigued and the more I looked into it, the more I became excited at the idea of creating my own faces. A few days later I purchased one of the original Samsung Galaxy watches for the sole purpose of being able to use Facer!

That was around seven years ago and nine months later I was invited to become a Creative Partner. And so, with my wife, the T&M Watch Company was born, and we began to make money from our hobby, receiving royalties from people downloading Michael O’Day branded creations!

How does it feel to have your work recognized in the “Best Analog Watch Face” category for the 2025 Facer Awards?

It was wonderful and a complete surprise. I really appreciate the great job that Facer does supporting and promoting the Creative Partners and the new Facer Awards is a great initiative that will further push both our brands and the Facer app to new users. Given all the beautiful and interesting faces published by the brilliant designers on Facer, I feel honored and humbled to have been given the award — thanks Facer!

Which of your watch face designs (or collections) are you most proud of and why?

Mmm, that is bit complex to answer.

I love both simple, elegant designs but also technically complex faces. If I had to choose, then these two:

MOD-2150 Aviator and C🔔1000 Reserve d’Harmonie are amongst our most popular designs and are great examples of the kinds of elegant or complex faces that can be created with Facer.

Having said that, I am really looking forward to the introduction later this year of the new operating systems that will restore the ability to make truly complex faces, like M125.3 Twilight Orrery GPS, my all-time favourite that is sadly currently limited to Tizen and WearOS 4:

What inspires your watch face designs?

Now that is a really tricky question and varies all the time. Usually, I really don’t know — I often stare at the screen for ages until a thought just appears and I start to play with it to see if it leads to something interesting and different. That was the case with the one above. It started with the idea of showing sunrise and sunset times on the outer edge of the dial and then I got drawn into the technical challenges of adding all the twilight times and then to make it really complex, the positions of the major planets in the sky.

I studied engineering at university, but that was a very long time ago, so I really enjoyed the challenge of re-learning the math needed to make that face.

What’s your design process like? Any specific tools or habits?

It has changed a little bit over the years. Way back at the beginning, I made every element from scratch, using 3D modelling software initially, and then pretty much switching entirely to Photoshop. As my collection of stored elements (hands, marks, etc.) grew, I was able to reuse those. Now I find myself spending somewhat less time on individual elements and comparatively more on overall design and incorporating more digital information.

A year or so ago though, I started experimenting with AI to make basic elements — to be honest, with mixed results. I will keep at it though because I see real potential for the creation of 3D elements that are very hard to otherwise make in a 2D tool like Photoshop or 3D modelling software.

How do you stay inspired when you hit a creative block?

I just walk away from it all and go do something entirely different: go out for a potter with my wife on the boat, looking at everyone’s gardens in the marina; spend time playing with the cats; sit looking out at the lagoon, watching the occasional boat go by; or, umm, reluctantly work on my ever-growing to-do list of chores about the house, garden, cars, boat, etc., etc.

Eventually, my mind resets…

Are there any designers in the community you love following or find especially inspiring?

I have not seen him around much recently, but I love the work that GAUSS does — particularly his complex 3D modelled faces. They are amazingly detailed and beautiful and I can’t imagine just how long they would take to make using 3D tools!

For Apple, my wife and I really enjoy the beautiful hand-crafted faces by Linlay Designs — the thought and careful crafting that goes into them is obvious and inspiring.

What’s next for you as a designer? Any exciting future projects?

With the WFF conversion and re-publishing of our back-catalogue of over a thousand Tizen/WearOS faces almost complete, I will be refocusing my effort to come up with new and unique faces across the Apple and WearOS worlds. And, later this year, when the new operating systems come out, I plan to take full advantage of the complete set of functions and information available to make more technically complex and functional faces — maybe a face with twilight times, geocentric orrery AND ocean tides!

A big thank you to Michael O’Day for taking the time to share his experience, insights, beautiful photography, and creative perspective with us. We are proud to celebrate his award-winning achievement and spotlight the work that continues to inspire the Facer community.

And of course, thank you to our readers for following along with Designer Stories each month. Your support helps us highlight the talented creators who make Facer what it is. Stay tuned for our next feature as we continue to explore the people and ideas shaping the future of watch design.