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While Motorola prepares for the release of its Moto 360 smartwatch this summer, hundreds of designers have been battling it out in a contest to win one of the Android Wear-powered devices. A total of 1,300 entries have been submitted to a panel of judges in the competition, providing some stunning examples of watch face design for this very modern smartwatch. With a judging panel full of Motorola’s UX and UI designers for Moto 360, and even its design chief Jim Wicks, it’s not an easy competition to win.

The judges have taken 1,300 submissions and created a list of 10 finalists, based on design aesthetic, feasibility, and originality. The result is a mix of modern and analog designs, with some truly unique approaches. All of the top 10 entries won’t necessarily end up shipping on the Moto 360, but Motorola hints in its rules that any entry could be used as a watch face in future. While the winner takes the Moto 360 watch, the nine runner-ups secure a $50 Google Play gift card for their troubles. Motorola is allowing Google+ users vote on their favorite, with the most +1s securing victory on June 24th. Here are the 10 finalists, and you can vote over at Motorola’s Google+ page.

Grid View The first entry is Layton Diamen's striking “vanishing hour” design. The central hour counter gradually fades away to reveal the minute marks.

Will Rodriguez’s entry mixes a disc design with modern aesthetics. The color customized background plays host to the minutes on the larger disc, and the hour is deployed in the foreground disc. There’s also a weather widget and notifications for SMS, email, and health alerts.

Aramis Negron takes a simple approach with this design. The date is stamped at the bottom of the watch face and the minutes tick away in a 360 formation around the hour counter.

Jose Azua’s angles design splices the hour and minutes section with compass and timer options. The minutes are gradually unveiled underneath the zipper-like appearance.

Pawel Hanusowski’s design looks like a radio readout for the month and day, tuned precisely to the date you need. Accompanied by red accents and a classic watch face, it’s a subtle and smart take.

Dave McCarthy has decided to take a minimalistic approach to his design. There’s a simple battery indicator, flanked by almost Swiss railway clock-style minute and hour counters, and a date stamped at the bottom. It fits the watch perfectly.

Jason Wang mixes analog and digital to place a radar on your wrist. A small arc at the top shows the hour and the larger arc below represents the minutes. The second hand simply sweeps over them to create a fun radar effect.

David Pascual’s watch design displays calendar events and widgets to provide basic status information alongside the regular watch functions. There’s Gmail notifications, Hangouts, battery status, and even connectivity indicators. It’s all very James Bond.

Paul Stringer’s effort looks more Ferrari than smartwatch. The speedometer-style watch face counts the hours on the outside and the minutes on what looks like a rev counter. The hands for seconds, minutes, and hours all fly back to the beginning when they reach the end of their gauges, just like a tachometer.

Tyler Allicock’s is simple, yet stylish. A second counter sweeps over the top of the watch face, while the time and date are trapped beautifully inside the bottom half of the design. It’s a fine example of traditional design on a modern smartwatch.



