BrailleWatch is a simple and focused Apple Watch app that lets you feel the current time in Braille, using gentle haptic ticks and a clean, high-contrast dot display.
No menus. No clutter.
Just time you can touch.
BrailleWatch divides the watch screen into four Braille cells:
Top-left: Hour tens
Top-right: Hour ones
Bottom-left: Minute tens
Bottom-right: Minute ones
Slide your finger across the screen and the watch will respond with a soft tap whenever you cross a raised (active) dot.
BrailleWatch supports Direct Touch, so it works also when VoiceOver is on. Once the Braille area is activated, your finger movements are passed directly to the app for continuous tactile reading.
Features
• Full 4-cell Braille time display
• Gentle haptic feedback for each raised dot
• Works with VoiceOver (Direct Touch)
• Without VO completely silent — ideal for discreet use
• High-contrast neon dots for low-vision users
• You can place BrailleWatch as the top item in your Dock for quick access without VoiceOver
Important notes:
BrailleWatch is not a Watch Face. It is a standalone Apple Watch app, so it does not appear on your home screen and must be launched.
It also takes some practice to learn how to navigate your finger across the touchscreen and read the haptic ticks. With a little time, the technique becomes much more intuitive.
The Braille cells are 2x2, because only numbers are displayed and the lower dot row is not required.
Comments
No Braille haptics
When I turn speech off, I slide my finger across and get no haptics other than the normal ones, both in the BrailleWatch app and on the home screen. What am I missing?
Even with Voiceover I get nothing.
I feel absolutely nothing when I have Braille Watch in focus. I just hear voiceover saying Braille time. I turned voiceover off and hear little clicking noises when I try running my finger across the display, but no vibrations of any kind. I'm using an Apple Watch series 7. Oh yeah, and I don't see Direct touch as a roter option when going through my roter options. So, yeah, very confused and feeling no love, much less vibrations or anything resembling dots. Do I need to have contrast on on the display, or does screen curtain need to be on or off? I'm totally blind, so have screen curtain on pretty much all the time.
Usage Hints
Hi @kjw810 and @Joy,
Thank you for using BrailleWatch!
Here are a few tips that should help you feel the dots more reliably.
Make sure that Settings → Sounds & Haptics → Haptic Alerts = On
On the home screen BrailleWatch is not present. You need to launch the app. (I personally have put it into my dock favorites for convenience). In our tests it was not necessary to activate direct touch with the rotor. Apple just defaults to indicate that activation message with VO on.
Start by placing your finger in the center of the screen. In the very center you will feel nothing, which is normal. This gives you a neutral starting point and avoids triggering system gestures.
From the center, slide your finger diagonally toward one of the four Braille cells: upper left for hour tens, upper right for hour ones, lower left for minute tens, or lower right for minute ones. When you reach the general area of a cell, try making a small circular or rotating motion with your finger. This often makes the individual Braille dots easier to detect.
The dots do not vibrate continuously when touched. Instead, they produce a subtle haptic tick only when you slide across a raised dot. We deliberately chose this subtle tick because stronger haptics on the Apple Watch come with an audible sound, and the goal of BrailleWatch is completely silent operation without VO on.
It is also important not to begin your sliding movement at the very top or bottom edge of the screen. Starting there may cause system menus to slide in and cover the app. Once your sliding motion has begun, this will not happen, which is why starting in the center is recommended.
If you try these steps and still cannot feel anything, please let me know and I will gladly help further.
Stefan
Always on?
Hi,
Is there any way of having this always on? It strikes me as redundant if you need to open the app each time to tell the time so I'm assuming there is a way of having it set up so it's the first thing one touches.
Dock is the best option for daily use
As far as I know, Apple does not provide any way for third-party apps to stay always on. WatchOS automatically returns to the clock face after a period of inactivity, and apps cannot override this.
What comes closest is to change the Dock setting from “Most Recent” to “Favorites” and put only BrailleWatch there. Then you can press the side button and tap once, and you are immediately back in the app. This is currently the most reliable way to keep BrailleWatch quickly accessible.