SITREP

A Connect IQ watch face that shows one screen of status: an arc over the top and one under the bottom, a line of data above and below two rows of two, and the time in the middle. What every place shows is a setting you choose from a computer over USB, with no phone app and no account.

Written for the tactix 7 Pro (Connect IQ device fenix7x, 280 x 280 memory-in-pixel screen): Garmin's own bold system fonts, only full-strength colours, and an optional light theme (black on white), which reads best on a reflective screen in daylight. Do Not Disturb blanks the face. A sun under the time shows while the solar panel gets light (solar_icon=false hides it).

No Garmin cloud

SITREP is built, installed and configured without Garmin Connect, the Connect IQ app or the Connect IQ Store, and without a Garmin account:

• Install: the .prg is copied to the watch over USB (sideloading).
• Settings: changed over USB with tools/garmin-sitrep, not through the Connect IQ phone app, so your layout never passes through Garmin's servers.
• No network access: the face asks only for position, sensor history and user profile (heart rate zones), never the Communications permission, so it cannot send anything anywhere.
• Tested with an open-source phone companion: Pulse, a fork of Gadgetbridge. Weather, notifications and time come from the phone over Bluetooth; nothing about the watch or its wearer reaches Garmin or the Connect IQ cloud.

Weather on Garmin watches through Gadgetbridge needs its "Send fake OAuth responses" setting (device settings > Authentication); without it the watch never asks the phone for weather and the weather fields stay empty.

Install a release

Each release has SITREP.prg, built for Connect IQ device fenix7x (fēnix 7X, tactix 7, quatix 7X Solar, Enduro 2). Either:

• Bluetooth: on the phone, share SITREP.prg to Gadgetbridge or Pulse; it uploads the face to the watch.
• USB: copy it into GARMIN/Apps on the watch, then unplug.

Then choose SITREP as the watch face. Updates keep your layout; the face's Customize menu on the watch shows the installed version. After a recent Garmin firmware change a .prg only runs on the model it was built for; for other watches build it yourself.

Build and install

./build.sh                     # builds bin/SITREP.prg, copies it if the watch is connected
tools/garmin-eject             # then unplug; the watch installs it

Needs Linux (the watch is reached through GNOME's gvfs/gio over MTP), Python 3, the Connect IQ SDK and a developer key at ~/.config/garmin-ciq/developer_key.der (KEY=... ./build.sh for another path). Another watch: DEVICE=<connect iq id> ./build.sh, though the layout is designed for a 280 x 280 screen.

Tools

• tools/garmin-sitrep: choose what the face shows (below). Its settings file format code is in tools/sitrep_settings.py.
• tools/garmin-eject: unmount the watch so it can be unplugged.

Every change backs up the watch's settings file first, to ~/.local/share/garmin-watch/backups ($XDG_DATA_HOME, or set GARMIN_BACKUP_DIR).

Choose what it shows

tools/garmin-sitrep options                        # everything a slot can show
tools/garmin-sitrep show                           # current layout on the watch
tools/garmin-sitrep set top=sunrise row1=steps,heart_rate arc_top=solar
tools/garmin-sitrep set accent_color=#00AAFF seconds=false
tools/garmin-sitrep set light=true                 # black on white
tools/garmin-sitrep reset

The watch has to be plugged in (USB, file access allowed) to read or change the layout.

Slots: top, left1, right1, left2, right2, bottom, arc_top, arc_bottom. Arcs take only options that are a fraction of something (battery, body battery, stress, solar, steps / floors / active minutes against their goals).

The option list lives in one place, source/Fields.mc: the face draws from it and the CLI reads it. Rows are append-only, because a saved setting is the row number.

Easter eggs

On by default; tools/garmin-sitrep set easter_eggs=false turns them all off.

Icon	Where	When
UFO	over the top arc	11:11, 22:22, 3:33 and 15:33, for that minute
Alien	replaces the heart	heart rate exactly 111, or in your top heart rate zone
Skull	centre under the time, and the battery icon	battery below 10 %
Ghost	left under the time, instead of the message count	phone not connected
Moon and stars	centre under the time	between sunset and sunrise (18:00 to 06:00 without a position)
Rocket	replaces the shoe	step goal reached
Satellite	replaces the mountain	a usable GPS fix under 10 minutes old

Notes

• Seconds stay on in low-power mode (seconds_always): only the two digits are redrawn each second, inside the power budget the watch allows. If the watch reports the budget exceeded, seconds show only while the watch is awake. seconds_always=false saves battery.
• A value too wide for its place (the side columns are the narrowest) is fitted rather than run into its neighbour: steps and calories first show as thousands (12.3K, 123K), then the value drops to a smaller font, then loses its icon. A number that fits is shown in full.
• Sunrise and sunset need Connect IQ API 3.3 and a last known position.
• Temperature comes from the weather service when available, otherwise from the watch's own sensor, which reads warm on the wrist.

Licence

GPL-3.0-or-later, see LICENSE.

Icons: Tabler Icons, MIT licence, see resources/fonts/TABLER-LICENSE; make_icons.py rebuilds the icon font from the Tabler webfont.