Stride: The Watchface My Doctor Inspired
A high blood pressure diagnosis led to building Stride — a Garmin watchface that motivates hourly movement through the day.
Day 1: Welcome to the 100-Day Garmin School!
I made this Garmin watchface because my doctor told me I was going to die.
That sounds dramatic — but it wasn't far off. A high blood pressure diagnosis was the wake-up call that sent me searching for a way to stay more active through the day. I couldn't find exactly what I needed on the Garmin Connect IQ Store, so I built it myself.
Meet Stride
Stride is a watchface built entirely around one idea: keep you moving every single hour. Instead of just counting your total daily steps, Stride breaks the day into hourly windows and nudges you to hit at least 250 steps in each one.
Why 250 steps? Research shows that breaking up long periods of sitting — even with short walks — has a measurable impact on blood pressure and cardiovascular health. It's not about running a marathon. It's about not sitting for four hours straight.
How it works
- A ring or arc fills as you accumulate steps in the current hour
- Hit 250 steps → the indicator resets for the next hour
- At a glance: current time, hourly progress, daily steps, heart rate, and battery
Why Garmin?
Garmin's Connect IQ platform lets developers like me build and publish custom watchfaces directly to the store. No App Store approval hoops, no proprietary lock-in. If you can code it, you can ship it.
Over the next 99 days, we'll go deep on Garmin features — from hidden settings to custom watchfaces to health metrics most users never touch. Stick around.
👉 Download Stride free via the link in my bio on Instagram @vawbe.
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