It’s clocks all the way down.

Who would have guessed that the category of visionOS apps I’d obsessively download from the App Store would be…digital clocks?

Hear me out: it’s very easy to lose track of time when using – and especially working with – the Vision Pro. It’s not just that the current time, in the absence of a status bar – is tucked away in Control Center, which requires you to look up and open a separate window; it’s that with this new platform, and with all these new apps, I want to try everything and my brain is reacting to dozens of stimuli every minute. Time flies when I’m wearing the Vision Pro, filling my workspace with windows and juggling multiple tasks, and that’s not even to mention when I’m in an immersive environment.

Which brings me to humankind’s greatest invention: the clock. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could always see a digital representation of the current time as a tiny window somewhere in your workspace? And wouldn’t it be even better if that digital clock had configuration options that, you know, a physical clock on a wall can’t offer?

For the past few days, I’ve been downloading essentially every clock app I could find on the visionOS App Store, and I’ve compiled a list of my favorite options so far.

Let’s dive in.

Timely

I want to start with a simple app that provides you with four clock options that you can place anywhere in your room. Timely lets you choose between two analog clock options and two digital ones; since I’m on the record saying that I can’t read analog clocks easily, I’ve been using the app with its digital clocks, and I like it.

Timely’s analog clock.

Timely’s digital clock.

I appreciate the options for clock configuration in Timely, and if you’re looking for a basic spatial clock that performs its essential functions, the app is $1.99 on the App Store.

Battery Saver Widget

This app is so straightforward and effective in what it does, it’s one of my top picks in this story. The idea is simple: the app gives you a small window with your local time and the Vision Pro’s remaining battery. That’s it.

Time, date, and battery in the same “widget”.

Sure, these are details that I could just get from Control Center, but in my experience so far, it’s faster and more convenient to just have a small window, say, on my left that I can quickly glance at instead of having to open Control Center. The Vision Pro’s battery life isn’t great, so having a persistent reminder of how much charge is left is very useful. You can also customize the app’s clock by looking at it and clicking it to cycle between different accent colors.

Battery Saver Widget is $1.99 on the App Store.

Widgetsmith

Ah yes, the grandaddy of widgets.

Widgetsmith needs no introduction to MacStories readers –it was our App of the Year for MacStories Selects 2023 – but I’m just going to say that if you’re looking for the maximum number of clock options and customization features, this is (unsurprisingly) the app to get on your Vision Pro.

The power of Widgetsmith’s widget customization has come to visionOS, with the only difference being that instead of adding widgets to a Home or Lock Screen, you open “widgets” as standalone windows on your Vision Pro. All the options for clocks and time zones that you know from iOS and iPadOS apply here: you can make analog and digital clocks and change their fonts and colors to your liking; you can create widgets that display the current time in multiple time zones at once, which is very handy if you work remotely with colleagues around the world; you can choose from an extensive collection of pre-made widgets that can become windows in your physical space.

Different Widgetsmith clocks.

Widgetsmith has long been an excellent option to design personalized widgets, and I’m not surprised the app has been a great fit for digital clocks on visionOS as well.

Tizipizi

Created by indie developer Axel Le Pennec, Tizipizi has been my go-to timezone conversion app on iPhone and iPad for a few months now. I like that you can use the app for free but unlock more features – such as unlimited clocks and the ability to organize time zones in folders – with a subscription. But most importantly, I like that the app’s core experience has been made available on visionOS with a twist: on this new platform, you can open specific time zones as standalone clocks in your workspace.

On visionOS, Tizipizi can open individual time zones as windows.

This, in my opinion, is the best feature of Tizipizi. I have a bunch of time zones saved in the app, but I mostly need to know what time it is in Cupertino, North Carolina (hey John), and London. With Tizipizi for visionOS, I can spawn three standalone windows for those time zones, make them smaller, and arrange them in a grid next to my local time. Having this “wall of clocks” beside me makes visionOS the best platform I’ve tried so far for this kind of task. Instead of having to use a menu bar app with a list of time zones or go back to my Home Screen to look at a time zone widget, I can just turn my head to the left, see that it’s 4 AM in North Carolina, and wonder why John is already up and texting me.

Tizipizi is free to download from the App Store, with a $1.49/month or $12.99/year subscription to unlock all features.

Day Peek

I saved the best for last. I love this new app by indie developer Manuel Kehl: Day Peek is a native visionOS app that combines a clock and calendar preview tool into a multi-tile window that gives you a complete overview of what the time is and what’s coming up next in your calendar.

Day Peek’s main window.

Perhaps I’m the ideal customer for Day Peek because I routinely forget about calendar events unless I have a calendar widget always available on my devices, but Day Peek’s concept really works for me. At the top of its three-pane window, I can see my current time; then, there’s a preview of the next calendar event with a countdown that tells me how much time is left; on the right side, there’s a list of more upcoming events.

You can hide the elements you don’t want to see.

Each item can be hidden from view if you don’t need it, but it’s the combination of these three elements that I appreciate in Day Peek: the clock gives me a sense of context while working in the Vision Pro; the next calendar event allows me to see, for instance, how long I can write until I have to record a podcast; and the preview of more events is useful to see, at a glance, what the rest of my week looks like.

In future versions of Day Peek, I’d love to see Reminders integration and perhaps options to choose a clock style.

Day Peek is available at $2.99 on the App Store.