Ghost Candles

Deep beneath an ancient castle, a vaulted dungeon hall is dressed for a ghosts' deathday feast: black velvet drapes, cobwebs like grey lace, a tombstone-shaped cake and a fish gone grey on tarnished silver. On the end wall hangs a wheel of black wrought iron with twelve tall black candles at the hours of a clock, burning with cold blue flames.

It is a clock you read by fire. The hour is the number of candles burning: one at one o'clock, seven at seven, all twelve at twelve, so the hall grows brighter hour by hour. The minutes are a ghost's hand, a translucent arm pointing round the wheel. The date stands in pale silver inside the wheel.

What moves

• At each new minute the flames swell a little and the hand clicks on.
• On the hour a spark runs round the wheel from the last burning candle to the next, which catches in a flash; at twelve all twelve roar up together.
• At one o'clock a ghost lady glides through the hall and the candles gutter out in her wake, a curl of smoke rising from each wick, until a spark lights the first again.
• Every quarter hour she glides by, and each flame bends away as she passes.
• Tap the wheel and a wailing face forms in the smoke and tears apart.
• On Halloween night, from 6 pm to 6 am, the lady glides by every five minutes and the face rises at every hour.
• In always-on mode only the wheel, dimmed, the burning flames, the hand, the date, your steps and battery stay lit, to save power.

Make it yours

• Flame: ghost blue, grave green, wraith violet or hearth gold; the light the candles throw on the hall takes the same colour.
• Face on waking: the face also rises in the smoke each time your watch wakes (off by default).
• Three complications on the ledge below the wheel: steps, unread notifications and battery by default. Choose other data for any of them in the watch face editor.

To customize, touch and hold the watch face, then tap Customize.

Works on watches with Wear OS 6 or later. Made in Watch Face Format: nothing to install on your phone, no permissions, no data collected.

Part of Tempus Arcanum, a collection of animated watch faces from a world of witches and wizards.