Guide

The watch app is a full tuner with its own microphone — no phone needed, though your instruments and settings arrive from one over iCloud sync. Its whole design is tuning without looking: the wrist taps out how far off you are, and a glance answers anything the taps can’t.

The front door

Your starred instruments lead; everything else lives under All instruments, grouped by family. Swipe any instrument row to star or unstar it — stars sync, so one given here shines on the phone’s launch screen too.

Tuning a string

The pane is pinned to one string: its name sits large among its neighbours, the arc sweeps right for sharp and left for flat, the cents sit inside the arc’s hollow, and the dot strip repeats the story. When the string has held in tune a moment, its name turns green — done — and the screen advances to the next string almost immediately once you play it.

“Play a note” with a dimmed arc means it’s listening. Nothing moves or reshuffles between notes — a rest just dims the screen.

Switching strings: turn the crown or swipe sideways for an explicit pick, or simply play another string on purpose — a sustained note on a rival string takes the screen, while a brush or a sympathetic ring never does.

The haptics

The wrist taps at the string’s physical beat rate against its target: faster means further off, slowing means you’re closing in, silence means in tune — and a firm double-buzz marks the string settling. The taps carry distance only; the arc gives direction at a glance. An A4 ten cents flat taps about 2½ times a second, and the rate is real physics: it’s the beating you’d hear against a reference tone.

Double stops

Bow two adjacent strings and the pane goes pair-shaped: both names light, the arc shows the interval’s error (upright and green when the pair sits at its targets), the readout shows the beat rate the taps are tapping, and the dot strip splits into two thin rows — the higher string on top. The taps become the pair’s own beats, slowing and stopping exactly as the audible ones do. Lift the bow and it’s a one-string pane again.

Intonation, hands-free

Play the focused string open, then its octave — the 12th fret, or the harmonic. Each sample confirms with a quick double tap as it locks, and while the octave sounds the readout swaps to the verdict: Δ +3.1, green when the saddle lands. Both hands stay on the tools; switching strings starts a fresh measurement. No mode, nothing to turn on.

The instrument’s own screen

The button at the foot of the pane names the tuning you’re on — your preset’s name, Standard, or Custom — with the reference and temperament beneath. Tap it for the instrument’s details: the lock, the reference stepper, the temperament, and its presets — Standard always first, so loading a preset is never a one-way trip.

Settings

The iCloud Sync switch, the chromatic tuner’s reference, and the note-naming convention — all synced facts where syncing applies, with the app version at the foot. Creating instruments and editing strings stay phone and Mac jobs; the wrist tunes.