One "lifetime membership free" promotion pushed an Indian outsourcing firm's watch-face app onto the China store chart. What Tima teaches is the playbook, not the product

An Apple Watch face app released in Oct 25 first appeared on the China store's Lifestyle free chart in Nov 4, ranking #34, and gained over 400 ratings in two days. It had no viral videos and no visible ads. It relied on one move: a time-limited free giveaway of its "lifetime membership" on the China store. Below I explain how it got going, whether the momentum can hold, and what you can take from it.

Nov 4, a Xiaohongshu post about "lifetime free"

In Nov 4, a Xiaohongshu user named "Jessky" posted a note titled "Watch Faces & Widgets: Tima lifetime free now." The body was a few lines: "Lifetime is currently free at $0... How to unlock: auto-popup... limited-time event." The tags were #限免 #终身限免 #表盘 #锁屏小组件. The day before, another user posted "Watch face software, free in the China store." Someone else wrote, "Just found out this app's in-app lifetime membership is free right now, the China store is running it."

None of these notes had more than single-digit likes, and none went viral. But China has a group of people who chase "in-app lifetime free" deals: daily deal accounts, deal channels, and group chats that pass tips along. They see it, download it, claim it, and leave a good rating on the way out. The same day, Tima entered the China store's Lifestyle free chart for the first time, straight to #34.

What it is

The app is called "Watch Faces & Widgets: Tima," subtitle "Watch face store · iWatch animated wallpapers." What it does is simple: a curated face gallery (minimal, neon, nature, sport, cartoon, holiday) where one tap installs a face to your watch, watch faces with live complications like steps, heart rate, and weather, and custom faces you can make from your own photos and GIFs, plus an AI generator. It's free to download, and it makes money through the Tima Plus subscription.

It's built by Appexo Solutions LLP, an IT outsourcing company in Surat, India, run by two partners. Two other apps under the same developer account were released in September and October (a family focus app and a "last time I did X" tracker), both with a US rating of 0. It looks like a studio that ships apps in batches and pushes whichever one takes off. Tima is their first breakout, by inference.

The timeline makes the point (from the App Store version history): listed Oct 25 1.0; Oct 29 1.0.2, release notes say "Simplified Chinese now supported"; Nov 2 1.0.3; Nov 4 1.0.4. They added Chinese first, then started the China-store free giveaway a week later. This was aimed at China.

How the numbers rose, and how they fell

(App Store China chart and app page, 11-04 to 11-06)

460 ratings worldwide in total (as of the morning of 11-06), 459 of them from the last 7 days, and China accounts for 445. The US has only about twenty, and Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, and Taiwan are single digits each. It never entered any overall chart, only category charts.

有一个地方对不上:11-06 国区生活类免费榜 20–70 名里,Tima 单日新增 360 个评分,是最多的;排在它前面的石头扫地机(第 32 名)那天 +208,科沃斯(第 33 名)+247,同类老大 Clockology 一周才 +118。名次差不多,评分多出好几倍——不是它下载特别多,是它的用户特别爱打分。1.0.3 时已经排到 34 名但一个评分都没有,1.0.4 一上来评分就涨,最可能的解释是 1.0.4 加了评分弹窗,而刚白拿了终身会员的人心情好推断。

This doesn't look fake. The average is 4.58 stars, not all five-star, and the negative reviews come from real users, with the developer replying to each one.

What users are saying

Reviews visible on the China store app page (11-06):

• "Keeps failing, how do I fix it?": when adding a face with complications, the watch prompts you to download an app from the App Store.
• "Download the app from the App Store to use this complication. An error occurred. Tap to retry."
• "Pure scam, doesn't work, and it won't download. Only the free ones download, and the paid ones show a black screen after downloading. The images don't match the real product."
• "Decent app, hope it gets better. Please add business-style and premium faces. The AI feature also needs work, it can't generate the effect I want." The developer replied at length, asking whether they wanted a "metallic, luxury-brand style" or a "stopwatch style," and asked them to send a screenshot.

Two of the three get stuck. This is the category's old problem: Apple doesn't allow custom watch faces, so third-party apps can only stitch together photos plus complications, then push a configuration profile to the watch. One step fails and you get a black screen or an error. Free-download hunters don't pay, and they rarely stick around for something that won't install.

Who it's competing with

China-store apps with the word 'watch face' in the name and anywhere from a few thousand to tens of thousands of ratings number over five. Tima's features (gallery, live complications, photo/GIF, AI generation) are ones the others already have. The product has no difference worth naming; the difference is all distribution: one free-for-a-limited-time giveaway, plus a Chinese store page that squeezes competitor names into the subtitle. It also runs an English SEO site with one page per watch face (watchface.us, 608 faces, 45 collections), but twenty-some US ratings suggest it hasn't taken off overseas.

On the China store's Top Grossing chart it sits at #145 in Lifestyle: a little revenue, very little.

Will this surge last?

Probably not. A limited-time free giveaway brings people who don't pay, and the rank is already sliding: 11-05 #31,11-06, #44, and by that evening's App page it showed #72. When the giveaway ends, and whether there's also Apple Search Ads running in the China store, nobody outside can see. What it might keep is 500 ratings at 4.6 stars and a bit of ranking under the search term 'watch face'. That's a useful base for organic search later on for a new app, but it isn't a business.

If it were you

C: Worth borrowing one trick; not worth copying this product. Watch face apps are a category that's been crowded for a decade. Tima hasn't built a product difference, and its own traffic hasn't shown it can stick. What's worth taking is its cold-start playbook for the China store.

Who it fits: indie devs who already have an iOS app stuck in cold start, with no ratings and no rank, where the product has China-store search demand (tools, productivity, wallpapers, widgets, that kind of thing) and an in-app purchase or subscription to give away.

Who it doesn't fit: anyone building another Apple Watch face app. Clockology, Walbum and Watch Face Store each have tens of thousands of ratings, and Apple's restrictions make it hard to offer a real difference, while install-failure complaints will follow you. Also anyone hoping to earn money directly from a free giveaway, since the people who show up came for the free part.

How to do it: First, make the China-store listing fully Chinese, with category keywords in the name and subtitle. Tima uses 'watch faces & widgets', 'Watch Face Store', and 'iWatch dynamic wallpapers'. Putting competitor names directly in there risks a review rejection. Then, inside the app, run a time-limited 'Lifetime membership for ¥0' offer that pops up on open. In the same version, add a rating prompt so people who just got something useful rate it on the spot. Pull the giveaway after a few days, use the ratings and rank you earned as a search base, and collect revenue later through a normal paywall.

How to get users: You don't need to make content; the giveaway news spreads on its own. People searching Xiaohongshu for 'lifetime free' or 'China store giveaway' and the daily giveaway accounts will carry it. What you need to do is get the first posts out: you can post on Xiaohongshu yourself, something like 'XX is free forever for a limited time', and make clear it 'pops up automatically when you open it'.

When it stops working: The move is available any time, but don't expect to repeat it. If the same app gives away the same thing a second time, the hunters won't come back. Apple may also start watching for rating prompts timed right after a user gets a benefit.

Signs you misjudged it: (1) Two weeks after the giveaway ends, Tima still holds a spot in the top 100 of the China store's free Lifestyle chart, and its grossing rank is climbing. That would mean some giveaway users really stayed and paid, and the trick is worth more than it looks, so you'd raise the grade. (2) The reverse: if within a week it drops off the China Lifestyle chart and its rating count stalls around 500, the giveaway only bought a few days of buzz, nowhere near a foundation.