The Team Win Recovery Project custom recovery now provides official support for the first Android Wear smartwatches from Samsung and LG. The release gives Gear Live and G Watch users the ability to flash custom ROMs and other tweaks, make complete ROM backups, and more.

TWRP is one of the most popular custom recoveries available for Android-powered devices. It’s used throughout the modding community to install third-party firmwares and other tweaks, and to make complete system backups — and it supports a massive range of devices, including the first Android Wear devices.

But there are some caveats for smartwatch users: TWRP isn’t quite optimized for a tiny smartwatch display yet, so although it works, it doesn’t fit the screen properly and its buttons are very small. This will almost certainly be fixed in upcoming releases, of course, but for now you’ll have to make do.

You will also need to ensure you unlock your watch’s bootloader before you attempt to install custom ROMs and tweaks.

To install TWRP on your Android Wear device, you can download the app from Google Play using the link below and follow the instructions (root required). Alternatively, you can use the manual install method found on the TWRP website.

• SourceXDA Developers
• ViaTWRP
• Google Play StoreTWRP