The strange case of the vanishing Apple Watch bands
I f you have an Apple Watch, and you have not discovered the joy of its universe of inexpensive, third-party watchbands, now’s the time to do so. And if you find some you like — which likely will be priced far, far less than Apple’s own offerings — you should not delay; buy today. That’s because you never know how long they’ll be around.
My wife and I decided to splurge last Christmas and buy Apple Watches as presents for each other. She opted for the gold 38mm model; mine’s a space gray 42mm watch. Both are Series 3 with LTE.
Hers came with a pink, wovennylon loop as the band, while mine had a gray nylon sport band. Neither is much to get excited about, fashion-wise. Fortunately, swapping out bands is ridiculously easy. Rather than using traditional watch pins to attach a band, Apple
My Milanese loop looked so nice that my wife decided she wanted a black one to go with her gold watch. But when she went to snag one just a few weeks after I did, the link I’d used to buy it no longer worked.
At the time I bought it, there were numerous Milanese loop knockoffs, so I went in search of alternatives for her. But many of them had vanished. They weren’t just listed as out-of-stock. Instead, the pages had been removed from Amazon’s site.
I know that Apple has a patent on the Milanese loop. Was it possible that the companies selling knockoffs had been told to, well, knock it off ? Had Apple’s lawyer corps been activated and dispatched cease-and-desist letters to the companies, many of which operate in countries like China and South Korea? uses lugs that slide into the case and click solidly iton place. To remove the band, you just press a button on the bottom of the case and slide the band’s lug out.
Apple sells a bunch of different bands for the Watch, in a variety of styles. But as is often the case with the company’s accessories, many are quite expensive.
Some of these bands cost more
I contacted Apple’s public relations folks and asked. I was told I’d hear back if they had anything to share, but apparently they didn’t. All I heard was radio silence.
I reached out to BRG, the company that made the Milanese loop I’d bought, through its support email. The response said the bands would be back in 2-3 weeks but didn’t offer a reason as to why they were removed in the first place.
Sure enough, about two weeks after I asked, the bands from BRG and a couple of other sellers reappeared, at new pages on Amazon.
Whatever the reason, apparently this is a common problem for third-party bands. The Wirecutter, the product recommendation site recently acquired by the New York Times, says a Milanese loop that was about to be named as the top recommendation for that style disappeared than the watches themselves. The starting price of the Series 3 without an LTE connection — which allows it to make phone calls and receive data without going through an iPhone — is $329. The LTE model starts at $399.
For example, the woven nylon loop that came with my wife’s Apple Watch sells for $49 by itself, as does the nylon sport band that came on mine.
Leather bands start at a whopping $149. Leather bands cobranded with the Hermès French heritage fashion house start at $339 and sell for as much as $589.
Apple’s Milanese loop band, a woven stainless-steel strap, starts at $149. Butterfly-clasp link bracelet bands start at $449 and go up to $549.
Fortunately, a rich collection of third-party bands has grown around the Apple Watch, and most of them cost a lot less than Apple’s. Most can be found on Amazon. before the author hit the publish button. The writer wound up recommending the BRG model, but then it, too, disappeared.
One other thing to note about third-party bands: They likely won’t have the same level of quality as Apple’s bands. The space gray on the Milanese loop I bought has worn off on the edges of the band where it rubs against the connecting lug. Fortunately, the wear is inside the fold of the loop, so it’s not visible until you remove the band.
But look at it this way: If the band breaks or time reveals a defect, it doesn’t cost much to replace. I could buy almost 20 of the knockoff Milanese loops for the price of one of the Apple models. That sounds like a bargain to me.