Strapped In

A lot has happened since I purchased my Apple Watch on April 10th, 2015. One unexpected aspect to owning this device is my fascination with watch bands:

My current collection of watch bands. And no, the watch isn’t upside down.

From left to right, in order of date purchased:

Sport Model with Blue Band ($400) – I picked the aluminum watch with a blue band because I knew it would be spending a lot of time in the water. To date, I’ve used it 110 times for over 35 hours of swimming.

Milanese Loop ($150) – I was intrigued by this band as soon as I saw it during the video at the product announcement. I love how the metal feels a lot like fabric. It also dresses up the utilitarian Sport model so it doesn’t look out of place when I’m someplace nice.

Black & Silver Nylon ($30) – This NATO-style band from Clockwork Synergy popped up on my Twitter timeline thanks to my pal Rob Rhyne. I love that it dresses up the watch and is waterproof.

Red Sport ($50) – When Apple started selling additional colors for the sport bands, getting one in my favorite color was a no-brainer. I also like that a little of my purchase goes to a worthwhile charity.

Orange Silicone ($20) – This band by MoKo was another recommendation from Twitter by Neven Mrgan. To me, the most interesting thing about this band is that it shows why Apple went with fluoroelastomer for their bands: it’s stiffer and “breathes” better than silicone.

Black Goat Leather ($200) – The leather bands from Apple are nice, but I prefer the classic look of this one from Lucrin. The company also offers a huge range of colors: my wife loves the dark green one I gave at Christmas.

In this survey of my growing collection, there’s an interesting datapoint: the value of these bands ($450) exceeds the cost of the watch itself ($400).

If Apple decides to change the interchange mechanism in some future version of the watch, I will have very little desire to upgrade. As I continue to “work in” my leather band, I hope I’ll be using them for a long time.