I've had mine for over four years now and agree 100%. It's a great band and has held up really well.
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Apple Drops $149 Price Tag of Milanese and Leather Loop Apple Watch Bands to $99
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I've had mine for over four years now and agree 100%. It's a great band and has held up really well.
This is exactly my experience. I expected it to be trash but it's perfectly fine for me.
I've found all the $15 Amazon bands to be decidedly $15 bands. They're junk. If you don't have high expectations, they can be adequate for a short period of time. Apple's bands are all much higher quality, and last a lot longer.
My series 4 is the Nike version with the sports loop, and I wear it everyday and also run every day. The loop needed a wash and there's no way I wanted to pay £49 for a replacement whilst it was in the wash. So I bought a pack of 4 multi-coloured bands for £16 from Amazon.
Whilst it's true that the Nike one is marginally better quality (for starters, it has the reflective thing in it - which hasn't proved to be any advantage to me anyway), I don't believe that there's enough there to justify the difference between £4 and £49. In fact, I've not yet put the Nike one back on my watch - I've just realised I'm still wearing one of the cheap ones.
Yeaaaaah, it's about the chemicals. Like I said...that's just me.
They really should drop the price, though. $29, or less. If the leather loop is $99...why so much for silicone? They would sell a lot more, too.
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So that merely proves what the profit margin of these products is, to reduce the price by a third.
Or Apple has made enough to recoup R&D so they can lower prices and keep the same gross margins (this wasn't to discount what you wrote; I'm offering another possible explanation).
The $15 ones on Amazon are actually $5 ones from Aliexpress. So if you want to buy them, get them from Ali.
That's terrible (for me). Did the do the same change on other loops?
My hands are rather large, so I need to loosen the band as much as I can to take in on or off. If I now need to be more careful or start threading each time I put it on, that would put a damper on my mornings.
I would have to strongly disagree with your statement, at least from my own experience. All of the cheaper sport type bands I’ve used are junk. They discolor or come apart. Even my leather Nomad one hasn’t held up very well, and I don’t even wear it that often. I’ve not used a leather Apple band, so I can’t speak to their quality, but all of my Apple sport bands look virtually new, even the one that came with my series 0.
And I wish they made the loop in 38/40... I don’t know why they limited certain bands to certain sizes. I remember when the Watch first came out, Apple said the sizes were not gender specific but they didn’t seem to reflect that in the band options...
I’ve had the Apple Milanese Loop since series 1. It’s my favorite watch band ever.
The magnet is very strong. I actually love it for working out. The holes allow it to breathe. And the magnet may slide a tad, but it’s such a quick step to tighten. Bands with holes or notches feel
looser or tighter based on your skin and how hot or cold it is. Some days your watch is just tighter. With the Milanese Loop, you can easily adjust for that. Yet, it typically stays fine. It looks great.
I can’t speak for the knock off Milanese Loops. I have a sport loop and the old maybe canvas sport strap. They are good bands. I have a $15 amazon leather band. It looks good, but has aged. I’d say it’s a deal at $15, but not worth much more.
Final thing, the loop matches the stainless. I don’t love the way it looks with the aluminum. Not sure about the new cases.
The magnet is very strong. I actually love it for working out. The holes allow it to breathe. And the magnet may slide a tad, but it’s such a quick step to tighten. Bands with holes or notches feel
looser or tighter based on your skin and how hot or cold it is. Some days your watch is just tighter. With the Milanese Loop, you can easily adjust for that. Yet, it typically stays fine. It looks great.
I can’t speak for the knock off Milanese Loops. I have a sport loop and the old maybe canvas sport strap. They are good bands. I have a $15 amazon leather band. It looks good, but has aged. I’d say it’s a deal at $15, but not worth much more.
Final thing, the loop matches the stainless. I don’t love the way it looks with the aluminum. Not sure about the new cases.
In my anecdotal experience, I can agree that the magnet on the Amazon knockoff has gotten weaker.
Also in my kids anecdotal experience, the colored Milanese has started to wear off.
YMMV
Apple's leather bands are excellent. My three-year-old blue leather loop band still looks new. And I agree with you on sports bands as well -- silicone (used by most third parties) is no substitute for fluoroelastomer (which Apple uses).
Folks, a very stupid question, but I have searched everywhere and I can't find it ... I'm not in USA and I want to buy the leather loop band ... but I don't know if one measure or the other fits well... it would be abuse on my part to ask them that with a rule they could measure both M and L (green lines, each one)? For sure, will be very grateful to all of you !!! PD: I know the apple guide, but the information is very wide snif
