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Apple Releases Apple Watch Sport Bands in New Summer Colors

poematik13 said:
You're forgetting (or you just don't know, actually) about the costs for tooling and setting up the machines to stamp these out, plus sourcing the color dyes, and of course the R&D involved to come up with the colors and the band design and also marketing and logistics costs. It's an 8 figure $ operation at the very least.

All in all the margin is probably around 20-25%, typical for retail products
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I think you’re right in that everyone forgets the upfront R&D, shipping, packaging, marketing, cost of returns etc., but I’d say the margins are much higher than that based in the price of the knock off bands all over Amazon and eBay etc. Except for the R&D and presumably lower material and QC costs, the knock off bands sell in multipacks of 3-5 bands or more for under $20.

These are highly profitable items for Apple, especially when sold direct to consumer vs. a separate retail outlet. I’m not complaining about this (Tim Cook has to eat after all and no-one has to buy a watch band) I’m just saying that the margins are likely much higher than 20-25% typical retail price.
 
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satchmo said:
It's unfortunate the grey band that came with the AW3 launch is no longer available. That was a great match with space grey aluminum.

BTW, are all pins on these sport bands silver or space grey? They kind of look in between.
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That was Fog.

I believe all sport bands have silver pins except the black sport band which still has black.
 
Relentless Power said:
Yes. One sport band has a slightly lighter shade over the other. They obviously are using a different dye variation.
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Well, yeah... but I’m saying it’s nearly pointless to buy one if you already have the other, unless you’re one of very few people who only buy the new ones to have them all.
 
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ian87w said:
Don't have an Apple watch. I always wonder how comfortable are those silicone bands. I just cannot imagine having a silicone material in prolonged contact with my skin (+sweat and stuff).

I could be wrong though. :)
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Apple doesn’t make any silicone bands. They make fluoroelastomer bands (the Sport Bands, as listed in this article, and the Nike Sport Bands), which are quite comfortable, and quite different from silicone. There are knockoffs in silicone, and you’re right, those don’t feel great.
 
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triangletechie said:
That was Fog.

I believe all sport bands have silver pins except the black sport band which still has black.
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A few of the darker colors (Gray, Titanium edition Gray, And I think Dark Olive) offer Space Black pins. A good number of the Nike bands do as well, but Apple has been slowly phasing them out. The Black/X colors used to all come with one, but recently Apple switched them to silver as well.
 
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FHoff said:
Some of these colors are starting to look similar to previous releases, just new names.
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To see just how many similarly-colored watch bands have been released, look at all the different shades of the same color for the Color face in the Watch App Face Gallery. There’s like 15 shades of red and 37 shades of Blue/Purple
 
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Meh. They just keep releasing the same boring muted colors that are one shade darker or lighter than previous offerings. I wish they’d offer bold colors (think 4th gen iPod nano colors) or bands with cool looking designs.
 
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Haven't these exact colors been available on Ebay through third parties for like forever? Also only $5 versus the crazy amount Apple charges
 
Tom_Aatje said:
I have to say though, I've bought the chinese clone bands in the past and they don't compare. I don't know what type of material Apple uses but it's not cheap silicone and it lasts forever.
I have some vulcanised rubber straps for my regular watches and it kind of compares to that.
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Agreed. I’ve bought a couple of the cheap knock off versions on Amazon and they don’t even compare. They look good but the material is so coarse and cheap compared to Apple’s. Like I said in my other post, I wish they would offer sports bands with cool designs or bold colors. Most of their offerings are muted or pastel colors.
 
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Relentless Power said:
Yes. One sport band has a slightly lighter shade over the other. They obviously are using a different dye variation.
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They’re basically pointing out that there’s not a very big difference between the two colors. It’s only easy to see a distinction when comparing them side by side
 
CarlJ said:
None of the eBay bands are fluoroelastomer, they’re all silicone, and don’t feel anywhere near as nice.
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They also get worn and shiny after a few weeks. They are really garbage compared to apples. I have apple bands over a year old that still look brand new.
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Crzylikefox said:
Haven't these exact colors been available on Ebay through third parties for like forever? Also only $5 versus the crazy amount Apple charges
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The knock off sellers do offer a wide selection of fun colors for sports bands. I’ve only bought a couple, from two different sellers, and wasn’t impressed. Those are made of cheap silicone and feel like a $5 band. Apple’s fluoroelastomer material has a soft silky feel to them that (for me) justifies the $50 price tag. Granted, I’ve only bought 2 of Apple’s sports bands in addition to the one that came with my watch.

The only third party band I’ve been impressed by is an $8 leather version I got on Amazon.
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ThaRuler said:
Apple makes a killing off these bands. It probably cost them $1 to make one of these bands
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I got like 20 for 2 € each on AliExpress and there is basically no difference (in my opinion, but I am not picky) I even got a faux leather band and it’s still looking great while my real one for like 140€ fell apart on vacation in Miami. Probably from the humidity.

Never buying legit Apple accessories again. My original iPhone case also has color chipping off
 
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poematik13 said:
You're forgetting (or you just don't know, actually) about the costs for tooling and setting up the machines to stamp these out, plus sourcing the color dyes, and of course the R&D involved to come up with the colors and the band design and also marketing and logistics costs. It's an 8 figure $ operation at the very least.

All in all the margin is probably around 20-25%, typical for retail products
Click to expand...

So then how are others able to sell the same thing for around $10?
 
ian87w said:
Don't have an Apple watch. I always wonder how comfortable are those silicone bands. I just cannot imagine having a silicone material in prolonged contact with my skin (+sweat and stuff).

I could be wrong though. :)
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more comfortable than any other watch and I've ever had
 
ian87w said:
Don't have an Apple watch. I always wonder how comfortable are those silicone bands. I just cannot imagine having a silicone material in prolonged contact with my skin (+sweat and stuff).

I could be wrong though. :)
Click to expand...
I do have an Apple Watch and agree with you. I find the sport bands very uncomfortable for prolonged wear. I do have a Nike sport band, which is better, but even that I usually swap out after exercising.
 
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