Not a huge fan of the bands myself. I do think the sport band is great for what it is... something to work out in and feels very comfortable. I ordered two sports bands and a click adapter along with a leather band that I think looks way better than anything offered by apple.http://www.hirschstraps.com/collections/leather-hirsch-straps/products/hirsch-lucca-tuscan-leather-watch-strap-gold-brown
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My Try-on Experience - All the bands suck
- Thread starter VirtualRain
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I tried on the classic buckle, and my thoughts were, "my, that's thick leather!" It felt okay, but it was thicker and wider than the watch bands I'm used to wearing.
The look and feel of the leather bands solidified my decision to downgrade to an aluminum watch with sports band. I was really looking at the classic leather buckle with SS watch before this. So Apple's decision to make cheaper-to-me looking and feeling leather lost them $300.
Personally, I'm not likely to opt for the leather loop as it looks weird (like the Michelin Man), regardless of how it feels. Although the black leather loop looks quite nice with the Space Black SS case.
The cost of the bands is ridiculous...some are more than the watch itself. Bring on the 3rd party bands!
I agree with the OP on the Milanese band, wish it was a looser weave. I only wore it for a minute in the store but can already tell it's going to rip all of the hair off that area of my arm.
I agree with the OP on the Milanese band, wish it was a looser weave. I only wore it for a minute in the store but can already tell it's going to rip all of the hair off that area of my arm.
I agree with the OP on the Milanese band, wish it was a looser weave. I only wore it for a minute in the store but can already tell it's going to rip all of the hair off that area of my arm.
Wouldn't a looser weave make it more likely to catch the hair, unless it's so loose that you can see through it?
I like the solid and thick look it has in the pictures. I am hoping they trickle out some more colored leather choices in the future. I checked out the ECCO leather company and they seem to be able to do just about anything with leather.
A Watch Guy's Thoughts On The Apple Watch.....
"Apple absolutely, positively, indisputably NAILED its straps and bracelets. In addition to offering a bevy of options from leather to fluoroelastomer to link bracelets to Milanese, it is here that you really see how much attention Apple was paying to the way people wear watches, and the how bad existing options were."
http://www.hodinkee.com/blog/hodinkee-apple-watch-review
"Apple absolutely, positively, indisputably NAILED its straps and bracelets. In addition to offering a bevy of options from leather to fluoroelastomer to link bracelets to Milanese, it is here that you really see how much attention Apple was paying to the way people wear watches, and the how bad existing options were."
http://www.hodinkee.com/blog/hodinkee-apple-watch-review
The cost of the bands is ridiculous...some are more than the watch itself. Bring on the 3rd party bands!
I agree with the OP on the Milanese band, wish it was a looser weave. I only wore it for a minute in the store but can already tell it's going to rip all of the hair off that area of my arm.
Apples bands are a bargain compared to the watch bands from many traditional manufacturers. Price a Panerai leather band. Or try to buy a link band from Hublot. Tag-Heuer Link bracelets will set you back well over a grand. A Breitling 7-link bracelet is in the range of $1300 (a personal favorite)
I've been a "watch guy" forever. I own about 2 dozen different brands. I think Apple did a splendid job with their selections. The rubber bands are among the best I've seen (for comparison, just check out the IWC rubber straps, or the Hubulot Big Bang; Apple did a fine job there. The Milanese loop is wonderfully woven. Without the tight and small weave, the band would not loop around readily, and would have an unsightly "bulge". There's some basic engineering reasons the weave is so small and tight.
The classic leather is one of my 2 favorites. Just the right thickness, and the correct suppleness (not to soft; not to stiff). My one complaint is the "modern" buckles are finicky. Hard to align and snap together with one hand.
Finally, the link bracelets. This is bread-and-butter modern watch design. I think Apple's effort is mostly a success. The butterfly clasp looks good, and is well designed. I was able to get it on and off with one hand easily. My one concern is the links themselves have pretty thing edges. They overlap, to give a continuous visual look, but those thin edges will be prone to knicks and bending. Apple's price for the link bracelet is actually pretty good; other high-end link bracelets can cost 2x to 5x more than what Apple is charging.
I've owned PVD coated SS before (black), and it's fairly durable. As I've worn good watches for a long time, I'm pretty good at keeping them looking nice and not banging them around. It remains to be seen if Apple's coated SS will remain durable, this is hard to judge on visual inspection alone. As Apple clearly did their homework on these bands, I suspect this is also an area that was carefully designed as well, but we'll see.
All that said, my wife and I ordered 2: 38mm SS w/classic leather buckle, and 42mm Space Black Link SS
Real men? Your ridiculous remarks make it obvious you are the furthest thing from such.
Perhaps I was a bit harsh in my description of the store employee that helped us, but I'm not sure how else to describe him. My GF and I both noted how he was very strange, nerdy, and extremely young (18?). He was uncomfortable and nervous made us feel uncomfortable for him. He did not add to the try-on experience in any way.
Anyway, The moral of this short story (besides me being a douche) is that Apple ought to be a bit more selective with their store employees if they are pretending to be a luxury goods retailer.
As for the watch bands, someone who used the term metro-sexual earlier I think nailed it... That's a great way to describe my assessment of the bands.
Anyway, The moral of this short story (besides me being a douche) is that Apple ought to be a bit more selective with their store employees if they are pretending to be a luxury goods retailer.
As for the watch bands, someone who used the term metro-sexual earlier I think nailed it... That's a great way to describe my assessment of the bands.
I can't imagine that a watch band would affect how a man feels about himself. That said, how we look certainly affects how we are perceived by others. That's a fact.
Generally speaking, heterosexual men are attracted to feminine women (i.e., women that look and act feminine) and heterosexual women are attracted to masculine men (i.e., men that look and act masculine). As much as we may dislike labels, this is biology at work (and some amount of social conditioning).
Some people truly could care less what others think. They may or may not feel a need to dress well and groom themselves. However, the vast majority of people do care what others think, although they almost certainly value some opinions more than others. If my SO told me that she thought a particular accessory or piece of clothing looked feminine, meaning that wearing it would make me look less masculine -- i.e., less physically attractive to her -- then I wouldn't wear it. Period.
In an ideal world, who we are as people and how we act would be all that matters. But that is not the real world. In the real world, attraction is influenced by how we act and how we look. Some people are obviously more visual than others, and perceptions of masculinity and femininity vary from person to person.
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What is "masculine" is a very subjective, culturally-based metric. In some cultures, piercings are masculine. In others, men wear make-up and those who don't are considered less attractive. You could claim that's still genetic, or that there's some racial aspect to it, but that doesn't explain how notions of masculinity and fashion have evolved even among non-diverse racial groups.
So if "masculinity" can change from culture to culture, time period to time period, it certainly isn't biology. It's psychology.
So, no, you can't generalize what women are attracted to and vice versa. I can tell you from experience that all women look for different things in men. And generally speaking, most guys I've known are absolutely clueless about even the things most girls like. A lot of guys at my gym look like marshmallow kabobs, with lots of fat on top of large, toneless muscles. They think this is "masculine" and that "women love the look." And these guys work out all the time because, surprise, surprise, they're single. I guess they also eat like pigs because seriously they've got impressive muscles but they're sickeningly fat on top of them.
Just be yourself. Wear what you like and wear it with confidence. Exercise regularly, but make yourself look the way you want, not how you think women want you to look (because you're wrong about what they want). And if all else fails, just watch Ryan Gosling or Taye Diggs and do everything they do.
Edit: I'll be alternating between the white sport band and the stone leather loop. I love the feel of both and I'll look damn good wearing either.
Hold up for a minute. The space grey does not look black? Who would have thought that?! They called it space grey for a reason, Bud.
Here are some examples of bands I wish Apple offered...
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Wishful thinking I guess. Black is the new Black... I wonder how popular a matt black aluminum watch with a couple of black metal bands would be.
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Wishful thinking I guess. Black is the new Black... I wonder how popular a matt black aluminum watch with a couple of black metal bands would be. Use any one of those bands with your Apple watch with this already available adapter:
http://www.hodinkee.com/blog/introducing-standap-the-standard-strap-adaptor-for-apple-watch
Signed up just to express how ridiculous this quote is.
I bought a red car today and I was so angry because it didn't look pink. Why didn't my red car look pink?
My Try-on Experience - All the bands suck
Last I checked there are 50 shades of grey. Not sure about red.
But seriously, was hoping for darker not lighter. It is lighter.
Last I checked there are 50 shades of grey. Not sure about red.
But seriously, was hoping for darker not lighter. It is lighter.
Here are some examples of bands I wish Apple offered
The thicker mesh does make it look significantly more masculine but I guess they wanted to make the Milanese loop unisex so they went with more fine mesh.
Exactly. All the bands OP posted are too big for a small woman like me. I think Apple was trying to make all their bands more or less unisex. Even the Modern buckle, which is only avaiable in the smaller size, looks like it could be worn by men, too.