My original Sport Band that came with my watch that is almost a year old is peeling (best way I can describe it). See the pic. I don't even use that band that often, probably once a week. Is that something they would consider a warranty replacement?
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Sport Band Warranty?
- Thread starter rstark18
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Definitely non of the above. I only wear it while I’m biking once or twice a week and nothing rubs against it. It’s a strange pattern.
thanks.
its a very strange kind of quality problem.
its definitely defective.
especially since the sport band is the band that is supposed to be able to be worn in all sorts of sports activities.
apple will replace it if it was purchased and returned within 1 year.
its a very strange kind of quality problem.
its definitely defective.
especially since the sport band is the band that is supposed to be able to be worn in all sorts of sports activities.
apple will replace it if it was purchased and returned within 1 year.
It was covered. Got lucky they did it without an appointment.
Everyone that helped me said they had never seen that problem.
Everyone that helped me said they had never seen that problem.
There Actually have another threads on the band peeling, it’s just probably a defective batch that came out from the factory that way, but it has been reported before at least on Macrumors through user threads in the Apple Watch forum.
Well, technically it's not a problem; it's called "wear", and while it's nice for you you were able to get help, don't be surprised if/when you see it again.
have the same 'wear' with my original band around 11 months old. Again normal use, no swimming only gym/running so more sweat related if anything.
I'll speak to Apple too
I'll speak to Apple too
I have a (white) Sports band from my launch day S0 that I ABUSED daily for over a year and still abuse it a couple of times a week. Even got stain on it once and cleaned with a Magic eraser. I bet I will use it a couple more years throw it away and in 50 years someone could dig it out of the landfill clean it up and it will look almost like it did the day I bought it.
Can't imagine any abuse that would cause it to delaminate like that. Also I remember threads of some others that had the same problem with the first black bands that had to be replaced. I bet somehow the OP's band was from that defective batch.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/after-3-days-my-black-sport-band-is-wearing-down.1876698/
This is the back of my band after 11 months or wearing it to work and running with it.
![4ded66bd19d155d0eb307f16f1cb817b.jpg]()
Got my through the motions with Apple support now, they web support tried to arrange a swap out via mail but I’ve now been passed to a real person who’s raising it with “senior engineering”.. who’s have thought all this for a watch!
Got my through the motions with Apple support now, they web support tried to arrange a swap out via mail but I’ve now been passed to a real person who’s raising it with “senior engineering”.. who’s have thought all this for a watch!
indeed. The mail option sounded the least hassle as the advisor had originally said they'd send me the replacement before I sent back the original one. that would i wouldn't be left without a band to wear the watch with or have to go into store.
not sure why this isn't an easy fix, inside the warranty period, also have AppleCare + and as I said (and he agreed) I wouldn't expect to pay close to £700 for a watch (regardless of what type) and the band to peel like this.
in general terms, Apple warrants the accessories that come packaged with a device for the term covered by the device - typically 1 year, and can be extended with AppleCare+. This would cover watch bands that came with the watch, headphones that came with an iPhone, charger blocks and cables that come with all devices, etc.
which is why I was quite polite about it when he wanted to escalate this to an engineer!
I'll see what comes of this otherwise I'll kick up a fuss
It's not delaminating, because these bands aren't laminated... What you're seeing is (most likely, as I don't have it in-hand) the "super silky-feeling" surface treatment of the band flaking off. Since the band is black you will see it more easily than versus a lighter color.
Think of it as a paint layer. Paint will also wear off eventually if exposed to regular friction.
Disagree, I _would_ be surprised if I saw the peeling again. I own plenty of OEM Apple Watch bands worn regularly, and none of them have experienced what the OP did. It’s almost guaranteed that it was a defective batch that was released, as there have been other minor reports of this occurring other members as well. Apple sells millions of sport bands across the world, and I can only imagine this is a very minor occurrence of them peeling.
Not sure how close you are to an Apple Store, but if you were able too take it there sometimes they will just do a "retail swap" which they sell and return one of the bands from the new stock. It has got more and more rare these days (from when I worked at Apple), but you might still find one store willing to do it. See you are in the UK, know you folks have crazy consumer protection laws (
- topic for another forum).OP here. Just to be clear this band is my least used band. It is only used for a couple hours a week while biking so definitely not normal wear.
Also. Amazingly they didn’t have a replacement in stock so they had to order it. That surprised me as it’s the Manhattan Beach store which is a pretty well stocked store.
Also. Amazingly they didn’t have a replacement in stock so they had to order it. That surprised me as it’s the Manhattan Beach store which is a pretty well stocked store.
The stock issue does not surprise me - reading other threads on this forum, pretty much all Apple Watch repairs are drop shipments or express shipments. One options allows the individual to keep their current watch, put a hold on their credit card and then ship back the broken device when they receive the new one. The less preferred method has the individual ship the watch back and be without a device for 3 - 5 days.
Apple discontinues quite a few bands right before the Keynote, this happens quite regularly. Which means they can either order the band for you like they did, or a specific band may not be refreshed at all, being that some band colors/styles are continued and discontinued annually.
I don't think I would call this 'wear'. I started happening to mine weeks into owning the watch.
They have likely seen it before. I doubt they would ever say something like, "oh yeah, seen hundreds of these." That just looks bad for business.
Could be but they genuinely looked surprised and had to go ask a manager what to do. Not something they usually do.