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Third-party Apple Watch straps coming soon with stainless steel bands under $100

Apple will have its own straps and bands available for Apple Watch when it launches next month, but companies are already planning third-party options…

The big draw for third-party bands will be the ability for customers to purchase the entry-level $349 Sport model and upgrade to a stainless steel or leather band for much less than Apple’s official bands.

A new crowdfunding campaign from Monowear Design, for instance, promises leather and stainless steel bands for $80 each. Compare that with the $450 Apple will charge for its stainless steel link bracelet and between $149 and $249 for its leather options. Apple’s rubber Sport band will sell for $49. Apple Watch with a stainless steel link bracelet will sell for $949/$999 and Apple’s leather strap models start at $649.

Another KickStarter campaign launching in the coming weeks will offer a product called Click for using traditional watch bands with the Apple Watch. “Our product, we call Click, lets customers use any 24mm watchband with the Apple Watch by simply sliding the spring bar we provide into the watchband, clicking the watchband into the adapter, and sliding the adapter into the Apple Watch. Click takes advantage of the sliding and locking mechanism on both sides of the watch to hold the adapter in place just like one of Apple’s watchbands.”

Earlier this month we told you about a company taking preorders for a $249 battery strap that claims to charge Apple Watch while you wear it.

The companies are developing products using mockups and 3D prototypes ahead of actually getting hands on the device, but most plan to have accessories available near the launch of the product late next month. Apple is launching the Watch in nine countries on April 24th.

The project from Monowear is live on Kickstarter (which now supports Apple Pay) and plans to start shipping just two weeks after the Apple Watch becomes available next month.

Apple hasn’t yet made any announcements regarding third-party accessories for Apple Watch, but we’ve already seen charging docks, stands, bike handlebar mounts and other products announced.

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Comments

  1. Martin Richards - 9 years ago

    So the main question now is can we just buy the casing from apple now as the stainless steel casing if you take off the price Apple is charging for it’s band is a much better priced unit. Do the Math lol take off price apple wants for its band that goes with the Stainless Apple watch and buy a thrid party band you got a bargain.

    • Gazoo Bee - 9 years ago

      No, you have to buy a strap with the Watch. You can choose the cheap rubber one (that people report difficulty doing up).

      It’s “ONLY” $50 :-)

      • awparaghamian - 9 years ago

        Can you get the space black stainless steel watch with a sport band? Or does the space black only come with the $1049/1099 pricing?

    • Rich Davis (@RichDavis9) - 9 years ago

      but some of those cheaper 3rd party stainless bands aren’t as nice as the Apple version. I traditionally don’t like metal bands or at least the one’s I’ve used so far, I’m intrigued by Apple’s design since the biggest problems I had were pinching the hair on wrist and the weight, plus the clasps weren’t all that great. I’m eyeing the Stainless model, but don’t know about the metal bands yet. That I have to try out, but I can see owning a variety of bands for various occaisions. They solved the way they attach to the watch, no more of those pins to deal with. I’m sure a lot of watch repair people might go away too, the only thing they can really do with these things is maybe replace the battery or cleaning them.

      Which reminds me, I have to take my watch in to get a new battery and leather band.

      • theaccidental - 9 years ago

        I tried on the Milanese band and that’s what I’m getting. My arms are a bit hairy and the sport band seem to pull on my arm hair. Perfect fit since its infinitely variable. Also the band is secure in that the magnetic catch is big enough that it will not slip though the opening where it attaches to the watch. On a side note, I have large wrists 180mm+ and I bought the 38mm watch. The 42 mm looked too big. I know that’s the style now with all watches even Rolex, et al, is oversize, but I think it’s a fad like wide lapels and wide ties. The 38 mm stainless with Milanese strap is very elegant. I plan on possibly getting a black sport band from some 3rd party in the future…

  2. Gazoo Bee - 9 years ago

    Apple’s pricing for bands is indeed quite ridiculous. They make sense for the Edition models, but not for any of the others.

    $300 for plain black leather strap with steel buckle?
    I’m sure it’s the fanciest leather strap. Probably made by virgins, with the steel was polished by Jesus himself, but there is an ocean of room between that and the typical $10 leather strap.

    • Stetson - 9 years ago

      The most expensive non-edition leather band is $250, and that’s for the fanciest one. The ‘plain black leather strap’ is $150: http://store.apple.com/us/watch/watch-accessories/bands

      Now that’s definitely still pretty pricey. Apple is leaving a lot of room for a third party market.

      • Gazoo Bee - 9 years ago

        They just raised overall prices around the world by a huge amount though. In Canada the band is $300 as I said. The Apple Watch with steel bracelet is $1230 (before taxes, before all the other fees).

        I expect to get one still, but $1400 is a lot of money for a steel watch.

      • Stetson - 9 years ago

        On the canadian store the plain leather band is $199CA, which seems to be about $156USD at the moment.

        The steel link band is indeed pretty expensive. They’re going after a different level of fashion/quality than a $150 watch with steel band. No way I’ll be paying Apple’s price for one of those, guess I’m not the target market for that one.

    • kpom1 - 9 years ago

      I used to wear a Movado Museum watch. I had to replace the strap after about 2 years. The official Movado strap was $155.

    • Jim Trader - 9 years ago

      No the ones polished by Jesus retail for at least $1000

    • houstonche - 9 years ago

      I can’t justify the stainless and link bracelet model. Too expensive for what you are getting in my opinion.

  3. Alan Aurmont - 9 years ago

    They look accordingly.

  4. border1ine - 9 years ago

    I wonder if Apple will try to shut down the third party market like they did with the third party Mag-Safe one.

    • theaccidental - 9 years ago

      When I tried on the watch at my local Apple Store the employee stated that they would be carrying third party straps in the store. I don’t know how knowledgeable she was as she didn’t know you could change the font size on the watch…

  5. rogifan - 9 years ago

    They’ll sell for $80 and look like it too. No way will they match Apple’s quality.

    • Chris Necuze - 9 years ago

      I bet you can buy a hell of a band for $100, whereas the Apple model will cost you $450. I wouldn’t count out third parties, the best cases for iPhone are made by third parties. There is no reason they can’t approach or even exceed Apple’s quality. You will just have to find the right one.

    • houstonche - 9 years ago

      Apple charges $100 dollars to double the memory of your phone. Apple sell it’s name as much as it sells its product. It is very likely that 3rd party bands if allowed to flourish will overtake apple quality on most of their offerings.

  6. RP - 9 years ago

    I think they have the youth market locked in, this is where third party vendors can widen the appeal. They can target the blue collar consumer, the ones that could benefit from Apple watch most. People on the go who spend a lot of time working with their hands. People like construction workers, mechanics, warehouse, etc. The watch body itself is perfect for them, with it’s simple easy to clean body, it just needs some rugged heavy duty straps to go with it for that demographic.

  7. The question that comes to mind for me is “will the 3rd party stainless steel band match the stainless steel Apple Watch?” Matching the texture and tonal color will determine if it looks great, or looks like some shitty gumball machine watch.

    • houstonche - 9 years ago

      Had to laugh because if anything, the watch’s app screen makes it look like a gumball machine. But i agree, people were talking about mixing and matching various styles but in my opinion it didn’t look right when the metals weren’t similar.

  8. The first third party to make a good looking and comfortable space gray brushed aluminum link bracelet to match the space gray apple watch sport is going to kill it.

    • dksmidtx - 9 years ago

      This is the truest statement in all of these comments. The space gray has the potential to be a very classy looking watch, and with a matching steel bracelet will salve a lot of buyers who are still stinging from an over $1000 price for the stainless steel version.

    • Josh Koterba - 9 years ago

      I was thinking the same thing, except with a black leather band to match the space gray sport watch…

  9. ggogins - 9 years ago

    I can’t wait to hear the stories about watches bursting into flames because they went with the cheap knockoff bands with batteries in it. You deserve a broken watch if you gamble with this crap

  10. I’m really intrigued by third party straps like Reserve Strap that actually charge the watch while you’re wearing it. That price has got to come down though.

  11. yojimbo007 - 9 years ago

    Will apple allow this to happen given their proprietary band snap on system?

    • Lucas Bravo - 9 years ago

      you’re right. it is proprietary, patented, and wholly owned by apple; at least the slide-in mechanism is.

  12. Sandy (@mini_s3) - 9 years ago

    It seems like Monowear just relaunch their campaign to include nylon and some more…pretty interesting to see how they will perform the second time around… https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1843570774/monowear-a-band-for-every-occasion

  13. I may be the fat guy in the room, but I’m looking forward to someone offering larger band sizes for those of us with ~220mm wrists – Just outside of the Apple deemed limit to don their wares. I guess “No fatties”? Good thing their laptops and mobile devices don’t need to follow fit guidelines or I’d be a Dell man…

  14. Scott Collins - 9 years ago

    My big complaint is that nine of the Apple brand bands will fit my writs according to their sizing guide. Now I’m not that big of a guy, so I’m pretty miffed about this. What…do we have to be skinny Abercrombie & Fitch models to buy these things? Dang!!

  15. Lucas Bravo - 9 years ago

    that slide-in locking mechanism feature, that Monowear and Click seem to be copying is patented by apple. It’ll be interesting to see if. or how they make they come to market it. I’ll bet they ‘cease and desist’ letters are already in the mail.
    Apple stands to make a fortune on the bands, and I don’t see them letting 3rd party accessory makers move in.

  16. kyussmondo - 9 years ago

    It would be dumb of Apple if they were to block third party straps. The accessories market has helped numerous products like the iPod and iPhone. I would like a leather band for more formal occasions but I am not paying Apple prices.

    • ericisking - 9 years ago

      But if they block third party straps, you will have no option but to pay Apple prices, so Apple will make a big bag of cash. It doesn’t seem like a dumb move (for Apple), unless too many people are so miffed at Apple prices that they don’t buy a Watch at all (in which case, they will just lower prices 6-12 months from now, or Watch 2 will be priced cheaper – this is a Version 1 product, after all, so prices are more likely to go down than up).

      • Jim Trader - 9 years ago

        They can’t block third parties. They won’t, and there are already hundreds of bands third parties are ready to launch any day now.

  17. jameskatt - 9 years ago

    Since the mechanism for the attachment of straps to the Apple Watch is PATENTED by Apple, 3rd party manufacturers better check with Apple for a license. It is like the Lighting port license.

  18. Colby Fulton - 9 years ago

    The photo of the author makes him look like he’s been lobotomized.

  19. ilknurokyay - 8 years ago

    Hi,
    I got my Hyperlink strap couple of minutes ago from kickstarter and I wish not to get it! It is not like the picture. Poor quality, ugly… I am really unhappy to waste money for terrible HyperLink!!!!! Also I waited 2 months to get this result! I am really very unhappy and wanted to share with you vas I wrote to HyperLink!

Author

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jordan Kahn

Jordan writes about all things Apple as Senior Editor of 9to5Mac, & contributes to 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, & Electrek.co. He also co-authors 9to5Mac’s Logic Pros series.