Are non Apple straps decent?

[MrMister111]

Not owning an Apple watch (yet) what are cheaper straps like from the like of Amazon etc? Specifically the Apple sport?

Do the clips fit correct, no damage to the watch etc? The Apple straps (expectly) are really expensive, wouldn't mind a change sometimes if get a watch.

 

[Mac2me]

Lots of people are buying third party bands. For the most part the adapters have been a good fit (Apple did release guidelines to band developers with the specs a while back). Copy cat bands of Apple's vary certainly in looks, quality and sometime fit. Third party regular bands you put on a watch and now on an adapter are certainly another possibility. Again quality will depend on the manufacturer. Best recommendation is to pour though the watch band threads here, look at the photos, read the user views and make up your own mind if it meets your standards.

Many of us here have multiple bands and a mix of Apple bands and third party ones. I think you will enjoy the flexibility the Apple Watches offer as well as the little things it can do for you. Hope to see you posting your watch in the Show us your Watch thread down the road.

 

[mcdj]

There are countless factories producing 3rd party straps of varying quality. There is no way to lump them together in tidy categories like "decent".

 

[Gjwilly]

A strap is just a length of cloth, rubber, leather, etc.
It's the adapter that you care about and some of the better known strap retailers are using the same adapters you can buy yourself off of Alibaba or eBay. Some are even worse.
My advice is to check the thread on adapters, get yourself a decent one of those, and then just create your own strap using whichever band you like.

 

[MrMister111]

Do you need adapters for every strap for a sport?

 

[Gjwilly]

The adapters that follow Apple's specs are screwed together with very tiny screws.
The specs go on to say that the screws should be used with a threadlocker and that the screws should not be reused after removal.
You could probably get away with using one pair of adapters and swapping bands off and on to it multiple times but you really should have one set of adapters for every band.
There's an other kind of adapter out there that uses standard spring bars and those are designed to be used with multiple bands but so far, the quality seems lacking. Lots of people saying the locking mechanism on that style has failed on them.