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Click adapters will not work with my current collection of 24mm straps
- Thread starter ianfann
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This has been a known for quote a while now. Its partly why i haven't gone overboard buying non-oem watch bands yet. I'm waiting to see if the click adapters are the perfect match to my SGS that they have promised. If so it will have been worth the wait.
As long as you have an adapter that works for the band you have, you've got a solution, so not completely unusable. Just that you lose the ability to switch bands with those adapters.
Personally I don't like what I've seen as far as the design for Click. Don't think I've ever seen a real photo of a sample yet. I really like the proportions of the Apple Watch and how the band fits with the face, dimension-wise. And I'm pretty sure the bands Apple makes for the 42mm are all 24mm. Don't know about the 38mm Apple bands. I think Click changes that look. I've seen people with 42mm watches try to put a 22mm band on an adapter and I personally think it does look odd. Reminds me of the Moto for example with the big watch face and a thin strap coming off of it. Might appeal to some but just not me. Also don't care for lugs that come straight down the from watch case sides, but not sure what the final product will look like so at this point it's all based off of their website models.
I can understand people with the aluminum Sport watches appreciating an adapter with lugs that match the base of their watch. And to that end they seem to be the only ones that are even mentioning aluminum.
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my current 22mm also wouldn't work since i have the 38mm and Click for 38mm is 20mm max. What a disappointment.
20mm band is a bit narrow even for my tiny little wrist lolz
Personally i don't think Click adapter is well thought out at all. So far it has been like a high school design project.
20mm band is a bit narrow even for my tiny little wrist lolz
Personally i don't think Click adapter is well thought out at all. So far it has been like a high school design project.
Really? I thought they'd support 22mm? This is from their Kickstarter FAQ:
Click supports 22mm watchbands. Initially, we were considering supporting 24mm bands, but in the end we decided on 22mm. Not only are 22mm watch bands more accessible to our backers, but after speaking to experts in the industry, 22mm watch bands are also the most popular among backers outside the United States.
I think they tried to do their best and kept changing their minds as more info became available, and had more pledged funds at their disposal. In the end, the results were a bit... disappointing.
I tried checking out their website and FB page last night and came away totally confused. Their FB About page did mention 24mm but all posts on the Timeline mentioned 22mm. I had heard from people on here there was a redesign so figured they changed the size but surprised no mention or correction on the About page to clarify. Don't think I saw their kickstarter page.
Found the quote you posted broadbean, interesting I suppose but flawed from a design standpoint. Clearly Apple spent a lot of time sizing the watches and bands to be proportional and look good on small and larger wrists. If so I can't believe a designer would try making a one-size-fits-all and let's-split-it-in-the-middle kind of decision like that. 20mm and 24mm bands are plentiful out there and watch band makers will adapt to the market. With Apple selling millions in the first few months and spreading out to other countries and retail stores, I'm sure those 2 sizes will become even more popular. Figure with everyone else going with adapters that are 20mm and 24mm they just chose to be different to lock people into their adapters once they started buying 22mm bands.
Found the quote you posted broadbean, interesting I suppose but flawed from a design standpoint. Clearly Apple spent a lot of time sizing the watches and bands to be proportional and look good on small and larger wrists. If so I can't believe a designer would try making a one-size-fits-all and let's-split-it-in-the-middle kind of decision like that. 20mm and 24mm bands are plentiful out there and watch band makers will adapt to the market. With Apple selling millions in the first few months and spreading out to other countries and retail stores, I'm sure those 2 sizes will become even more popular. Figure with everyone else going with adapters that are 20mm and 24mm they just chose to be different to lock people into their adapters once they started buying 22mm bands.
Here is an update from them from a while ago that shows some prototype pictures that you may find interesting: https://www.kickstarter.com/project...ch-band-adapter-for-apple-watch/posts/1276268
I remain optimistic, mostly because I have a SGS and I've yet to see an adapter that matches it perfectly or own one that slides in smoothly. I'll admit to being more persnickety about that than most people here but I think a mismatch cheapens the watch. None of my nice traditional watches have bands that mismatch at the connection. But this is just my opinion. I think 22mm will be fine IF the match wrt material and color is perfect.
Thanks chillg8r. Are there any photos of the 38mm and 42mm watches and bands laying face up with straps extended so you can see the width of the band compared to the face? In the photos in the above link the watch is always turned in such a way to not provide a straight on view and it's hard to get a feel for it. Anyone make out what size watch that is? The band does look very narrow but it's really hard to tell because of the view.
I saw on FB that they were trying to hook up with a fabric watch band kickstarter company to make bands for them. Not sure that project will get funded. I'm always on the look out for some unique bands and would entertain fabric bands with leather lining but more concerned about the downsized band width for the 42mm.
I'm not on FB and not a backer so hoping one of you guys who invested in Click can point to better photos or request them. Thanks.
I saw on FB that they were trying to hook up with a fabric watch band kickstarter company to make bands for them. Not sure that project will get funded. I'm always on the look out for some unique bands and would entertain fabric bands with leather lining but more concerned about the downsized band width for the 42mm.
I'm not on FB and not a backer so hoping one of you guys who invested in Click can point to better photos or request them. Thanks.
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Here is a link to a picture using a 3D printed prototype, but it gives us an idea of the proportions:
https://www.kickstarter.com/project...ch-band-adapter-for-apple-watch/posts/1250011
And here are some early pictures before they dealt with the "gap issue". I believe these bands are 20mm on a 38mm watch. except for the picture of the metal link band which i think is a 22mm on a 42mm watch.
https://www.kickstarter.com/project...ch-band-adapter-for-apple-watch/posts/1237591
These adapters will supposedly fully comply with Apple's 'Made for Apple Watch' program.
We'll see! Fingers crossed!
I solved this by buying two of the same strap, one in 24mm and one in 22mm.
To be fair though, Click was simply following Apple's lead with the 22mm thing. That's the width that Apple supplies and specs.
I'm not an original backer but I pre-ordered on their website months ago and 22mm was all I ever saw them promise.
To be fair though, Click was simply following Apple's lead with the 22mm thing. That's the width that Apple supplies and specs.
I'm not an original backer but I pre-ordered on their website months ago and 22mm was all I ever saw them promise.
All the folks who are saying that a 22mm strap would look wrong on the 42mm watch - are you aware the sport straps for the 42mm watch are all 22mm in width? Do they look wrong? Too narrow?
The latest pictures of the Click adapters (under the Updates section on the kickstarter page), show adapters that look like the current Chinese spring bar adapters that use 24mm spring bars, except the Click ones look a tiny bit beefier, are sized for 22mm spring bars, and are supposed to be well color-matched to the various watch cases. The Chinese manufacturers have beaten them to the market with nearly the same design.
The adapters on the main Click page look overextended and overly squared off. They also look nothing like the current design. I have no idea why they haven't updated their pictures on the main page - the new design is much nicer.
The latest pictures of the Click adapters (under the Updates section on the kickstarter page), show adapters that look like the current Chinese spring bar adapters that use 24mm spring bars, except the Click ones look a tiny bit beefier, are sized for 22mm spring bars, and are supposed to be well color-matched to the various watch cases. The Chinese manufacturers have beaten them to the market with nearly the same design.
The adapters on the main Click page look overextended and overly squared off. They also look nothing like the current design. I have no idea why they haven't updated their pictures on the main page - the new design is much nicer.
The largest Apple watch is something like 36mm wide ( how most watch cases are measured) 42mm is the lug to lug width. You won't find many 36mm watches out there with a 24mm strap. 22mm would be perfect IMO.
A lot of bands taper in width towards the clasp; but where the band meets the case, it is wider. Ives and company designed the Apple Sport band to be actually 25-26mm at the base and taper to 22-20mm at the strap ends. Measure it on the Watch. It has a sexy curved look to it that makes it appealing, something Apple is pretty good at creating in their products. To me it does makes a big visual difference, and no doubt Apple designed it that way so that the Watch didn't have an undersized band width at the case. It's all about proportions and likely why no one else went with an adapter requiring anything smaller than a 24mm band for the 42mm Watch. The Apple Classic black band measures 24mm at the watch case and tapers to 20mm at the buckle end.
It does look like Click adapters have undergone a few changes and I agree the site should have been updated. To me it looks like they went from their straight line lug approach to finally copying what everyone else out there was doing for the spring adapters (with curved in ends) but because they had made a point of saying they were now going to go with 22mm bands they were stuck with that decision. As for the Click adapters, regardless of the lug thickness, the eye will still focus on the look of the width of the band at the case. When you look at your watch face, that's what you see. Click probably won't post any photos of the product face on and we'll have to wait for people to receive theirs for actual photos.
Sorry I won't argue with Jonny Ives and Apple's sense of design proportion. I think it's something that Apple excels at and why it sells so well from a product design standpoint.
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Agreed. That's probably why the Sports band/Leather Loop etc. measure 22mm... which is my entire point.
Sorry but maybe you didn't read my full post above. I have the Sport band on the 42mm. It measures something like 25-26mm at the watch case, not 22mm. Click has all bands at 22mm at the case end. The Sport tapers towards the clasp or holes. I have the Apple black classic band and at the adapter bar it is 24mm tapering down at the clasp or holes. It's the case end with the watch that is the most important proportion you want to match to.
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I completely agree that Apple's design language for straps and the way they attach to the watch is both revolutionary and aesthetically pleasing. But that's a matter of the watch/strap juncture, which Apple has melded into the end of their straps - equating this flaring at the end to the taper along the length of a traditional band is conflating two different things. Discussing how nice and sexy the curve outwards at the juncture is, is not really relevant to the overall discussion of strap width, and I'm a little mystified as to why you're explaining to us that the end of the strap flares out, as the entire audience here is Apple Watch owners who are already well acquainted with Apple's Sports Strap.
I would disagree that the appearance of the strap right where it connects to the watch is the primary, or only, affect that straps have on the overall look of the watch. When one notices the watch - not holding it up to read, just seeing it in your periphery all day long - you see the watch case, at an oblique angle, and a large portion of the strap. The whole body of the strap comes into play, aesthetically, and needs to be in proper proportion to the watch. And Apple has shown that the 42mm watch is designed for a non-tapered 22mm strap (see paragraph and pictures at end).
Traditional watch straps, when they taper at all (agreed, many do), almost invariably taper by 2mm over the entire length, so, 24mm at the watch to 22mm at the buckle; 22mm to 20mm, and so on. Also, the vast majority of "mens" watch straps are designed for 20mm or 22mm lugs on the watch. Watches that require straps larger than 22mm tend to be exceptionally large watches, so straps 24mm and up tend to be rather "robustly" designed, to fit in with the look of the watch.
Spring bar adapters for the Apple Watch are, by design, trying to glue together the two quite different cultures of traditional watch straps and this ultra-modern watch. Aside from the flare at the end (which traditional straps do not duplicate), Apple has shown us that the intended look for their 42mm watch is usually a 22mm non-tapered strap. Putting a 24mm traditional tapered or non-tapered strap on the Apple Watch causes the strap to somewhat dwarf the watch. And sorry, but that's what I see when I look at some of the third-party straps shown off in this group (some work, some don't).
As far as only Click going with 22mm while "everyone else" chose 24mm (especially with respect to using this as evidence that 24mm must be the proper size), I'm not at all convinced that there is more than one factory, or at least, one original set of molds or CNC designs involved in making all of "everyone else's" 24mm spring bar adapters. There are a lot of cases of there being 90 different eBay listings for exactly the same item, from different vendors. We've all see that. I haven't been able to see *any* differences in shape between any of the different 24mm spring bar adapters from various vendors. I think we're seeing basically two designs: a single factory (or set of plans) resulting in all the other 24mm spring bar adapters, and Click, doing its 22mm spring bar adapters.
(For the picture below: measuring the strap is problematic, as it is easy to accidentally squeeze the strap material while one is trying to measure down to tenths of a millimeter. Nevertheless, in the picture below, I see a strap that's just about 22mm wide with practically no taper along the length of the strap, except for the flare to the watch at the end. It's all at the watch-to-strap juncture.)
And how does it measure at the very top by the base? My post really had nothing to do with the strap further down from the case. Nice photos but doesn't address what I was stating about seeing a wider band at the top by the case.
Not everyone on here already has a Watch and those that do may not have all the different Apple straps to compare and are only starting to explore 3rd party adapters and bands. I do think it's a relevant discussion. People will be making purchasing decisions and subtle things like band width differences might not be immediately something people think about. You are getting locked into a size depending on which adapter you chose and if you decide to swap out bands you easily start to run in the $100s for just the adapters in some cases.
As for 3rd party adapters I think they were designed with a curve in them to mimic Apples curve as closely as they could given that they still had to be able to be manufactured and support the pin holes needed for the springs.
Not everyone on here already has a Watch and those that do may not have all the different Apple straps to compare and are only starting to explore 3rd party adapters and bands. I do think it's a relevant discussion. People will be making purchasing decisions and subtle things like band width differences might not be immediately something people think about. You are getting locked into a size depending on which adapter you chose and if you decide to swap out bands you easily start to run in the $100s for just the adapters in some cases.
As for 3rd party adapters I think they were designed with a curve in them to mimic Apples curve as closely as they could given that they still had to be able to be manufactured and support the pin holes needed for the springs.
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What I'm saying is, traditional watch straps, which is what the adapters are tying to fit onto the watch, either have no taper, or a very slight taper along the entire length. If you use 24mm wide adapters and a 24mm strap, it will be disproportionately wide for the watch, compared to the standard that Apple has established. You are doing that to get it to match better right next to the watch case, to the detriment of the overall look of the strap.
The whole debate was over the choice of a 22mm width for the Click adapters. You were expressing the view that Click got it wrong and 24mm was needed to look better at the junction with the watch, I am asserting that, actually, Click got it right, because a traditional strap in the vicinity of 22mm is needed to achieve the overall look of the watch and strap that Apple intended. Essentially 24mm straps look better right where they connect to the watch, while 22mm straps look better everywhere else. FWIW.
In simple terms, given that traditional watch straps do not flare widely at the case, like the Apple straps, in attaching a tradional strap to an Apple Watch you can solve for the strap matching the case width (and being overly wide everywhere else), or the strap having the overall width that best suits the watch per Apple's design (and being narrow where it meets the case), but not both. You chose the former, I choose the latter. It would not have come up, except that you declared the Click connectors to be "obviously" too narrow at 22mm.
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But what you said above about buying a traditional 24mm band is not true. I have several bands that are 1:1 basically for the Apple classic black band -- 24mm at the case end and 22mm at the buckle. You just need to look for them. Suppose we could start a thread for them but don't think this is the place to list. Many of the Desarri leather bands offered by Strapsco on ebay are that way. I like the way Strapsco provides all the dimensions of the strap on their listing site, many sellers don't think it's important. I can add that I also have a very nice quality real snake skin band that I bought from a seller in southern Calif that meets the same 1:1 dimensions. So if you want to keep with the Apple design proportions and have the ability to buy bands that fit it, why would you want to buy an adapter that limits you to bands that will never be wide enough at the top and instead be one straight 22mm length throughout?
Now I have a few other bands like my nylon band that are a straight 24mm width throughout. And it seems like many men in particular like some of the the widest and thickest bands available for their watches so the 24mm width adapter works best for them. If they want a "manly band" no way could I see them wanting a 22mm adapter even if they had matching materials. I suspect the 3rd party guys will have them soon in all the colors and maybe even before Click gets theirs out to compare.
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I don't think you can pull out once the deal is closed. I've not yet seen any exact matches for the Space Gray aluminum so I remain optimistic. The watch is only now rolling out to retail stores, and only recently into the Apple Stores, so if they come to market in mid August as promised in their latest update then they still have a shot at being hugely successful. Especially if their adapters set the standard. we'll see.
I don't think they are "obliged" to refund you at this stage, but they might, based on some of the recent comments. I retracted my pledge before the end and went with Monowear as I actually preferred the Apple Classic Buckle style adapter. I think well after the project was funded and closed, the Click folks were still tinkering with the design. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and backers, myself included, would've relied on their initial promised delivery date when making a decision to back them.
As I've written elsewhere, sure I could've waited for obviously cheaper and wider range of alternatives, but then I wouldn't have got my Watch on launch day! As I went for the Apple Watch Sport, I really needed a less casual band and not only were Apple's way more expensive, most weren't available for weeks if not months at the time.