Apple finally released a proper purple Apple Watch band after Ultraviolet a few years ago. English Lavender is also part of the very first bands to have the 41mm and 45mm markings.
Such a wonderful shade of purple. I like it a lot more than Ultraviolet. The English Lavender Sport Band is available from Apple at the usual Sport Band pricing. Hopefully Apple releases more purple bands in the near future.
During the last Olympics in 2016, Apple has released a collection of limited edition Olympics woven nylon Apple Watch bands, and the expectation was that they will do the same for the 2020 Olympics as well. Of course the COVID-19 pandemic happened and the Olympics were delayed by a year, so Apple could not released their limited edition bands last year and many thought that they would be cancelled. Leaks of unreleased bands surfaced online as well.
Fret not, Apple has now introduced what they now call the “Apple Watch International Collection” set of Apple Watch Sport Loops, and instead of restricting them to pop-up Apple Stores in the host country like in 2016, the whole collection is now online and available for anyone to order (since most of the world will not be able to enter Japan) at the usual 69 Singapore Dollars.
There are a bunch of nice colors, like the Jamaica one, that I like and will be looking at picking up. Will you be buying one? They are supposed to be limited, but like Black Unity Sport Band, it is likely that stocks will be available for the next few months at least (depending on the specific color I suppose).
Shop the International Collection here.
OMFG.
The braided solo loop version is extremely nice.
I personally hated the solo loops and the braided solo loops for their inability to adjust, and sworn off buying them previously, but it looks like I may have to eat my words just for this once. Will have to go into store to test my sizing though, which is a pain in the arse.
Apple also announced the Nike+ Sport Loop version, which looks uninspired and reused the design from one of their previous pride bands (Woven Nylon 2018).
The Braided Solo Loop is available for 149SGD, and the Nike+ Sport Loop is available for 69SGD.
In other news, Apple also announced Apple Music is getting Hi-Res.
The shade of purple on the new Purple iPhone 12 is just such a fantastic color. In the whole iPhone 12 and 12 Pro lineup there is no other color that comes close to it. As mentioned in a previous post, if Apple had released this color on launch day I would not have picked blue for my iPhone 12 mini. The blue for the 12 mini is decent, but it is way too dark for my liking. I prefer something brighter or visually more striking than a dark shade of blue for my main iPhone. As far as blue on iPhones go nothing has beaten the blue on the iPhone XR even today.
But Apple also just released what was probably the best shade of blue for its accessories since they started making accessories seriously half a decade ago.
Capri Blue, which is probably best described as a more saturated version of Surf Blue, is my favorite shade of blue that Apple has released so far. It joins Amethyst as the most popular colors for official accessories this season.
Unlike Amethyst, however, Capri Blue is available on the Apple Watch Sport Band as well, so it is a double whammy of accessories to buy for blue lovers this time around.
Amethyst, along with its leather variant Dark Violet, was released to compliment the Purple iPhone 12 and 12 mini, and looks superb, probably only the second best purple Apple has ever released for accessories, after Ultra Violet a few years ago. Dark Violet, on the other hand, is disappointing. Purple dye on leather is probably way too hard to do correctly.
I also managed to take a look at the various official AirTag accessories, including the Hermès ones. I have to say, they do not feel any different in quality from the Apple leather accessories, and unless you really want Hermès, the official Apple ones will feel as premium.
Listen to my discussion of the latest Apple accessories on my brand new podcast, the MacRyu Podcast, available on the following platforms.
What we have here are two original Apple Watch Bands that have curious packaging – they are being labeled as DEMO and Demo – Not for Resale. Obviously someone either can not read English or just blatantly decided to ignore that line, if not these will not be here right now.
I have personally verified that both bands are genuine (there are a bunch of tell-tale signs for knock-offs) and unused.
The boxes themselves are void of any designs or any prints, and are completely white (save for the dirt on them). Labels are affixed on them to indicate the contents.
The first box’s label read “Apple Watch 42mm Flamingo Sport Demo†while the second read “42MM Space Orange/Anthracite Woven Nylon Band†and both have “Demo – Not for Resale†printed on the same label. A quick check reveals that e Woven Nylon was introduced in the Fall of 2017 and the Flamingo Sport Band was introduced in Summer of 2017. So maybe the format of the label changed during the span of six months.
The contents of the boxes, however, are exactly like those of the usual retail packaging, with one exception – there is no extra slip of paper for the usual Terms and Conditions. Otherwise it looks exactly like the usual three flap packaging with the cutouts that hold the bands in.
What I have gathered online is that these demo watch bands are not officially listed in the sales system, and are offered to Apple Premium Resellers for the primary purpose of displaying them or for customers to try on. Why they are being sold without any signs of usage is a mystery, and probably has more to do with the ineffectiveness of Apple to control their third party resale channels in certain countries, as well as the integrity of the humans involved. So who gets the money from the sale? My guess is that Apple does not get a single cent from the purchase.
Are these rare? Probably not. If you know where to get them from, you will likely find a bunch of them from your usual genuine Apple Watch band sources.
I do not plan on keeping the boxes, they arrived slightly dirty and dusty, and knowing where they came from make me feel unsafe in keeping the packaging (I guess it is as dangerous as buying stuff from Amazon US). So the contents of these boxes, along with some others, will go through a soap and water cleansing regime, before being added to my growing collection of original Apple Watch Bands.
Bandbreite is a brand new app for a very passionate niche – Apple Watch band collectors. While you might not need a dedicated app to track your watch bands if you only have like less than a handful of bands, Bandbreite offers both hardcore collectors and Apple Watch newcomers an additional outlet to take their enjoyment of watch bands to a higher level.
click on photos to view them in the original resolution
For the hardcore collector, Bandbreite a way to track their collection, as well as take note of the bands they are after but have yet to add to their collection.
Bandbreite also provides a stats page where collectors will be able to see an overview of their collections, including telling them what color of bands they probably prefer, how many bands they purchased in a certain year (assuming that they purchased it at time of launch), as well as an approximate of how much they spent on the bands (assuming that bands are purchased brand new at MSRP).
For the Apple Watch newcomer, Bandbreite is likely the easiest way to explore the huge collection of 423 bands (and counting) that Apple has released so far, but due to the limited time nature of most of the bands, many remained unknown to all but the most fervent of watch band collectors.
For example, do you know that the recent Product RED sport band released with the red Aluminium Series 6 is actually the fourth generation Product RED sport band?
Detailed information is also available for all the watch bands, including launch year and season, MSRP in USD, material, and even down to the model numbers for each size variant.
Green dots are also used to indicate the currently available bands in the Apple Online Store, both newly introduced bands as well as bands that remained on the sales lineup from previous seasons.
Under the New Looks section, some of the most recently introduced watch bands are featured, and it is assumed that this section will be updated regularly in the future whenever new bands are introduced.
Under curated collections, watch bands introduced at events such as the recent Apple Event in September 2020 or in special collections such as the annual Pride bands or even the Apple Employee-only Close Your Rings Challenge watch bands are featured in detail.
Bandbreite is a collaboration between Filip Chudzinski (@choreographics, who started the massive Every Apple Watch band Apple released. Ever. thread in the Macrumors forums), a designer from Berlin, Germany as well as developers Florent Lotthé (@flo5929), Baptiste Dajon (@baptistedajon) and Simon Botte (@simonbotte) from France, and is now available on the App Store for the absolutely wonderful price of free.
I have tested the beta of the app and was impressed, and wondered how much will the app go for, since its reach is likely to be small due to the niche of catering for Apple Watch band collectors, but there is absolutely no reason not to download the app and give it a run if you do not have to pay a single cent for it. Get Bandbreite now!