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The Best Apple Watch Bands to Personalize Your Look and Show Off Your Style
Swap in a new strap for every occasion
Swapping out your Apple Watch band is one of the easiest ways you can tweak your wearable to make it distinctly your style, or make an older model feel new when you’re not ready to upgrade. Just by pressing a small button and sliding the connector out, you can exchange your existing strap for something that better matches whatever mood you’re in. You can even change them out by occasion: for work, exercise or a nice night out.Â
With advice from Scott Kaplan, founder of the luxury watch store HQ Milton in San Francisco, we’ve built a list of 16 Apple Watch bands to up your wrist game. “With all this stuff, it’s so personal—anything you’re putting on your body is incredibly personal,” says Kaplan, so we included recommendations that run the gamut from fun lower-price bands to more premium leather options. And don’t feel too beholden to existing ideas of what sort of watch is appropriate in what situation—Kaplan himself often wears a cheap nylon strap, and enjoys the contrast between that and a nice watch.
Don’t have an Apple Watch yet? Now is a great time to shop for one while many models are on sale for Black Friday, along with loads of other tech and electronics.
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Apple Watch Series 9
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Apple Watch Ultra 2
Leather bands
Hand-stitched handsomeness
With this strap, Quince has done something impressive: The brand has created a good for (almost) everyone and good for (almost) everywhere band, at a remarkable price. While many leather watch straps can come across as rustic and chunky or padded and plush, the Quince is neither. It has a slight taper and elegant shape that looks at home in just about any situation. It’s constructed of top-grain leather, which tends to be higher quality than other parts of the hide, and has a decorative saddle-stitched border—that type of stitching can only be done by hand. Kaplan was immediately drawn to how soft it is, as well as the color and thickness. The band comes in two lengths and six understated colors, and it costs only $30. One note: The sample we received for review had some slight unevenness in the stitching, but we could only notice if we looked very closely.
Little black watch strap
If you’re looking for something similarly not in your face but with a bit more day-to-night understated elegance, check out the Anne Klein Quilted Leather Strap. It has that same traditional curved tapered shape but swaps out the thin strip of leather for one that’s more cushioned and luxurious looking. The quilted leather evokes the image of a handbag next to your plate at an elegant lunch. It’s an especially good find if you’re trying to avoid much of the aggressive branding that is associated with accessories from major fashion brands. It comes in two colors: black with gold components and blush with rose-gold components.
Flash your brand
If you are someone who likes to show some brand allegiance, Tory Burch has you covered. Why should you feel limited to the company’s T-iconography on just your handbag and shoes when you can have it on your Apple Watch, too? The logo gives a pop of reflective metallic contrast and the quilting runs as strips along the length of the strap, giving it a distinct look. We also appreciate that the strap holes are made to look like they run the entire length of the watch band, giving the whole band a more contiguous look when worn. Unfortunately, it only comes sized for the smallest Apple Watch, and only in black/brown or white/brown color combinations. It’s fairly stiff on first wear, but according to customer reviews, will soften in time.
The braided band
For a much softer approach to a leather strap, the Kate Spade Braided Band is an alternative that pushes into desert boho aesthetics. Only available in a single blush pink color, this strap has a faux braided look and feel. It’s much less formal and structured feeling than the other more feminine-leaning bands we tested—it gives more Coachella than conference room. And the braided shape has the added effect of functionally hiding the strap holes, which is a nice touch.
Old-school simplicity
If your tastes run towards something more straightforward, the Barton Leather strap is as basic looking a watch strap as you can find while maintaining a high level of quality. There’s no taper to the shape of the strap; it’s a solid 22 millimeters wide across its entire length. This gives it a slightly more chunky, masculine vibe, though it’s by no means bulky—it’s still fairly thin and pliable top-grain leather. This caught Kaplan’s eye, as he said he’s a fan of “this type of thing, where it’s a little heavier with thicker construction, and it’s going to last a little longer.”
We have to applaud Barton’s diversity of options with the strap, too. It comes in more than a dozen color combinations of leather and stitching, and you can also choose the buckle and adapter to be either stainless steel or black (sorry gold and rose gold Apple Watch owners) and two lengths (the shorter for 5- to 8-inch-diameter wrists, the longer for 7- to 9-inches). Barton offers a frankly staggering number of watch straps overall, but we appreciate the basic leather strap for doing something very simple and doing it very well. Plus, since the strap attaches to the watch using a removable adapter, you can actually swap in any other 22-millimeter watch strap if you want to switch things up a bit.
Slick leather looks
The Nomad Modern Band evokes the executive desk toy trend of the ’90s and ’00s that filled dozens of Sky Mall and Sharper Image catalogs—in a good way. It’s definitely pushing a certain sort of masculine image, slightly chunky but still sleek and with some minor refinements like a slight taper along its length and edge detailing on the strap keepers. Kaplan pegged it as “a little modern, a little retro, but the band itself is thick and I think that’s cool.” The strap comes sized for larger watches in standard leather, and both smaller and larger models in the higher end Horween leather.
Sport bands
Silicone strap made to look traditional
The default option for an Apple Watch is often Apple’s own silicone strap, which has a very distinctive (and now common) look. If you want something that looks more like a traditional watch strap instead, but still has the utility of silicone, we recommend Barton’s offering. The Elite Silicone comes in an array of colors from understated to loud, and each looks more like a standard watch strap than most other silicone options out there. Each order includes two different lengths of strap so you can swap in for whichever fits you best.Â
Airflow? Groovy.
A slightly more distinctive looking sports band comes courtesy of Nomad. The Nomad Sports Band is made out of a rubber material called FKM rather than silicone, which Nomad says it uses for “comfort and durability.” When I was wearing it, I wasn’t really able to notice a difference from the more common material, but I certainly didn’t find it any less comfortable. The Sport Band has horizontal channels on both the inside and outside of the strap, with those on the interior helping to provide a bit of airflow so the strap doesn’t get sweaty and stuck to your skin. Some users have mentioned that the single strap length is on the long side, so it may not be the right pick for those with smaller wrists.
Old school look with new school materials
If you’re not sure if you’d prefer a leather band or a sports band, Nomad attempts to combine both with the Active Band Pro. Like the Sports Band, the inside of the Active Band Pro has an FKM lining with channels for airflow. This model also introduces an outer layer of waterproof leather as well. Nomad claims that this leather is “thoroughly infused with natural lipids that should never wear out,” so it will maintain its waterproofness no matter what. It also looks more like Nomad’s more traditional watch straps with a standard buckle.
Puts the fun in functional fitness
If you want a sports-friendly watch band with a bit more pizazz and personality, Casetify’s Impact series of straps cover a huge gamut, from bright to quirky to cute. The straps all have an inner geometric design that raises parts of their body away from your skin for better ventilation, and they’re built from pellets that come from recycled phone cases. They bring a distinctly Swatch vibe to the whole thing that we love, but Casetify’s large branding can be a bit in your face.
’90s retro bodaciousness
If you ever find yourself yearning for the neon-soaked days of ’90s surf and skate commercials, the Freestyle Leash is aimed directly at your nostalgic longing. This band is literally a surfboard leash strap—that is, the thing that keeps your surfboard from flying away when you absolutely eat it attempting to stand up. It is, as Kaplan correctly put it, “awesome.” Like those original surf straps, the Freestyle Leash has a double layer of Velcro holding everything in place with no metal parts. You’ll have to let it dry out if it gets wet, unlike silicone or plastic. But look at how cool this thing looks! And while it comes in more sedate colors, why wouldn’t you go for something bold?
Link bands
Tortoiseshell sans tortoise
For years, I wore my watch with a traditional metal strap, but as much as I liked it, it was distractingly heavy. Now I’ve fallen more or less in love with Machete’s take on a watch strap made of links. Instead of heavy metal it uses acetate, which means it comes in a wide array of colors, is much lighter on the wrist and is just less noticeable during wear in general. These straps just look and feel great. However, like most link straps, they’re fiddly to resize. Thankfully the band comes with a kit and a link to instructional videos to show you how to do it right. You can also spend an extra $15 to have the strap ship with adapters to fit multiple Apple Watch bodies—a handy option if you’re buying it as a gift and don’t know for sure the person’s watch size.
Affordable acetate
If you want to try out the resin band look but don’t want to spend quite as much, Astra’s Echo Resin is a great alternative. For less than half the price of the Machete, you get a still pretty good watch strap. It doesn’t feel as well constructed as the Machete, nor does it come with resizing tools. But it’s still got the look, and if it’s a style you want to play with, it’s a great introduction.
Round off the hard edges
The Kate Spade Scallop watch strap is another link option, but this one is made with more traditional metal. It differentiates itself from more common metal link bands by scalloping the edges of every link, which serves to soften what can otherwise be a very harsh look. The design makes the strap seem just a bit more stereotypically feminine, and keeps things looking very businessy and professional. The strap is available in black, stainless steel, gold and rose gold for both sizes of the standard Apple Watch, but the listings are scattered across the Kate Spade site, so it takes a bit of searching to find them all. For even more metal band options, check out our guide to women’s watches.Â
Chunky but still refined
Similarly, the Anne Klein Alloy Chain Bracelet puts a slight visual spin on a standard metal link watch strap. With black links surrounded by gold, the strap pushes more toward looking like a bracelet than a watch band. This is reinforced by the spaces between the links, which are large enough to show a bit of skin, making the band look lighter and less dominant on your wrist.
Vaporwave aesthetics in a fan-favorite style
Apple’s popular Milanese loop costs $100 and comes in just three colors. For approximately one-third the price, the Astra take on the same loop has nine color options—by far, my favorite is the rainbow. Its lively iridescence is unlike almost anything else I’ve seen in a watch strap, and as the kids say, it’s a vibe. Rather than just a larger and a smaller size of strap, these come in seven different band widths, covering pretty much the entire history of the Apple Watch, from the original 38-millimeter small Watch to the 49-millimeter Ultra. Make sure to double-check your model’s size to buy a band that fits your watch exactly right; when you do, it looks great.
A place to store your bands
Twelve South’s TimePorter Wall Mount is one of our favorite storage solutions for a growing Apple Watch band collection. Designed to stick to your wall with removable Command strips, it holds up to six bands; they stick securely in the rail along the top yet are easy to remove when you need them. Not only is it a practical solution, we think it looks great, too.
—Additional reporting by Buy Side Staff