We surfed all winter with an Apple Watch safely tucked beneath the cuff of our wetsuit. Several times the wetsuit got blasted up our arm, leaving the watch exposed, but still attached. . . luckily.
Now that summer has arrived and we’re more likely to be surfing without a wetsuit, the Apple Watch’s post and hole band closure isn’t looking as solid as it has in the past. Though we’ve never had one fall open, it doesn’t seem like a good idea to hang it out there as a test. That’s why we were stoked to see that Urban Armor Gear has added a Tang buckle to a silicone band that keeps the clean lines of Apples silicone band while adding the safety of a Tang buckle. And though the bands have a buckle, they still keep the strap clean by feeding the loose end back under the band just like the Apple band.
The UAG bands come in two styles the Scout and Civilian. The Scout is a single color band that comes in three colors (black, olive, and orange) and retails for $29.95. The Civilian features two layers of silicone, a “branded stainless steel buckle” and comes in two colors (black/orange and slate/orange). It retails for $39.95.
We haven’t tested them yet, but we can say for sure that the buckle makes us feel better about taking our Apple Watch into the surf. We’ll let you know how it goes. For more info, please click the link.
[Link: Urban Armor Gear]
Follow up: both of these bands eventually snapped on one side of the buckle. We didn’t lose the watch, but we were lucky. Also, though we got the bands free to test, UAG would not replace the broken bands for continued testing. We liked the band enough to buy another one, however, this time we’ll just replace it before a year is up.
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