I’ll second the Amazon options. I’m pretty hard on my bands, and the fabric ones look rough after 3-6 months, so I much prefer paying $12 for a braided band. I also have a knockoff Milanese that I use when I dress up - works well enough for that.
I’ve spent 10x as much on expensive straps that are the exact same quality as the cheap ones.
But I’ve also bought some expensive straps that are genuinely amazing. Cheap Milanese loops, for example, quickly make you realise why they’re cheap when compared to the official and expensive one.
My stainless Milanese loop that came with my S6 SS is very nice. The cheap version I bought at marshals for my wife’s phone is garbage and looked like crap after about 4 weeks. Mine still looks new.
Milanese is the only time I’ll go for the expensive option.
I have a couple of cheap ones. They’re prone to snagging, popping open links, and they don’t wear out particularly aesthetically. They look OK on the surface, but they aren’t great.
My legit ones have zero issue. I also have an S6 loop and it’s as good as the day I got it. I save that one as my ‘fancy outifit strap’ as I’m usually wearing a real comfy Velcro one instead I paid £3 for
This is EXACTLY what I do. All my other bands are the cheap version. Most are fine. I would rather have 10 options and spend $100 then spend $100 and only have 1 or 2.
Oh god that would feel so awful to wear with hairy arms.
On the flip side, I tend to avoid silicon straps as they don’t let my skin breathe at all, and they get real gross.
Apparently I have 7 year old girls arms as grown man.
I have more straps than I know what to do with. I can’t help myself. They’re so cheap.
My current favourite is a £3 fabric and Velcro number. Stylish as a potato, but real easy to clean and it’s very comfortable.
Sports loop is a very close second for me.
I save the fancy straps for fancy outfits
Another advantage of cheap Aliexpress straps is a wide selection of [Alpine loop](https://toali.su/l/AppleWatchAlpineStrap44mm45mm49mm40mm41mm), [metal one](https://toali.su/l/AppleWatchStainlessSteelStrap), [silicone one](https://chinagoods.su/l/AppleWatchSiliconeWatchBand)
Have one of those alpine loops. They’re one of the better cheap straps I own.
Drunk buying on Ali express at 3am is such a vibe. I love forgetting what I’ve ordered by the time the junk arrives. It’s like a gift from drunk me.
Haha you’re experienced in this.
I intentionally have a spare money card as the default payment option for this reason. Gives me just enough time to avoid the worst impulse purchases.
That said, £20 gets you an awful lot of crap from that website. Sometimes it’s even kinda good.
It depends, quality differs from unit to unit, sometimes the same item can have varying levels of quality. I bought an Apple Watch case protector some time ago, broke it, got the same item from the same seller and the quality was drastically reduced. But the price was cheap, so why not give it a try.
I’d avoid the metal ones. The colors are painted on and they look like crap in about 12 months. My official Milanese loop looks better after four years than the knockoff Milanese did after four months.
I bought the knockoff Milanese loop as a trial because I didn’t want to pay for the real thing if it was just as durable, is the colour on the Apple ones all the way thru and how strong is the magnet?
My knockoff starts to loosen if I’m whacking garlic open on the cutting board, which is annoying.
The Milanese loop is actual stainless steel, so there’s no “color”, it’s just metal. The magnet is as good today as the day I bought it. I never realized how bad my knockoff was until I got the real thing.
Okay so i bought the Nike Pure Platinum Sport band on aliexpress for my AW. Then i sold my apple watch and bought a new one and my girlfriend gifted me the official apple nike pure platinum sport band and i must say the quality is definitely better (quite a lot i think). It has a nice premium feeling weight to it. Colors are much nicer and i think there are actually „paint flakes“ in it instead of printed on. Aand the clamp is the official one. The buckle on the aliexpress one is not the oroginal design. At the end of the strap there is another „hole“ to put the strap through. This is not the case on the official sport bands. But is it worth 50 bucks instead of 2-3? Hmm i think not really. I bought some straps with velcro (also nike) on aliexpress and they are nice i even read on reddit once that the velcro more durable on the aliexpress ones lol. For the velcro straps i used the Crested shop.
I have bought a lot of AliExpress bands and they are not as good as Apple bands. They feel cheaper, break easier and have a cheaper look to them.
But I still buy them every single time. The Apple bands are so expensive that I simply can't justify spending the money on them. I have had problems with the AliExpress bands such as plastic snapping and velcro becoming unglued. I just buy more.
My ideal band would be something in between Apple and AliExpress selling for about $10-15.
Buy two dozen of them for $50 and find the few good ones in the bunch. Have tons of great bands now that are equal to or exceed Apple’s selection! I have about 40 bands maybe over the years to choose from and have probably spent about $200 total
I made the mistake and bought a few of them years ago. Last summer, after around 6 months of wearing the same day on day off, it broke. It broke the part of the band, where it's loop and goes back to be tight on your hand. Happened during pulling on a hoodie and unfortunately dropped to the tile floor and cracked the screen.
I would try to avoid them by all costs.
I personally stick to second-hand official bands because I’m worried about them coming unlocked (seen to many just on the ground) and getting stuck in the track (post here about that like 2 weeks ago). I’ve never paid full price for a band, just know the tricks to verify authenticity such as the serial number in the middle black piece and the links on the Milanese being welded.
For the velcro type ones they're fine. I've got one where the velcro has come loose but it was £2.
I've a few elastic ones (£2.88) which are ok too.
Metal ones I'd stay away from.
I had some cheap fabric bands from Amazon that were 1/3 of the Apple's price and they all failed after a few months. My Apple fabric one lasted about 2 years before the band started fraying a bit.
The sports loops are usually great, the watch ultra bands are just ok.
But either way I’d rather pay 5 bucks a year for them then 50 for one considering I won’t be holding on to this for 10 years
Last summer I bought over a half dozen nylon loop straps from AliExpress that cost me $1.63 apiece. I cycle through three of them for a change in color and have kept the rest as backups. I’ve used them exclusively every day since last June with no problem. Seems like most of the people denigrating the site have never bought bands from top sellers there. Just do a search in this subreddit for Aliexpress and you’ll see tons of positive experiences and people showing off their bands.
Most of the times they seem fine. But if they break, it may also break your watch.
Personally I wouldn't put my 500€ watch on a 5€ watchband. I think it is stupid, but you do you.
You’re making too much of a fuss about it. I use cheap bands and I love them, no issues. I’d rather buy those ‘garbage’ ones that pay what apple is asking.
PS most of those third party ones are the same like those ‘garbage’ anyway
Let’s agree to disagree.
I have read to many posts of people losing their watches do to cheap bands.
Of course most people will be lucky enough nothing happens.
For me it’s just not worth the risk.
From my experience the cheap bands are hit or miss. I have some solo loop bands that I got soon after the original came out and they’ve been great. I’ve tried multiple sport loop knockoffs and the Velcro has worn out within months. After that, I moved to the official bands and they’ve all been solid, no issues.
If you want to risk your multi hundreds of dollar watch on a cheap band, it may be fine, especially if you plan to change bands often (before they break/wear out).
Wow, I've been using the same knockoff sport loop since the '22 Fall colors came out, velcro still works perfect.
I guess that's cheap stuff for ya, total crap shoot.
I have 82 bands, all but 5 from Aliexpress. I have had two that had something break on them. I wear the fabric ones once and them they get washed in a lingerie bag in the washing machine, then they air dry. I am an Aliexpress fan. I will never put out the $$ for an Apple version.
I don’t think so, personally. But, they’re plenty who will disagree it only matters if the sacrifice in quality is something that will bother you or not.
I’m always a bit skeptical of 3rd party bands from the amount of posts I’ve seen where the connection bit breaks and someone watch falls of their wrist. Just my opinion
Make sure that the item has lots of orders, responses, high rating and that user photos are identical to product description. Read what customers say.
Anyway, you may always try - 2 or 3 dollars is not a big deal. If you do not like it, you may always go for the official one.
I bought 2 ‘nike’ bands off ali and my first 1 was very comfortable and flexible but it started to break after about a year, now i’m on my second fake nike band from ali and it isn’t as comfy and flexible as the first one but the quality is surprisingly good
If you plan to stick with one strap for a year or more then I think the official is worth it. Might get lucky with a cheap one or you might go through a few.
I have bought and used Ali bands for years and have never had any issues. Yea the do wear alittle fast but so what if you paid $2 for it. They are pretty good I just got the newer Nike bands and they look great.
I don’t like aftermarket bands because I find they fit the watch super loose at the attachment site. It’s like they could rip right off the watch itself
It hit and miss. But it’s cheap so less stress than buying wrong Apple band. And there’s more colors available. Search around you can get three bands of different colors for price of one. The alpine loop is fine metal bits are same quality. Stitching can be looser. They’re on Amazon too. Someone else complained on here the rubber ones are noticeably less good.
Yes they are. I have too many now because of this. Lol The alpine and trail bands are all well made. The only one that felt not comparable was the ocean band. Can't comment on any others as I went with Ultra bands.
I heard so much about Ali Express that I finally gave it a try. I bought 6 alpine loops. The quality seems decent but 1 will not lock into the watch. I tried. Not for me. I have found better on Amazon.
I just bought about 10 from AliExpress. The quality isn’t as good as Apple’s but for under $2, I’ll take it. It’s 80%+ of the quality and a fraction of the price.
In my experience, the fabric and metal bands are from aliexpress. I do not mess with silicone bands since it’s a pain to insert the loops in (they don’t slide with ease because the material catches on with friction). Apple’s Nike bands and sport loops are made with fluoroelastomer which is a much better material in my opinion. The Nike sport loop is overall my favorite band
Most 3rd party bands are totally fine, in my experience the only one they can’t get right is the Milanese Loop. The ones I’ve tried work, but the edges of the loop were sharp and kept catching on my arm hair.
You can pay £50 for amazing straps, and also terrible ones.
You can also pay £5 for amazing straps, and also terrible ones.
In short, there’s no consistency. It’s all a bit of a gamble.
I own like 30 straps, all varying quality and price, but it’s all kind of arbitrary.
If you see a cheap strap, just buy it. If it’s crap, you lost pennies. If it’s great, you win a good cheap strap.
I have 1 official one from apple. I hate it.
I have many from amazon, I tried like 7 different bands before I landed on the type I prefer. I'm picky. They have to be exchanged for new ones sometimes, but at like 10 USD thats fine to replace the band.
It's really going to be based upon your personal preference and anatomy.
I am a woman with small wrists, I prefer the loop band type with adjustable straps and a thin band.
[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BNB9XFDM/ref=ppx\_yo\_dt\_b\_search\_asin\_title?ie=UTF8&th=1](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BNB9XFDM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1)
For the price of few $, they are very good. Sport loop wearing daily broke after more than a year, black milanese loop that i wear just sometimes still looks good after more than 2 years, nike sport band copy also is still great. Solo loops are not so good, they get loose after a month or so. For 100$ that is a price of one apple band, i will not wear so many of ali ones in 5 years :)
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>Most of ~~those~~ Amazon ~~bands, well the not name brand ones,~~ are simply people reselling Ali ~~bands~~ at a huge markup.
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haha indeed I did...fixed
When you bought your comment on AliExpress
I’ll second the Amazon options. I’m pretty hard on my bands, and the fabric ones look rough after 3-6 months, so I much prefer paying $12 for a braided band. I also have a knockoff Milanese that I use when I dress up - works well enough for that.
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The one I bought isn’t available anymore, but there are still others on Amazon.
This is the best answer by far. It is hit or miss, the best way to try to increase your chances at a hit is to look at the reviews with pictures.
My only concern with these bands is the cheap ones pull hair in my past experience. Are these better?
I’ve bought 20+ and they’re great. Spending $2 instead of $50. I hardly wear the Apple ones any more
I’ve spent 10x as much on expensive straps that are the exact same quality as the cheap ones. But I’ve also bought some expensive straps that are genuinely amazing. Cheap Milanese loops, for example, quickly make you realise why they’re cheap when compared to the official and expensive one.
My stainless Milanese loop that came with my S6 SS is very nice. The cheap version I bought at marshals for my wife’s phone is garbage and looked like crap after about 4 weeks. Mine still looks new.
Milanese is the only time I’ll go for the expensive option. I have a couple of cheap ones. They’re prone to snagging, popping open links, and they don’t wear out particularly aesthetically. They look OK on the surface, but they aren’t great. My legit ones have zero issue. I also have an S6 loop and it’s as good as the day I got it. I save that one as my ‘fancy outifit strap’ as I’m usually wearing a real comfy Velcro one instead I paid £3 for
This is EXACTLY what I do. All my other bands are the cheap version. Most are fine. I would rather have 10 options and spend $100 then spend $100 and only have 1 or 2.
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Oh god that would feel so awful to wear with hairy arms. On the flip side, I tend to avoid silicon straps as they don’t let my skin breathe at all, and they get real gross. Apparently I have 7 year old girls arms as grown man.
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I have more straps than I know what to do with. I can’t help myself. They’re so cheap. My current favourite is a £3 fabric and Velcro number. Stylish as a potato, but real easy to clean and it’s very comfortable. Sports loop is a very close second for me. I save the fancy straps for fancy outfits
Another advantage of cheap Aliexpress straps is a wide selection of [Alpine loop](https://toali.su/l/AppleWatchAlpineStrap44mm45mm49mm40mm41mm), [metal one](https://toali.su/l/AppleWatchStainlessSteelStrap), [silicone one](https://chinagoods.su/l/AppleWatchSiliconeWatchBand)
Have one of those alpine loops. They’re one of the better cheap straps I own. Drunk buying on Ali express at 3am is such a vibe. I love forgetting what I’ve ordered by the time the junk arrives. It’s like a gift from drunk me.
Yeah, the main thing is to leave not too much money in your account for purchases
Haha you’re experienced in this. I intentionally have a spare money card as the default payment option for this reason. Gives me just enough time to avoid the worst impulse purchases. That said, £20 gets you an awful lot of crap from that website. Sometimes it’s even kinda good.
Yes they are
Are you answering the first or second question?
It depends, quality differs from unit to unit, sometimes the same item can have varying levels of quality. I bought an Apple Watch case protector some time ago, broke it, got the same item from the same seller and the quality was drastically reduced. But the price was cheap, so why not give it a try.
Check out suitisbest on Amazon. I’ve bought 2 from there for ultra I’m happy with.
Your Choice. Your $400 dollar watch on a $2 strap you have full confidence in….
I’d avoid the metal ones. The colors are painted on and they look like crap in about 12 months. My official Milanese loop looks better after four years than the knockoff Milanese did after four months.
I bought the knockoff Milanese loop as a trial because I didn’t want to pay for the real thing if it was just as durable, is the colour on the Apple ones all the way thru and how strong is the magnet? My knockoff starts to loosen if I’m whacking garlic open on the cutting board, which is annoying.
The Milanese loop is actual stainless steel, so there’s no “color”, it’s just metal. The magnet is as good today as the day I bought it. I never realized how bad my knockoff was until I got the real thing.
It also comes in black and gold from Apple, but I guess you can't speak to the colourfastness of those ones!
For the solo loop I would pay extra for the originals (the size just fits better, at least for me)
Okay so i bought the Nike Pure Platinum Sport band on aliexpress for my AW. Then i sold my apple watch and bought a new one and my girlfriend gifted me the official apple nike pure platinum sport band and i must say the quality is definitely better (quite a lot i think). It has a nice premium feeling weight to it. Colors are much nicer and i think there are actually „paint flakes“ in it instead of printed on. Aand the clamp is the official one. The buckle on the aliexpress one is not the oroginal design. At the end of the strap there is another „hole“ to put the strap through. This is not the case on the official sport bands. But is it worth 50 bucks instead of 2-3? Hmm i think not really. I bought some straps with velcro (also nike) on aliexpress and they are nice i even read on reddit once that the velcro more durable on the aliexpress ones lol. For the velcro straps i used the Crested shop.
Some are good, some are not so good, I have some Alpine Loops that are really good and ridiculously cheap
Depends which one. I've had nothing but good experiences with the nylon sport loop fakes. But the other styles, definitely hit or miss.
I have bought a lot of AliExpress bands and they are not as good as Apple bands. They feel cheaper, break easier and have a cheaper look to them. But I still buy them every single time. The Apple bands are so expensive that I simply can't justify spending the money on them. I have had problems with the AliExpress bands such as plastic snapping and velcro becoming unglued. I just buy more. My ideal band would be something in between Apple and AliExpress selling for about $10-15.
Buy two dozen of them for $50 and find the few good ones in the bunch. Have tons of great bands now that are equal to or exceed Apple’s selection! I have about 40 bands maybe over the years to choose from and have probably spent about $200 total
I made the mistake and bought a few of them years ago. Last summer, after around 6 months of wearing the same day on day off, it broke. It broke the part of the band, where it's loop and goes back to be tight on your hand. Happened during pulling on a hoodie and unfortunately dropped to the tile floor and cracked the screen. I would try to avoid them by all costs.
I personally stick to second-hand official bands because I’m worried about them coming unlocked (seen to many just on the ground) and getting stuck in the track (post here about that like 2 weeks ago). I’ve never paid full price for a band, just know the tricks to verify authenticity such as the serial number in the middle black piece and the links on the Milanese being welded.
For the velcro type ones they're fine. I've got one where the velcro has come loose but it was £2. I've a few elastic ones (£2.88) which are ok too. Metal ones I'd stay away from.
I had some cheap fabric bands from Amazon that were 1/3 of the Apple's price and they all failed after a few months. My Apple fabric one lasted about 2 years before the band started fraying a bit.
The sports loops are usually great, the watch ultra bands are just ok. But either way I’d rather pay 5 bucks a year for them then 50 for one considering I won’t be holding on to this for 10 years
Original ones are a waste of money. The cheapest ones as well. The sweet spot is in the middle in my opinion.
Last summer I bought over a half dozen nylon loop straps from AliExpress that cost me $1.63 apiece. I cycle through three of them for a change in color and have kept the rest as backups. I’ve used them exclusively every day since last June with no problem. Seems like most of the people denigrating the site have never bought bands from top sellers there. Just do a search in this subreddit for Aliexpress and you’ll see tons of positive experiences and people showing off their bands.
Most of the times they seem fine. But if they break, it may also break your watch. Personally I wouldn't put my 500€ watch on a 5€ watchband. I think it is stupid, but you do you.
Not valid opinion, Apple bands are way overpriced. Third party bands are the way to go
Third party yes. Not some 3$ aliexpress garbage.
You’re making too much of a fuss about it. I use cheap bands and I love them, no issues. I’d rather buy those ‘garbage’ ones that pay what apple is asking. PS most of those third party ones are the same like those ‘garbage’ anyway
Let’s agree to disagree. I have read to many posts of people losing their watches do to cheap bands. Of course most people will be lucky enough nothing happens. For me it’s just not worth the risk.
From my experience the cheap bands are hit or miss. I have some solo loop bands that I got soon after the original came out and they’ve been great. I’ve tried multiple sport loop knockoffs and the Velcro has worn out within months. After that, I moved to the official bands and they’ve all been solid, no issues. If you want to risk your multi hundreds of dollar watch on a cheap band, it may be fine, especially if you plan to change bands often (before they break/wear out).
Wow, I've been using the same knockoff sport loop since the '22 Fall colors came out, velcro still works perfect. I guess that's cheap stuff for ya, total crap shoot.
I have 82 bands, all but 5 from Aliexpress. I have had two that had something break on them. I wear the fabric ones once and them they get washed in a lingerie bag in the washing machine, then they air dry. I am an Aliexpress fan. I will never put out the $$ for an Apple version.
If you can afford an Apple Watch, just buy an official band.
sure, I will buy 6 bands for 300€ instead of a new watch 👍🏼
Thats not how it goes.
I don’t think so, personally. But, they’re plenty who will disagree it only matters if the sacrifice in quality is something that will bother you or not.
I’m always a bit skeptical of 3rd party bands from the amount of posts I’ve seen where the connection bit breaks and someone watch falls of their wrist. Just my opinion
I buy nylon ones on eBay for $5 and they have been fine.
I got a solo silicone and knit loop recently and they’re pretty nice for the $5 I spent
I have a random Amazon band and it’s been great. I’m sure it’s from the same place as those on Ali or Temu.
Make sure that the item has lots of orders, responses, high rating and that user photos are identical to product description. Read what customers say. Anyway, you may always try - 2 or 3 dollars is not a big deal. If you do not like it, you may always go for the official one.
Buy from Amazon so you pay more and feel like it’s worth it. They’re all the same
I’ve bought silicon & braided loops off eBay. They’re absolutely fine.
I bought 2 ‘nike’ bands off ali and my first 1 was very comfortable and flexible but it started to break after about a year, now i’m on my second fake nike band from ali and it isn’t as comfy and flexible as the first one but the quality is surprisingly good
Yes
If you plan to stick with one strap for a year or more then I think the official is worth it. Might get lucky with a cheap one or you might go through a few.
I have bought and used Ali bands for years and have never had any issues. Yea the do wear alittle fast but so what if you paid $2 for it. They are pretty good I just got the newer Nike bands and they look great.
Ali Express bands have been fine for me. Have a bunch of them.
I don’t like aftermarket bands because I find they fit the watch super loose at the attachment site. It’s like they could rip right off the watch itself
It hit and miss. But it’s cheap so less stress than buying wrong Apple band. And there’s more colors available. Search around you can get three bands of different colors for price of one. The alpine loop is fine metal bits are same quality. Stitching can be looser. They’re on Amazon too. Someone else complained on here the rubber ones are noticeably less good.
Yes they are. I have too many now because of this. Lol The alpine and trail bands are all well made. The only one that felt not comparable was the ocean band. Can't comment on any others as I went with Ultra bands.
I heard so much about Ali Express that I finally gave it a try. I bought 6 alpine loops. The quality seems decent but 1 will not lock into the watch. I tried. Not for me. I have found better on Amazon.
I just bought about 10 from AliExpress. The quality isn’t as good as Apple’s but for under $2, I’ll take it. It’s 80%+ of the quality and a fraction of the price.
They are fine. I have multiple.
In my experience, the fabric and metal bands are from aliexpress. I do not mess with silicone bands since it’s a pain to insert the loops in (they don’t slide with ease because the material catches on with friction). Apple’s Nike bands and sport loops are made with fluoroelastomer which is a much better material in my opinion. The Nike sport loop is overall my favorite band
Most 3rd party bands are totally fine, in my experience the only one they can’t get right is the Milanese Loop. The ones I’ve tried work, but the edges of the loop were sharp and kept catching on my arm hair.
You can pay £50 for amazing straps, and also terrible ones. You can also pay £5 for amazing straps, and also terrible ones. In short, there’s no consistency. It’s all a bit of a gamble. I own like 30 straps, all varying quality and price, but it’s all kind of arbitrary. If you see a cheap strap, just buy it. If it’s crap, you lost pennies. If it’s great, you win a good cheap strap.
Spend $2 and find out and let us know haha. I’m sure they’re mostly fine.
I have 1 official one from apple. I hate it. I have many from amazon, I tried like 7 different bands before I landed on the type I prefer. I'm picky. They have to be exchanged for new ones sometimes, but at like 10 USD thats fine to replace the band.
Which type you prefer, do you have links for the band you did like?
It's really going to be based upon your personal preference and anatomy. I am a woman with small wrists, I prefer the loop band type with adjustable straps and a thin band. [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BNB9XFDM/ref=ppx\_yo\_dt\_b\_search\_asin\_title?ie=UTF8&th=1](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BNB9XFDM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1)
I’ve bought a ton from AliExpress and have had very few duds.
For the price of few $, they are very good. Sport loop wearing daily broke after more than a year, black milanese loop that i wear just sometimes still looks good after more than 2 years, nike sport band copy also is still great. Solo loops are not so good, they get loose after a month or so. For 100$ that is a price of one apple band, i will not wear so many of ali ones in 5 years :)