This week Apple World Today has reviews of three Apple Watch charging stands: the Griffin WatchStand, the Nomad Stand for Apple Watch, and Fuse Chicken’s Bobine Watch. Today we’re getting started with a look at the US$29.99 Griffin WatchStand (affiliate link).
Design
Like all of the stands we’ll be looking at this week, the Griffin WatchStand is designed to hold your Apple Watch while it’s charging. The stand is 6.8 inches (17.3 cm) tall, standing on a weighted base that’s about 4.2 inches (10.7 cm) on a side. The entire assembly, without the Watch charging cable, weighs about 14.9 ounces (.42 kg). It’s finished in a combination of matte and glossy plastic, which unfortunately has a tendency to pick up fingerprints easily.
The WatchStand is designed to work with whatever charging cable shipped with your Apple Watch. For the white plastic charging cable that ships with the Apple Watch Sport, the magnetic disk fits right into the top of the WatchStand. For the stainless steel magnetic charging cable, Griffin includes a silicone spacer to ensure maximum contact between the disk and the Watch.
As many Watch owners are aware, some of the cables included with the Watch are 2 meters (approximately 6 feet) long. Griffin smartly figured out a way to wrap the excess cable around a grooved insert inside the vertical part of the WatchStand.
Finally, the WatchStand can hold a Watch in a number of orientations; vertically or in the horizontal “Nightstand Mode” that will become available in watchOS 2.0. There’s also a small ridge on the “front” of the WatchStand for propping up an iPhone for charging.
Function
The whole idea behind the current crop of Watch stands is that people want some organization, not just a cable dangling across a nightstand. Assembling the cable and stand is quite easy. First, the USB end of the cable is threaded through a hole in the top of the removable center of the post. Next, excess cable is wrapped around the groove on the post. When the remaining length of cable is about sufficient for your plug-to-stand needs, the remainder is snaked down through the bottom of the post.
The post is then inserted into the stand, hiding all of the excess cable. This is a nice touch, considering just how incredibly long the stock 2 meter cable is!
The stand works with a Watch band wide open or cinched shut; I found it nice to be able to just “flop” the unhooked Apple Watch Sport right onto the WatchStand.
Conclusion
Griffin’s WatchStand is reasonably priced, sturdy, and hides excess cabling. The only negative is that the stand and base tend to pick up fingerprints too easily.
