For many Apple Watch owners, the original band that they receive is good enough for daily use, but for others it’s fun to swap out bands on a regular basis. Today we’re looking at an Apple Watch band from one of the big names in the Apple accessories business – Belkin. The Belkin Sport Band for Apple Watch (US$39.99 or $25.79 through Amazon affiliate link) comes in sizes for both the 38mm and 42mm Series 1 and Series 2 Apple Watches, and we’ll take a close look at it right now.
Users of Apple’s default sports band will notice one difference with the Belkin Sport Band almost immediately — the back of the silicone band has a “wave” pattern on it that provides a path for some airflow to your wrist. If you’ve suffered from that sweaty, clammy feeling under your Watch band, you’ll appreciate this feature.
As with all accessory Watch bands, the Belkin Sport Band uses the same attachment mechanism. It’s a cinch to take off your existing band and install the Belkin band. Belkin’s band also comes with a different closure mechanism. Apple’s Sport band uses a single “knob” that goes into a small hole on the other side of the Watch band to secure it to your wrist. The Belkin model uses a much larger oblong connector that fits into slots on the band — this change once again provides for better airflow to the wrist.
Once the main connection is made, a second connector is used to hold down the free end of the band. That prevents any excess band from flopping around and becoming a nuisance.
The Belkin Sport Band comes in four different colors; we tried the Marine Blue, which features a navy blue color on the outside and a light blue inside. Other color schemes include black outside/grey inside, grey outside/carnation pink inside, and black outside/citron green inside.
The Belkin Sport Band not only feels less “clammy” than Apple’s design, but seems to stay in place better than the default Apple Sport Band. Through Amazon, the Belkin band is also about half the price of the $49 Apple band.
