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I've been hanging on to my original band from when I bought my Series 7 watch, partly because I'm not sure I trust amazon bands that seem to cost a fraction of
by frantathefranta 3y ago
I've been hanging on to my original band from when I bought my Series 7 watch, partly because I'm not sure I trust amazon bands that seem to cost a fraction of the price of the OEM bands. If they fail, I'll get a ding on the watch at best or a broken screen at worst.
This did make me trust the off-brand bands a little more, since they seem to require a better mechanism that my previous swappable-band watch had.
- browningstreet 3y agoI’ve long wondered why Swatch didn’t get into the Apple Watch band business.
- varenc 3y agoSwatch primarily makes money selling watches, so they probably think it’d be a bad look if they made watches for another brand, tacitly endorsing it.
- browningstreet 3y agoTrue, but volume growth has taken a hit. High end Swiss watch sales are climbing but overall watch sales are down. Swatch has the moon watches and such, but their pop watch market could reasonably be at risk against smart watches.
- rocketbop 3y agoSwatch Group is so huge with so many brands like Omega, Longines, Hamilton, etc, I’m sure they look at the market holistically.
- alt227 3y agoIts an Apple proprietary system and as such there will be a large licensing cost, including most likely a per unit payment designed to let the 3rd party make the most paper thin of margins.
- browningstreet 3y agoAnd yet there are tons of official watch band makers.
- alt227 3y agoYes there are plenty of companies out there who will happily run their business with quantity of sales over quality of margin, however larger companies such as Swatch usually need a larger slice of the pie to make it worthwhile.
- reaperducer 3y agomost likely a per unit payment designed to let the 3rd party make the most paper thin of margins. Swatch doesn't make $20 disposable watches anymore. I was in a Swatch store a couple of weeks ago, and the majority were in the $150-$200 range, with some going for $500 or more. Swatch can afford to license the connector.
- alt227 3y agoThe point is not that they cant afford the license its that when they are selling their own products for hundreds of dollers, probably with $50 or more profit margin per unit, then making $2 profit per unit on a strap after licensing costs is not worth the manufacturing investment for such a big company.
- reaperducer 3y agoI can just imagine Maude Flanders: "Oh, won't somebody think of the profits!" not worth the manufacturing investment for such a big company. Isn't the whole point of being a big company that you can make big investments that a small company can't?
- ghaff 3y agoIt's complicated. You can make larger investments. But, while you may have economies of scale for certain things, you probably also have overheads up and down and across the company for everything you do.
- B1FF_PSUVM 3y agoProbably because they also don't have very good bands either. I have a 20+ year old Swatch Skin which I like mostly because I have to look at my wrist to know if I'm wearing it. A thin unimposing plastic thing, "did it come in a cereal box?" as a wit once asked at lunch. The Swatch leather-like bands get grungy and break in months, I've worn out a few. My local supplier closed, and the Ali Express replacement I finally got is wearing much better.
- ericabiz 3y agoI have owned Apple Watches since the Series 2. (Currently on an SE 2) I have always used third-party watch bands I get off Aliexpress--much cheaper than Amazon if you're patient with shipping. Zero issues with the latch mechanism.