Best Apple Watch straps 2023: From sports bands to leather styles

The solo loop is a single strip of silicone rubber that stretches to fit over your wrist, snapping into place. It is soft and supremely supple, making it easily the most comfortable strap on test, with a scooped underside that aids breathability. Sizing is crucial with the solo loop, as it’s non-adjustable. In Apple stores, you can try it on but, online, there is a tool you can print out. If your reading comes up on the line between two sizes, choose the smaller of the two.

The solo loop comes in six colours currently. There are two understated ones, storm blue and olive; two moderately bright options, purple fog and starlight; and two splendidly in-your-face hues, spring green and canary yellow.

The solo loop is designed for Apple Watch SE, Apple Watch Series 4 and newer only.

Casetify makes a lot of cases for smartphones and watches, as well as literally hundreds of different straps in the flexi band range alone. There are more than 100 straps just in the animals range, including bright macaws, cute pugs, dancing cats and line-drawing mice. So, whether you want a bright solid colour, delicate patterns, funky slogans or geometric shapes, you’ll find them on Casetify’s site. The flexi band is ridged on the underside, which helps with ventilation, and it’s designed to be water- and sweat-resistant, thanks to its special coating. It’s flexible and comfortable and has a subtle, matte finish.

Every year, Apple creates a special edition band or two to celebrate Pride. The latest model is tremendous and has Apple Watch faces to match. On those faces, the sprinkles of rainbow colour can be variously placed as hour markers or surrounding background features that float around, with the hour and minute hands changing colour according to what they’re pointing at.

Those sprinkles are perfectly mimicked on the band itself, on a white, matte-finish strap, which, despite our best efforts, has stayed pristine after months of wear. It comes in two sizes, small/medium and medium/large for each case size.

If you have an Apple Watch in a titanium finish, such as the Apple Watch Edition from 2021 or 2020, there’s no option from Apple to have a strap in the same material. However, Nomad has created this band, in two colours, designed to match either the titanium or the space black titanium casing. It is also a perfect match, in the lighter shade, for the new Apple Watch Ultra – which also has a titanium finish. The band has its own magnetic clasp, which is attractive and comfortable. To ensure the perfect fit, Nomad has included instructions and special tools, so you can add or remove links as needed. This can be a bit fiddly but is very satisfying and leaves you feeling like you’re a professional watchmaker (almost).

This band is elegantly smart and is ideal for formal occasions. The band is stainless steel and holds in place by attaching the magnetised end to the main strap exactly where it fits best – Apple says it’s infinitely adjustable. It comes in three colours, graphite, gold and silver, so you can match it to the case colour of the watch perfectly. It is lightweight but strong. It’s not water-resistant, so you’ll need another strap if you take your watch swimming or on a sweaty run. Subtle but classy.

Take a deep breath when you log on to the Lucrin site – the choice is overwhelming. There are dozens of colours to choose from and three finishes: smooth leather, metallic leather and vegetable tanned leather (which costs £20 extra). Once you’ve picked your colour and finish, you can then choose the colour of the buckle and metal connector – either silver or black. If you have an Apple Watch Ultra, there are extra finishes, such as crocodile-style calfskin and calf leather or even real ostrich leather, which will cost you a touch more at £239.

Many are made to order, taking up to 10 days to be delivered. Quality is extremely good and the bands last well. Lucrin’s bands have attractive looks and real comfort. There’s also a double tour band, which costs more.

The leather link is attractive and highly comfortable. It has a clever design with ridges that interlock with each other as you close the strap, snapping shut with a satisfying magnetic closure. It comes in two lengths for each size of Apple Watch. For the smaller watch, there’s a small-to-medium size for wrists measuring 130-160mm and a medium-to-large for 140-180mm wrists.

For the bigger case size, the small-to-medium fits 140-180mm wrists, while the medium-to-large suits 165-205mm wrists. The leather is soft and supple but is also hard-wearing and works for casual as well as more formal occasions – though, it’s not waterproof, so you’ll need something else for when you’re swimming. There are three colourways: umber, ink and midnight.

Nomad’s watch straps are routinely well-made, with great attention to detail. The modern band comes in an option made of Horween leather that feels so good you’ll want to touch it all the time – which is a good thing, since it’ll be pressed against your wrist. The leather gains an attractive patina as time passes. The Horween leather comes in two colours, rustic brown and black, while the regular leather has three: black, brown and English tan. For each, there are two hardware finishes, with black or silver buckles to suit the colour of your watch. The Horween leather versions cost £15 more.

The sport band is the basic, most affordable band from Apple, but it’s still great. It has a neat fastening called pin-and-tuck, where a pin slides through the strap hole (hint: choose one slightly looser than you’d think) and the strap tucks away neatly through a loop. It’s comfy and doesn’t leave any strap hanging out. The material – fluoroelastomer – is the same used for the solo loop, though the sport band is adjustable. It looks good and feels great. The strap lasts well, with no loss of elasticity or discolouration after a year and more. The colourways available change by the season – right now, they are olive, sky, bright orange (which lives up to its name), midnight, starlight, white and red.

Nomad’s active band pro is solid and rugged, working especially well for working out and everyday use. It matches waterproof leather with FKM fluoroelastomer rubber lining, so it’s highly versatile. It’s safe for swimming but looks neat enough for smarter occasions. The inside is ridged to provide better ventilation during exercise, too.

It has the Nomad speciality of two choices of metal lugs, black and silver, to match the colour of the Apple Watch case. There are two colours to choose from: black, for larger watches only, and classic brown for all watches.

Another classy strap, this time in leather. It only fits Apple’s smaller sized watch cases: the 38mm, 40mm and 41mm models. The buckle is a shiny and attractive closure that feels great. To ensure the perfect fit, there are three different strap sizes to suit, respectively, wrists sized 135-150mm, 145-165mm and 160-180mm – it’s worth trying on before buying, if you can – while the current colours are umber, ink and azure, which is a delicate blue.

Casetify has a dizzying range of leather bands – both genuine and vegan. These include eye-poppingly bright patterns; designs from artists such as Marta Olga Klara and Ann Marie Coolick; national flags such as the Union Jack, and plain blocks of leather with a choice of buckle colours. Unlike other brands that only offer black or silver buckles, here, you can choose from gold or navy, depending on the band. Some straps are even customisable with up to two letters or numbers, for a higher cost. Build quality is good, ensuring comfort and durability.

The Apple Watch Ultra, is designed for sports, with a bigger display, longer battery and greater depth compatibility, for instance. It has straps specially designed for it, with chunkier closures and strap extensions, so it can be used through gloves or underwater, while worn over a wetsuit, say. The best of these straps, we think, is the most understated: the trail loop. It’s like the sport loop but bigger and comes in different colours: black/grey, blue/grey and the bright-but-still-understated yellow/beige. The fit is tight and effective, holding in place with hook and loop across the band. This means you can adjust it to the exact best fit.

The sport loop is perfect for sports such as running or swimming – it’s completely waterproof. It holds tight, thanks to the hook and loop fastening, and is designed to be secure even when taking part in more-active sports, but it’s also designed to be breathable, so, even when you get sweatier, the band stays clean. There are six versions, including red, storm blue, midnight and starlight, while there are also two special editions, black unity sport loop and the Pride edition sport loop.

Like the solo loop mentioned earlier, this one needs careful sizing. ‘Braided’ refers to the matte-finish, rougher-feeling band with plaited polyester yarn. It looks great and feels comfortable. This strap is water-resistant, so you can wear it in the pool or on the beach, but it’s also slick enough for evening wear. Over months of use, there is a little give in this strap, but not enough to change the fit significantly. Currently, it comes in five colours, including red, olive, purple fog, midnight and a splendid bright orange.

The Pad & Quill bands are designed to look, feel and even smell traditional, with a full-grain leather top and colour-contrast stitching. Under the strap, each band has a discreet mark from the artisan, which adds to the cachet. The feel is superbly comfortable and relaxed, and the brushed metal hardware is a good match for the Apple Watch Ultra in strong stainless steel, while Pad & Quill says it’s unbreakable. A highly attractive and strong leather strap, this is one of few leather straps designed specifically for the Apple Watch Ultra, while fitting the larger Apple Watch sizes as well.