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Post by CdnPhoto on Dec 22, 2023 5:02:05 GMT -8
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Post by hrace on Dec 22, 2023 6:47:22 GMT -8
The Apple Watch ban is frustrating as the scope of the ban is made more clear.
As user ems pointed out last night in the Thursday thread, Apple has stopped warranty / repair work also. So much of the internals are glued together that Apple replaces the watch in most instances. Seems that's now on hold.
As well, all the refurbished watches were also pulled (Series 7, Series 8). If that was made clear up front, I missed it. Refurb was a back up plan in my mind if the need /want arose and 3rd party stores were out of inventory. Hopefully this is short lived. I had debated purchasing a new Series 9 before the ban but thought I'd relax and not be so jumpy towards the threat of a stop sale. Second guessing that just a bit now.
Loosely related, there are rumors of a watch re-design for the watch's 10th anniversary next year. Along with that are rumors of a new watch strap attachment design. There are far more than a handful of folks with over $10K in watch bands, that have accumulated every shade of color in every style of band. A lot of frustration brewing and hopes for an adapter if the band attachment does indeed change. Nothing can last forever but that pending change was another reason some folks were planning to buy the Series 9, to run their band collection as long as possible before the current technology is too slow or outdated.
I've been an Apple watch wearer for many years now but only late this year have started to buy spare bands to enjoy / rotate between. Seems that may be pretty poor timing but it's still enjoyable and I'm glad I did. I hadn't fully grasped the fact that Apple releases color themed watch faces in most every watch face style to exactly match the band shades released seasonally. Instant fashion assist from Apple!
I continue to be impressed with that aspect of Apple products; the more you dig in, Apple has layers and layers of neat tricks, surprises and assistance. It's wild and keeps me enjoying the products I own again, and again. It's those kinds of things that keep me favorable towards Apple's near term future.
Lastly, I've recently been reading up on supporting apps for a few products I'd like to purchase. What's interesting is that for both of the products, the iOS app is far more stable than the Android equivalent. Nearly all the technical difficulty complaints are related to the Android version of the app. Android owners are frustrated that they grab their spouses iPhone or their family iPad, download the equivalent iOS app and it just works. I'm happy when that is the case. Not really new news, just a reminder that iOS still has the stability benefit to this day.
I hope everyone was able to purchase all the Apple products they wanted for themselves or to give this holiday season.
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ems
Member
Posts: 97
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Post by ems on Dec 22, 2023 8:01:43 GMT -8
That sucks to hear about the refurbished watches being pulled also. As a new watch user, what are good band makers other than Apple? I didn’t realize there was such an aftermarket to accumulate $10k in bands alone!
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Post by CdnPhoto on Dec 22, 2023 8:19:57 GMT -8
Come up here to Canada. We still have the Apple Watch available.
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Post by hrace on Dec 22, 2023 8:21:37 GMT -8
As a new watch user, what are good band makers other than Apple? I didn’t realize there was such an aftermarket to accumulate $10k in bands alone! Sorry ems, I have only dabbled in Apple's offerings (I'm up to a whopping 3 bands now). In fact the giant collections I was referring to are 100% Apple bands. For a sanity check, I just skimmed back through the "every Apple Watch band Apple released. Ever" on MacRumors forums and someone posted a pic recently of 19 different shades of blue silicone Apple bands. At $50 each, that's $950 for a decent selection of the blue's offered over the years. What I continue to find impressive is that these guys have many apple watch bodies purely for the aesthetics (remember the white ceramic edition watch?, space black stainless, etc.). They continue to make wild pairings with bands of today on watch bodies of years past. It's really cool to see and it keeps the 2nd hand band market thriving for collectors looking to snag a 5-9 year old band to pair with their new watch for that unique style. Another small thing that's interesting, Apple used to offer a true black stainless watch. They've since dropped that in favor of space grey stainless. However, if you spend more for the Hermes edition watches, you can still get that gorgeous stainless black color. All in all, this is nothing compared to the cost of mechanical timepieces but still, for a lot of the younger generation, they are pouring a ton of time and money into their Apple time pieces. Sorry, this probably belongs under the iStuff posting area.
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4aapl
Moderator
Posts: 3,634
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Post by 4aapl on Dec 22, 2023 9:04:55 GMT -8
Sorry, this probably belongs under the iStuff posting area. Nah. Not only is it on topic, but that's the beauty of some of these lower post volume days. You can't really say that a few extra posts are getting in the way. I know some people are really into fashion and pairing everything, whereas these days I understand the Steve Jobs consistency. I tend to just grab the same outerwear choices every day, but switching from the fuzzy sweatshirt to the work sweatshirt if dealing with pine sap or changing the oil or something. It would be interesting to know the stats, such as if 10% of Apple Watch owners have 5 bands or more, and 1 in 100 has at least 20. Personally, it's just not something I even thought about, though it brings back memories of Swatch Watch advertisements.
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aapl
fire starter
Posts: 179
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Post by aapl on Dec 23, 2023 18:49:46 GMT -8
Come up here to Canada. We still have the Apple Watch available. I see a profitable eBay business for CdnPhoto starting in 3,2,1, go!
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mark
fire starter
Posts: 1,552
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Post by mark on Dec 23, 2023 18:56:58 GMT -8
Sorry, this probably belongs under the iStuff posting area. Nah. Not only is it on topic, but that's the beauty of some of these lower post volume days. You can't really say that a few extra posts are getting in the way. I know some people are really into fashion and pairing everything, whereas these days I understand the Steve Jobs consistency. I tend to just grab the same outerwear choices every day, but switching from the fuzzy sweatshirt to the work sweatshirt if dealing with pine sap or changing the oil or something. It would be interesting to know the stats, such as if 10% of Apple Watch owners have 5 bands or more, and 1 in 100 has at least 20. Personally, it's just not something I even thought about, though it brings back memories of Swatch Watch advertisements. I have 5 bands or more. Mainly because I bought a pack of 4 on eBay last year and then another pack of 2 this year. And then there was a sale on a particular color Apple OEM band a few months ago, so I bought it as yet another spare. I also have a few other spares because they don't last forever. My first band snapped into two near one of the connections, and my son has one that simply snapped into two right in the middle unexpectedly. These were both silicone solo loop bands. I blamed mine on swimming, but at the Apple store they said swimming and/or chlorine would not cause that ... and they replaced it free under AppleCare+. They also replaced my son's band. We are a 4 Apple watch family at this point - one 45mm 7 (me), one 44mm SE (son), and two 41mm 7s (daughters), my wife and two of our kids don't have a watch yet.
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