Summary
Apple’s Sport Band might be the best all-around Apple Watch strap ever. It’s durable and fit for daily wear.Bellroy’s Venture Watch Strapdirectly challenges Apple’s band with a material that’s more rubbery-soft, and has a touch more elegance, making it suitable for fancy dinners or rugged adventures.
Bellroy Venture Watch Strap
Robust and waterproof, sporty yet refined. This band equips your Apple Watch for both outdoor adventure and days in the office.
The Look and Feel of a Rubber Apple Watch Band
At face value, the Bellroy Venture Watch Strap isn’t very special or unique. It comes in either black or “chalk” and sizes for the small and larger Apple Watches.
Once I tried the band on, however, it unlocked more appeal. Its rubber material is thinner and softer than Apple’s Sport Loop band. It also has more character with a sculpted design and stainless steel accents. The key, for me, was the combination of all those aspects. The FKM polymer band is more comfortable than nearly any other band I’ve tried and looks good enough to justify keeping it in place daily.
Bellroy states that the design helps keep sweat from staying in place underneath the band. I found that hard to verify in a real-world, practical way, but it also doesn’t seem like it actively held sweat in place on my wrist either.
Bellroy’s chalk watchband and Apple’s starlight color were much more similar than I thought they would be when I compared them directly. Chalk was a tad light and looked less dirty when bumped up against starlight. Although the stainless steel on the Venture Watch Strap wasn’t the same color as myUltra 2titanium, I didn’t think it clashed with it, either.
An Apple Watch Band That Can Do It All
There are people who switch out their Apple Watch bands frequently, but based on anecdotal evidence I’ve seen, I don’t think most swap out bands regularly. Even for myself, I will get stuck in long stretches where I don’t care or just forget to change watch bands. But each time I do leave one on for an extended amount of time, I stick with a water-resistant band that I can sweat in or take a shower with.
When running and sweating, I noticed that the Venture Watch Strap slid around a tiny bit, but not any more than theSport Band. I covered around 20 miles with the band on my wrist so far and it has felt secure the entire time.
I noticed the strap dries quickly and I had no problem wearing it in the shower. I also swam with it, and it remained in impeccable condition. There were no changes to the metal or rubber. With a thinner construction feel, I was worried that there might be stretching or some impact on durability. So far, that hasn’t been the case.
While I didn’t have any problems with the band holding up to fitness, I did experience discoloring on the band after a month. On the exterior, along the ridge of the band, an orange hue appeared. I reached out to Bellroy and a representative said it looked like a transfer of dye rather than a material discoloration. That’s probably right, it could have come from the dye of a sweatshirt I wore once. Either way, the discoloration wouldn’t clean off, first with water and then with soap and water. This isn’t something I’ve experienced on other rubber bands.
Venture Watch Strap: Price and Availability
The Bellroy Venture Watch Strap is available in black or chalk colors and costs $59. If you prefer the look of leather for your watch, Bellroy also makes theWatch Strapfor that need.
Should You Buy the Bellroy Venture Watch Strap?
The worst thing about theBellroy Venture Watch Strapis its $59 price. It comes in $10 more than Apple’s similar Sport Band. I think most people are buying cheap straps from Amazon, Temu, Alibaba, and other discount retailers. That makes the prospect of this $60 Venture band from Bellroy a tough sell.
I’ve been surprised by just how much I like this Venture Watch Strap. It delivers everything I hoped it would. Unfortunately, the discoloration on my Venture strap gives me some pause. I still think in terms of fit and comfort, this is a great choice, but its price, compared to even Apple’s own offering, might be its Achilles heel.
