With the arrival of the 2023 Sport Pride strap, Apple changed one little thing that had been set in stone since the release of the Apple Watch in 2015: there is no longer an extension in the box. Indeed, Apple has been delivering its Sport bracelets in three parts for years, but with the Pride modelyou have to choose your size and the box therefore only contains two parts… for the same price.
S/M or M/L
If you’ve never had a Sport Band, you may not understand the problem, so let’s explain. In each box, Apple delivers a part that includes the nail and the buckle and two variants for the holed parts: a short one for small wrists and a long one for larger wrists. But that seems to be changing.
The Pride model is for the moment the only one in the case. When purchasing, choose either size S/M (for wrists from 130 to 180 mm) or size M/L (for those from 150 to 200 mm). If you switch to a strap suitable for a 45 mm watch, you must add 10 mm to each value. On all other Sport bands – with one exception, we’ll come back to this – you will find three parts in the box and Apple indicates that the bands are suitable for wrists from 130 to 200 mm in circumference.
In a way, Apple’s movement is quite logical: the circumference of a wrist rarely changes and even if it does, the difference is usually not big enough to go from one extension to another. The second extension must therefore – as with yours truly – often hang out in a drawer. Despite everything, the modification may seem petty: the price of the bracelet is the same as that of the others, i.e. 49 €.
Preview of the Pride Edition 2023 strap
If you have big wrists, you can wear any color…as long as it’s black
The only exception in Sport bracelets sold by Apple is the “midnight” model. Indeed, its 45 mm version also exists in two variants: a regular suitable for wrists from 140 to 210 mm and a extra large for wrists with a higher circumference (160 to 245 mm). The Apple Store page does not specify the presence of two extensions, but we can assume that is the case. This is not a totally isolated case: the black Sport Loop strap has also been available in an XXL version since 2018.
A question arises all the same: is this a particularity of the Pride model or will all Sport bracelets lose the extension? The second answer is probably the correct one, as some point out in the comments: in the US, the switch has been made on all Sport bands.
