Stainless Steel Apple Watch Band Compatible with Series 9/8/7/6/5/4/3/2/1/SE/SE2 - 38mm 40mm 41mm Metal Watch Strap for Women & Men - Perfect for Business, Office and Formal Occasions

I rarely review products but I really like this band. I spent a lot of time researching different metal bands. The Apple link band, the Watch Strap Co/OZ Straps knockoff link bands, the Amazon knockoff link bands, the Nomad metal bands and pretty much all the other metal bands on Amazon. I settled on this one for a few reasons.I realized that even spending upwards of one hundred dollars, you’re still going to have issues with paint wearing off so the extra money spent doesn’t help that all there. I also looked around on Amazon at regular metal watch bands from companies like Spiedel, Fossil, Citizen and realized that you don’t need to spend THAT much for a decent quality band. Additionally, for this band in particular, compared to most other reasonably priced metal bands, the style seemed like it would be a little more solid feeling and potentially more durable with it having fewer hinge points than some of others. Lastly, even though the latch mechanism may not be as sleek as some of the others, overall I feel like aside from MAYBE the Apple metal link band, this is definitely the best looking band with its rounded links. I bought the space black version so can’t speak for the other but It looks VERY nice.I figured I would try a cheap one first and maybe go with a more expensive one if it felt too cheap or I thought they would be a worthwhile upgrade but I’m pretty sure that at this point if anything I might buy another one or two of these to have on hand because I think they’re a nice little hidden gem of a watch band it seems. I could only find like two YouTube videos on this type of band and they were from a different seller.It looks great! It feels great. For comparison, previously i had been using an Apple leather magnetic band and a cheap Amazon magnetic band. I wasn’t sure that I with like a heavier bulkier metal band but wanted to try one.The band fitment with the watch is tight and the ends are pretty much flush with the watch. The extra links were easy to take out but at the same time the band still feel very solid and not cheap in any way. After removing two links it fits my wrist perfectly.Out of curiosity I took a hobby knife to test the paint on one of the links that I removed. Of course it scratches, but I almost expected it to maybe chip off and it didn’t. Even with moderate scratching it just scuffed the paint. We’ll see how well it holds up with time. I don’t expect it to last forever but I also don’t type on a MacBook and I don’t think I’ll have much issue keeping it in decent shape.I also tried a hardness test on one of the removed links with a hobby knife. First scraping a bare metal piece and then stuck the tip of the blade in a pin hole and tried to see if I could ream it out. It couldn’t seem to take a bite out of the material at all without damaging the blade which honestly surprised me. The material of this band appears to be very good. It’s definitely not aluminum is anyone is wondering.The one negative I MIGHT give it, if I had to, just for sake of thoroughness, would be the latch. Though I don’t have any problems with it latching properly, and theoretically it shouldn’t be a problem as long as somebody doesn’t yank on the watch, there’s not a whole lot of “meat” holding the latch closed. It’s basically just four pins, two on each side of the latch, about the size of one of the link pins that extend one maybe two millimeters to latch it into a hole on the band. I tested what it would do if it happened to come loose by manually holding it closed and then letting it go and at least it doesn’t just fall off so that’s nice.It’s less than $30 right now. Well worth it for what you get in my opinion. No idea why this model of watch band isn’t way more popular.I would love to see this band updated to use a latch like the Apple or nomad bands. I wouldn’t hesitate to an upgraded version.