GoKawiilI've always been a wannabe watch person. I see ads for luxury analog watches and admire their design and the precision engineering behind them, but my yearning never compelled me to drop several thousand dollars for a timepiece.
The Apple Watch has enough style to partially satisfy that desire in a budget ($400 to $800) I can afford. But aside from choosing different case materials -- aluminum, stainless steel and titanium in the current lineup -- its design has remained stuck in time. So if you want your Apple Watch to stand out, you do it with the watch band.
That's created a wild third-party market that includes everything from multiple Apple styles to cheap knockoffs and -- if you're willing to spend big -- Hermès bands that I'm sure are fine but mostly notable for being Hermès.
And somewhere in the middle there are bands such as Withit's Titanium Band for Apple Watch that look great, are built well and are still affordable.
The Withit Titanium Band for Apple Watch on my wrist. Jeff Carlson/CNET
Moving up to a metal link-style band
Last year, I finally broke away from my long history of aluminum-bodied Apple Watches and bought an Ultra 3 in black titanium, paired with the textile terracotta alpine loop.The Ultra isn't sold with a metal link-style band, but since Apple Watch bands fit most Apple Watch models, you can buy Apple's stainless steel link bracelet for $349 -- almost half the cost of the watch itself.
Withit's titanium band is much more affordable; the retail price is $145, but it sells on Amazon for $99.
I've never owned a link-style band, so the lightness of the titanium was a surprise at first. Like the Ultra 3 itself, I came to it expecting it to be bulky or heavy, and neither was true once I'd worn it for a few minutes.
The Withit Titanium Band for Apple Watch has proved to be resilient. Jeff Carlson/CNET
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