TheOverAnalyzed

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Preliminary Thoughts: The Space Gray Apple Watch Sport Versus the Space Black Apple Watch

Introduction

Ever since the keynote yesterday morning, I have been trying to make two important decisions as they relate to Apple Watch:

  1. What size to get: 38mm or 42mm?
  2. From which collection I should choose: Apple Watch Sport or Apple Watch?

Size

I just measured my wrist and, unsurprisingly, my 168 mm circumference lands right in the not-so-sweet spot of ‘too big for 38 mm’ and ‘too small for 42 mm.’ I suppose I just need to decide how gaudy I want this new wrist-borne screen to look on me.[1][2]

It’s the second question I have more trouble with.

Watch or Watch Sport?

For the longest time, it was going to be this.
For the longest time, it was going to be this.

Apple Watch

Let’s face it: The “Space Black Stainless” is the one to get. It’s mysterious, it’s handsome, and most importantly, it’s black.

The black models of anything have always been the best choice.[3] And it’s not just Apple or technology where black is better. Black will always be the most BA of car colors. There have been historical outliers, such as our current trend of white cars. And before white, there was gray.[4] But even today, across the wide range of car manufacturers, black is still, well, black.

As an aside, I don’t remember Apple Watch in Space Black Stainless being so dang dark last September. I actually like it even more now that it’s darker.[5] Interestingly, Apple has set the Space Black version of Apple Watch collection apart from the rest of the Apple Watch collection. In order to obtain that luscious fingerprint magnet of a case, you have to buy the link bracelet. And, not so interestingly, the link bracelet carries a rather hefty price bump from the fluoroelastomer of $600. Is it worth it?

This looks really nice too, though.
This looks really nice too, though.

Apple Watch Sport

Truthfully, try as I might, I can’t help but fee like Apple Watch’s Space Black has at least twice the visceral appeal of Apple Watch Sport.

Still, the Apple Watch Sport in “Space Gray” is no laughing matter. It is quite handsome in its own right. On the latest episode of Upgrade, Jason Snell said that he actually preferred the anodized aluminum of the Apple Watch Sport over the shiny ‘stainlessness’ of Apple Watch. I am beginning to feel the same.

Another benefit to choosing Apple Watch Sport is that the fluoroelastomer band[6] is somewhat size-adaptive. This is in contrast to the link bracelet of the Apple Watch collection, which is apparently just one-size-fits-all.[7] How can a single-sized link bracelet work for both the small-wristed and the large-wristed person? Does one have to take into consideration the band size when deciding between the 38 mm and 42 mm cases? What if the face of the 42 mm works best on the face of things, but the band size of the 38 mm is best for the wrist circumference? Now, obviously, I could buy the Apple Watch in Space Black Stainless and just get a black fluoroelastomer band for running. In fact, this is what I had planned to do all along. But if the link bracelet—the defining band of the Space Black Stainless model—is loosey-goosey on my wrist, what’s the point of getting the link bracelet at all?

Decisions, Decisions

I’ll leave you with this, a conversation with a friend who knows me all too well. We were talking about which case size to get, but really, I could apply his advise to almost every Apple hardware decision I have ever made:

Touche.
Touche.

  1. Where gaudiness and case diameter are directly proportional ∝ ↩

  2. Update: I found this article, which noted how the Apple Store iOS app includes actual-size [screen] previews of both cases sizes.

    So that helps. ↩

  3. Remember this, and now, this? ↩

  4. Remember when gray supplanted black as the ‘it’ color for the 997? ↩

  5. Did Apple change the finish or did the previous images depict the same watch but in a different light? ↩

  6. “Rubber,” said the supermodel ↩

  7. Source ↩