Juuk’s race car-inspired Vitero Apple Watch bands ship today [Review]
Update: Juuk’s new Vitero bands ship today following a week of pre-orders — grab yours before inventory runs out! Next shipment not until 2018.
Best List: Juuk Design aluminum Vitero Apple Watch band
Our friends at Juuk have done it again! The Hong Kong-based company has created a totally unique, aluminum Apple Watch band with an aggressive design inspired by motor racing.
Juuk’s Vitero band looks, feels and performs like no other Apple Watch band on the market — or any watch band for that matter.
Photo: Lyle Kahney/Cult of Mac
Motor sport-inspired design
Juuk sent us six protoypes in the Vitero line. I’ve been wearing one of them for a couple of weeks on my Series 3 Apple Watch.
I chose the Vitero Sapphire, a silver band with a sapphire blue stripe.
At first, I was apprehensive about the design. The look is a bit flash for my taste. The forceful styling, inspired by sports cars’ race stripes and tire treads, is a bit too eye-catching.
But, I found the band to be comfortable and easy to wear.
I like that it’s made of aluminum, the same material used for my silver Apple Watch Series 3. It’s not easy to find aluminum bands. They’re relatively rare. Most metal bands are made from steel.
The Vitero bands are all milled from 6000 series aluminum; a hard-anodized, high-grade alloy that is almost as strong as the 7000 series Apple uses for the iPhone 7, but is a little warmer to the touch. The Vitero bands are as lightweight and durable as the watch itself.
Photo: Courtesy of Juuk
The two-color design is achieved by a dual-stage anodization process.
Tapered links
The band features tapered links that are engineered to fold smoothly around your wrist.
“One of the key features when we designed and engineered this was the tapered link,” explained Eugene Ho, Juuk’s founder and CEO. “When you wear it, you’ll really be able to appreciate how smoothly it curves around your wrist for a very sleek curvature.”
It’s true. Thanks to their unique Y-shape, the band is much more supple than it looks. It’s very flexible and pliant.
The Vitero has a double-push butterfly button buckle made from solid 316L stainless steel. It opens and closes with a solid and satisfying metallic click.
Six colors and finishes, including one Avenger-inspired
Photo: Lyle Kahney/Cult of Mac
The Vitero bands come in six colors and finishes: four matte grey bands that match Apple’s Space Grey watches, with orange, blue, red or yellow accent stripes; one silver band that matches the silver aluminum watch; and a special-edition matte red band with a gold stripe that pays homage to a certain famous armored Avenger.
The six options are:
Pre-order now
Unfortunately, the bands Juuk sent are prototypes and I had to send them back to Hong Kong.
But, fear not. The Vitero is in production now and is available for pre-order at the Cult of Mac Watch Store. Juuk will be shipping the week of November 13th. But, hurry — the Vitero will be in limited supply, and the next batch won’t be released until 2018.
The retail price is $149 and will be available while supplies last.
Juuk’s Vitero fits all generations of the Apple Watch, and comes in 42mm only. It is not available for the 38mm Apple Watch.
The Vitero bands fits wrist sizes up to 217mm (8.54 inches) and weigh 55 grams. All bands come with a tool for easy link removal.
Buy from: Cult of Mac Watch Store
Juuk provided Cult of Mac with review units for this article. See Cult of Mac’s reviews policy; and check out more stuff we recommend in our Best List reviews.