As lucky early adopters get their hands on the world’s first Apple Watches, Spigen has unveiled a collection of accessories designed to hold and protect them. The lineup includes the most aggressively-priced metal stand we’ve seen from any company, as well as affordable protectors that can keep an Apple Watch looking new — important if you want to guard against the bumps and scratches of everyday life, maximizing its trade-in value.
Spigen’s lineup starts with the S330 Watch Stand, an aluminum frame that resembles Apple’s classic iMac and Thunderbolt Display stands, and continues with five different cases and two anti-scratch screen protectors. They’re all currently available for pre-order, shipping in May…
The S330 Watch Stand has obvious appeal. Beyond its Mac-matching metal and shape, it satisfies a widely understood need for elevating and securing the Apple Watch on your nightstand while it’s charging. Anti-scratch TPU holds Apple’s magnetic charger and displays the Watch on a 45-degree angle, moving its charging cable off to the side to prevent accidental disconnection. At only $20, it’s affordable enough to get one for where you sleep, and one for wherever you go after working out.
Liquid Crystal ($15) is Spigen’s most mainstream Apple Watch case. Made from 0.8mm of completely clear TPU, it lets the Apple Watch Sport models shine like their more expensive steel brothers, and adds anti-scratch protection for any Watch’s metal body — scratchable steel Apple Watch owners may especially appreciate this. Precision-cut holes provide full access to the screen, wristband connection points, and rear sensor/charging surface. Regardless of the Apple Watch version you select, Liquid Crystal can keep its body invisibly safe during the scrapes and jostles of city commuting.
Thin Fit ($15) is a hard polycarbonate protector with two features. First, it can protect the front and side edges of the Apple Watch — the parts most likely to accidentally bump against things on your wrist — and second, it can color-shift your Watch. Given the especially limited availability of space gray and space black Apple Watches, Thin Fit’s black version can nicely darken the standard aluminum Apple Watch Sport, while its gold version can cause double-takes at a much lower price than the Apple Watch Edition. Silver and white versions are also available.
Spigen’s three Armor series cases offer different levels of ruggedization for people who like heavy-duty anti-shock protection — particularly useful for athletic users who want to safeguard their Watch investments. Tough Armor ($19, above left) is the most hard-core of the designs, a two-piece hard plastic and soft TPU case that snaps together, recalling Casio’s G-Shock watches. Gunmetal-, gold-, and orange-faced versions are offered, each with an integrated screen protector, black back, and metallic side button cover. Primarily made from TPU, the black or white Rugged Armor ($15, center) is a TPU-only, slimmer version of Tough Armor that has similarly sporty looks and a metallic button cover, but no screen coverage. Slim Armor ($20, right) is a soft TPU case offered in metallic gold, silver, or white versions, each including button protection and a flexible, semi-protective Digital Crown guard.
Except for Tough Armor, screen coverage is optional across all of the Spigen cases. Spigen is offering Crystal ($10 for 3), a “rainbowless” clear protector that promises to protect the entire flat area of the Apple Watch display against scratches, as well as Steinheil Flex ($13), a self-healing TPU film that covers the whole display and bounces back against scratches. While the sapphire displays of the Apple Watch and Apple Watch Edition mightn’t benefit from screen protectors, these can keep the Apple Watch Sport’s glass face looking new — particularly important if you want to upgrade your Apple Watch by trading it in for a new model next year, but also a simple way to avoid everyday accidental damage.
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Those covers make the watch look WAY better!
IMO there was nothing wrong with the looks before. My fear with the covers it that you might lose some of the edge to touch.
Said no one ever … :D
Um…see above. ;-)
I don’t really like the design. I’m holding out for the round face.
Not liking the fact that the availability of a lot of these things are mid to late May. Didn’t Apple provide most or all the specs months before?
Until the products are in the wild, finalizing accessories tends to be risky, because just being 1mm off here or there can create issues with fit. I’d rather have something take a week or two longer and fit properly, than get shipped something on day one that doesn’t quite work right.
I preorded the stand a few weeks ago, look forward to getting it.
Since I’m getting the sport model in thinking about getting the crystal screen protector and thin case only because I work in construction so my watch will be more prone to getting dinged or scratched. The nice thing about the thin case is I can take it off fairly easily after work. I don’t like the idea of using a case or screen protector on my watch but I want to keep it in good condition
Never pre-order any of these things. Always seem to be production run issues and would prefer to let the beta testers out there review them.
$20 is a much better price then others that are between 60-100. If this thing has a grip bottom, I may pull the trigger.
I’ve never seen anyone ever put a protective cover on their watch, and it’s beyond me why anyone would want that. Phones have a high probability to drop since they’re handheld devices. Watches are worn and made to be seen.
Really depends on the watch. Swatch made protective face shields a really big thing for its watches, as much a part of the fashion as the band or face design. Clear cover strikes me as potentially good idea to protect against scratching of the steel Apple Watch, too. But it’s all a matter of personal preference.
I ordered one of those stands. They look really nice. Those cases look like crap! Who wants to bulk up their Apple Watch with those dumb cases? A little care and common sense will keep your Apple Watch safe.
If you’re a mechanic, or work in building/construction, etc, then keeping your Apple Watch safe and free from accidental bumps and grinds is going to be more of a challenge than if you work in an office environment ….
Those little protective cases seem like a brilliant idea, and hey if you haven’t got a loose $10k to buy the Gold Apple Edition version, you can fake it with the gold-coloured protector sleeve!! Won’t be long till cheaper versions start coming out of china as well. Looks like a huge opportunity for selling accessories for the apple watch…. Who knows what you can come up with when you start 3-D printing stuff, like stands, etc…… ;))
I’d pay $20 but they want $30 here in Canada. That’s to much markup, no thanks.
Any compatible charging cable anywhere?