Nomad’s metal Apple Watch straps are strong and classy but come at a price

There are dozens of Apple Watch strap manufacturers out there, but Nomad is largely considered to be one of the better third-party manufacturers of straps, and for good reason. The company was featured a few times on our list of best Apple Watch straps, thanks to the fact that Nomad straps are well-built and premium-feeling. Now, the company has released a few more straps for the Apple Watch — and for the first time from Nomad, they’re made from metal.

The new Nomad Titanium Band Apple Watch straps are available in both 42 and 44mm models, and come in either silver or black colors. According to Nomad, the bands have been “engineers to be as light as possible while giving you the confidence of a high end metal strap.” There’s only one problem — the straps come at $180, which is no small price to pay, especially given the range of Amazon sellers that offer Apple Watch straps for much cheaper.

We actually got our hands on the new Nomad Titanium Apple Watch straps ahead of the announcement, and they’re beautifully built. When you first take the straps out of the box, you will probably need to adjust them. Thankfully, Nomad sells them with a tool to help you, which makes it easy to take a few links out of the chain and shorten the length of it a little. Also in the box is a nice bag for your strap. Because it’s so easy to change the Apple Watch’s strap, you’ll probably do so for things like sports, when you want a leather strap, and so on. When you switch it out, it’s nice to be able to protect it in the bag.

Nomad touts the band as being ultra light, and while it does seem light for a metal band, it doesn’t seem to be all that much lighter than other metal bands out there. In other words, don’t buy the band specifically for its light build. The strap seems built very strongly. It’s made with Nomad’s custom lugs, and over the short time that we used the strap, we never felt like it would break.

Ultimately, $180 is a lot of money to spend on a metal band and we don’t think that everyone needs to spend that. If you simply want a metal watch band, then there are plenty of much cheaper options out there. If, however, you want the premium experience — which means a strap that looks and feels great, and can withstand the vast majority of abuse that it might go through on a day-to-day basis — then this is definitely a strap you should consider.

You can get the new Nomad Titanium Apple Watch bands for yourself straight from the Nomad website.

Updated on February 11, 2019: A previous version of this article mentioned that the strap was $150. It’s $180.