Most of the watchband cases for the iPod nano have one thing in common – some part of the iPod comes into contact with your skin. People who wear their iPods while exercising or working intensely find it eventually suffers damage from coming into contact with sweat. Quad Mountain has developed a watchband for the iPod nano that completely isolates the device from contact with skin or sweat. I recently purchased the 7th generation iPod nano, and I wanted to use it as a watch. I liked the promise that my new nano would be completely protected from skin contact and sweat, so I ordered a black one to complement the new Mickey Mouse watch face.
Some pictures can be clicked for an enlarged view.
The Quad Mountain Ultimate One watchband is another successfully-funded Kickstarter project. They designed a watchband to protect the nano and to be comfortable to wear. The band is made of a single piece of silicone with a stainless steel clasp. The band has several comfort features, like lots of openings for air circulation. Even the adjustment holes are big enough to let some air in.
The silicone has a powdery surface texture that keeps the watchband from sticking to your skin so tightly it feels glued on by your skin’s moisture. The back of the nano area has a waffle pattern of ridges that allow air flow to help keep your skin cooler.
The band is about 9.5″ long, including the metal clasp. Quad Mountain says the band will fit wrists sized from about 5.75″ to 8.5″. It’s available in black, white, blue, green, pink, orange, and red. The watchbands are available singly or in pairs at a discounted price.
When I first saw the Ultimate One watchband, I thought there was no way I’d trust it to hold my iPod nano. It doesn’t have any slots to put the clip through, and the wings that fit over two of the sides were too flexible to be able to hold the nano securely. Those wings aren’t designed to hold the nano; they just protect the metal sides. The clip actually snaps down into a depression in the bottom of the holder area. Once the clip is snapped in place, the nano is held very securely. I tried shaking the iPod out of the Ultimate One watchband (over my bed, of course), but it wouldn’t shake out. It should be nice and secure while you’re running, exercising, or working.
Rachel is modeling the watchband. You can see this is a bit overwhelming on her small arm, but she says it was a comfortable fit. You can see the power and volume buttons and the headphone jack and docking connectors are exposed when the nano is worn with the Ultimate One watchband. I think headphones with a different plug would have worked better; headphones with a 90-degree angle plug would have kept the cable closer to the wrist.
I like the Quad Mountain Ultimate One watchband for iPod nano, but I think it would probably work best for exercising or when you are dressed casually. I like that it completely protects the nano from sweat. And I think the black looks great with my red nano and with the Mickey Mouse watch face.
Product Information
| Price: | $19.95 for one, or $34.95 for a black band paired with a colored band |
| Manufacturer: | Quad Mountain |
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Is it just me or the picture on the box looks so much better than the actual product?
@Jackie It’s not just you. The picture on the box makes it look smoother and shinier than it is. It wouldn’t be such a dust and lint magnet if it really did look like the picture.
Definitely won’t go with business attire because, to be honest, the Nano 6 is way too big to be a watch. I’m a male with big male wrists, it wouldn’t fit comfortably under a dress shirt cuff. I can say this with confidence because I recently purchased two similar items from Deal Extreme (considerably cheaper but decent quality silicone.)
@Janet Yes silicon is a complete dust trap. Given the price, I’d ordered two – a black and a white strap. The white shows less dust. This is an url if anyone’s interested. http://tinyurl.com/dxsnamg
@Jim Wooops, my bad. My thoughts were on the Nano 6 and I just noticed you were talking about the 7. Apologies.
@Jim The nano 6th gen and nano 7th gen are exactly the same size and appearance externally. Any accessory for one will work for the other.
And as for size, my husband has a very dressy watch that’s considerably bigger than a nano…
@Janet I must either have large wrists or favour narrow cut dress shirts – the one time I wore it to the office, I wasn’t able to actually read the screen without unbuttoning the cuff. Maybe I should buy better shirts! HA! 🙂
Other than than that, I’m quite happy with my cheapy knock-offs. The clip slips around a flat area at the back so it’s very secure and the headphone jack face up the arm – so I can plug in and have the cable run up my arm in a jacket (and not get caught on things because I’m a bit of klutz.)
@Jim Hmmm, he doesn’t wear watches anymore and just checks the time on his phone. Maybe he doesn’t want to admit he can’t fit that watch under the cuff. ;o)
I’ve tried a lot of watchbands, and they all have good and bad points. I do like that no part of the nano touches skin with this band, though.
I really wanted to like this product but there are just too many design problems with it. First and most important, the security of the snap-in ridge is misleading. While it is true that the iPod isn’t easy to shake out once it has been snapped in, this ignores the fact that an object on your wrist is inevitably going to bend and stretch. If it is not constantly monitored, this process will gradually loosen the hold so that one edge will peek out. Once this happens, any quick movement will send the Nano flying. This happened to me within a few hours of full-time wearing. Similarly, the fact that the Nano has exposed edges will allow it to catch on clothing or even (if you are particularly clumsy, like me) door jambs and furniture. Again, it doesn’t take much force to pop the Nano out of its flexible seat. Both of these problem could be fixed if there were a way to positively lock the Nano into the band rather than using friction to hold it in place.
Finally, the little sliding bit of silicone that is supposed to keep the excess strap from sticking out doesn’t work very well. As you can see from the third picture there is a missing hole near the end, which I cannot explain. This means, in practical terms, that either there will be too much strap sticking out, causing it to get caugt on things and come loose, or there will be too little so that the strap naturally works loose on its own. If this were a little tighter and the second to the last hole were not missing, this would work much better.
I should add that about the same time as I posted this review, I posted a similar text to Quad Mountain’s customer service dept. I did not ask for a refund, but they promptly refunded my purchase price (minus shipping, of course) and sent me a list of follow-up questions on how they could improve the product. So, while the product did not live up to my expectations, the service is top-notch.