Apple Watch Hermes bands to be sold separately, come in 4 new colors on April 19

Apple and French fashion house HermÃ¨s on Thursday revealed an upcoming expansion to their collaborative Apple Watch effort, unveiling four new band colors and announcing that each luxury leather accessory will be available for individual purchase later this month.

Apple and HermÃ¨s chose to break the news through various fashion outlets like Elle, which said the new editions are due to arrive at Apple Store and HermÃ¨s outlets on April 19. HermÃ¨s also updated its dedicated Apple Watch website with color and pricing details.

When the special luxury package last October — a stainless steel Watch with special watch faces and exclusive leather straps — included bands were offered in Fauve (deer brown), Etain (tin gray), Capucine (red), and Bleu Jean (blue). Color availability was dependent on size and style.

In two weeks, the straps become standalone accessories for the first time, and HermÃ¨s will add peacock blue, sapphire blue, white and its iconic orange shade to its Apple Watch palette.

As for pricing, individual bands start at $340 for 38mm and 42mm Single Tour versions. The 42mm model will be available in sapphire blue, deer brown, fire orange and black, while the 38mm version adds white and peacock blue to that list.

The popular Double Tour design, limited to 38mm Apple Watch models, sells for $490 for both regular and long strap lengths. Regular models will be available in white, peacock blue, sapphire blue, tin gray, deer brown and fire orange, while the "long" edition comes in deer brown. Finally, the large 42mm Cuff design will sell for $690 and is limited to deer brown.

Initially available only at select brick-and-mortar locations, Apple Watch HermÃ¨s went up for online sale in January. Whether HermÃ¨s plans to extend the new colorways to complete device and strap packages is unclear.

16 Comments

SpamSandwich 32917 comments · 19 Years

About 8 years ago

By the way, this story needs proofreading. Hermès appears as "Herm?s" in the story.

mac_128 3452 comments · 12 Years

Interesting. Many said this wouldn't happen. I wonder what's changed?

foggyhill 4767 comments · 10 Years

mac_128 said:

Interesting. Many said this wouldn't happen. I wonder what's changed?

I expect they sold much more than expected and people which bought the watches with the bands wanted to be able to buy many colored bands without having to buy another watch.

foggyhill said:

mac_128 said:

Interesting. Many said this wouldn't happen. I wonder what's changed?

I expect they sold much more than expected and people which bought the watches with the bands wanted to be able to buy many colored bands without having to buy another watch.

Hermes has long had a quiet policy of selling existing customers replacement bands. But now anyone with an Apple watch can buy a Hermes band without first buying the watch. Moreover, they can do it at a substantial discount over the Hermes Watch. Currently, I can pick up a 38mm Milanese Loop at Target for $549. I can buy a signature Double Tour band at Hermes for $490. That's $211 off the retail price of the 38mm Hermes Double Tour edition Watch of $1250. And I also get a 2nd very nice watch band essentially for free. Even at Apple retail for the Milanese, I'm still saving $111, and getting two bands for the price of one. And that's to say nothing of buying a Sport to wear with the bands, which results in a $461 savings at retail, including a second band!

This definitely takes some of the exclusivity off of buying the Hermes edition. Not sure why they wouldn't have at least priced the bands so that they didn't compete with the Hermes edition.

bkbarclay 7 comments · 14 Years

I'm curious though how one could get the Hermés watch face on your  Watch? As pointed out above, the Stainless Steel watch can be bought with a simple Sport band brand new pretty cheaply, and a used one on eBay can be had for less than $400. Add the Single Tour band to it, and you have 97% of the look for a serious discount, BUT you won't have the Hermés  watch face.