The World’s First REAL Carbon Fiber Apple Watch Band: How Did it Come to Life?
PITAKA isn’t the first to make carbon fiber watch bands, so how are these different from others?
We’ve seen many so-called ‘carbon fiber’ watch bands that are often just carbon fiber embossed leather or fabric. However, PITAKA’s Carbon Fiber Watch Band is made up of 100% solid carbon fiber links.
Go behind the scenes with us to see how this new product came to life!
A Carbon Fiber Watch Band? No Way!
Our R&D team decided it was time to make a watch band about a year ago. And, following PITAKA’s penchant for unique and innovative products, the watch band would be no exception.
Watchbands tend to be made from fabric, leather, or metals. Since we’ve used carbon fiber to great success in the past, our team started experimenting with carbon fiber to make a strap. Working with the material was extremely difficult, not only in the actual manufacturing process but also in the usability of a watch band made from carbon fiber.
Since carbon is so hard, making a strap that was comfortable to wear was too challenging.
Fabric & Leather Worked, But…
Having struggled to work with carbon fiber, the PITAKA R&D team turned to softer, more pliable materials. After making blue and yellow watch straps crafted from fabric and leather, they asked other people’s opinions. Nicole, our customer service team leader, felt that they just didn’t meet the same aesthetic and quality standards of our other products.
Yes, she’s that straightforward.
We sent pictures to one of our customers who’s supported us for a long time.
His response was not wholly unexpected:
“I have seen other options from companies such as XX, XX, and XX…From my consumer lens, these bands do not look like they fit the ‘PITAKA brand,’ and I would have no idea that they were made by your company.”
So the challenge was on.
Never Say Never
Fabric and leather didn’t work. What else could we use? Metal watch bands look great, but they are too heavy to wear on the wrist all day.
After reviewing many materials, our designers decided to take another crack at carbon fiber.
Carbon fiber is robust and by far one of the hardest fibers, so there’s no way to make one long watch band.
Our designers then cut processed carbon fiber into pieces and joined them with pins. The pins are made from 316 stainless steel, which has a higher corrosion resistance than the better-known 304 stainless steel.
The processing requires Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machining tools, which involves many complicated and time-consuming procedures.
The initial carbon fiber watch band sample took several months to complete.
Tons of Challenges
Since there are no examples of authentic carbon fiber watch bands on the market, every small change our designers made needed weeks — or even month-long tests and analysis.
Here are some of the challenges our team of designers and engineers came across during the development phase:
1. Will it pull arm hairs?
Unlike a typical fabric or leather band, our carbon fiber design is divided into links. Between each is a tiny gap, making it possible for arm hairs to get caught and pulled. Our engineers needed to make sure that wouldn’t happen and managed to find the right structure, with every link having the same bending angle.
Read more at PITAKA.
