Spring loaded with a button to move them easily to the side? Or spring loaded with the small rings to use a tool with?

My impression is that the button system did got more popular over the last years, but it certainly existed many years before. Hard to find sources though.

The new thing seems to be attaching bands with bars that can be removed with a fingernail, rather than a tiny screwdriver or other pointy tool.

Also even cheap Casios had the feature to infinitely adjust the strap they GP is talking about.

By using a tool to push out the pins? That's not even remotely what GP is talking about. Look at their posted video to understand the difference.

I don't know about your grandfather's watches, but non-smart watches I've had that take standard bands require a screwdriver.

Rugged watches, outdooring ones, garmins, sure. They have big bars which require a screwdriver. They are made to first tear out your hand and then "maybe" break.

I think Garmin switched all of their watches to the QuickFit system at least 5 years ago.

Quickfit is mostly concentrated on their larger/higher end watches, like Fenix and up. Their lower end watches (like the Forerunner 265) still have a quick release spring bar.

In contrast, Casio G-Shocks, which are specifically built to be rugged/fashionable, don't have any kind of quick change mechanism. The strap is integrated into the case that further protects the watch.

> Quickfit is mostly concentrated on their larger/higher end watches, like Fenix and up. Their lower end watches (like the Forerunner 265) still have a quick release spring bar.

Ah, yeah. I was mostly addressing the "rugged watches" comment, but yes that's absolutely correct.

My Forerunner 245 took about 10 seconds to replace the strap and I did not need any tools. That's a 4+ year old budget watch.

The spring bars are a pain. Many of my family members don't have the finger dexterity to operate them at all, and either take them to the jewelry counter to replace or bring them to me. The rest can change them, but hate the damn things and take several tries sometimes with the bar flying across the room and complain about it every time.

This isn't change for the sake of change, it is a genuine improvement.

How often do people change their watch straps? I changed my strap exactly once, from original to easy adjustable magnetic. The quick change straps are 100% marketing ploy to sell more straps. Talking about 1st world problems...

Several times a day, for me. I have one band that I like for exercise, another for work (avoids inflaming carpel tunnel while typing) and a third for the aesthetics when walking around.

If the Apple bands were harder to switch I probably just wouldn’t wear a watch while working and exercising.

On my traditional watches? Almost never, because it's a pain.

On my Apple watches? Often! I wear a nicer strap in dressier situations, but always change to one of the rubber straps for exercise or swimming, and I do those things a LOT.

The Apple innovation here is pretty slick.

The spring loaded bars are not very quick to swap.

Are you talking about the spring bars that you need a tool to remove?

If your fingernail is the right size and you are willing to risk breaking it and impaling your fingertip and cracking the body of your watch with the leverage and the band isn't jammed to complicate the procedure, you can often make it work without tools.

Yeah, the swap button is a big improvement.

The spring bars are not a quick swap and they are not easy or painless. I have a small watch collection and a larger strap collection :P, but I'd never call it easy or convenient.

Now, there are some straps, even in budget category, that have a small lever that manipulates the spring and it's fairly easy to switch - but only if all your straps have the same mechanism. This is then compounded by different widths and types and whatnots.

As ever, Apple reaps the benefits (as well as drawbacks) of the basically single hardware device - you can build a massive ecosystem around a predictable, controlled, singular, homogeneous product line.

Or to put it other way - any one of my friends or family can and do change apple watch straps. 96% of them would be either unable or unwilling or both to change a regular strap. Even myself, I prefer the Nato straps on my regular watches as they are easier to swap than conventional straps.

As a fellow convert to the church of the nato strap this made me lookup the situation for the apple watch. Unfortunately a real contentious nato strap is incompatible with the watch due to it's wrist sensors. So you end up with two piece nylon straps calling themselves nato bands. I guess if you were fine being classified dead by your watch you could probably put a nato band on one.

The casio g-shock has a problem with nato bands as well. the g-shock has a laughably small band pin width(16 mm). so to get a nato strap(24 mm) on one you need a band width adapter. which undoes most of the advantage of the nato strap. I am not really sure why they made it so small. My mechanical engineering is a bit weak does a small pin have less side load than a large pin?

>but only if all your straps have the same mechanism.

You might choose to replace all your bands if you want to use only captive spring bar mechanisms, but you must replace them if you buy an Apple watch.

A captive spring bar with a lever solves the problem entirely, and in a way strictly superior to Apple's approach. It is smaller and cheaper than the Apple solution. It will work with any watch from any manufacturer. It will allow you to keep your old bands if you choose.

If you can think of any advantage Apple's system has, I am all ears.

>you can build a massive ecosystem around a predictable, controlled, singular, homogeneous product line

Spring bars are also entirely predictable, controlled, singular, and homogeneous. You can buy a band in any standard width and be confident it would fit any watch. We had a far larger ecosystem before the fruit companies got involved.

This gives the lie to Apple's supposed genius. "Tight integration" is completely unnecessary when there are standards. They just want a monopoly.

>Even myself, I prefer the Nato straps on my regular watches as they are easier to swap than conventional straps.

Completely incompatible with the Apple watch, of course.

Spring bars are NOT easy to work with. They’re easy to lose, hard to attach/remove, and definitely not quick.

The Apple Watch release buttons are much better - takes barely 5s to replace bands.

Additionally, it detaches the part that holds the band, allowing for deeper customisation. This is the thing you normally need screwdrivers for.

Watches are jewelry, and regardless of who did it first, making a reliable, easy-to-use flush strap system is an innovation. I'd argue it's less complex for the user, it's certainly easier to use.

I have mechanical watches and an Apple Watch...I swap bands on my Apple Watch almost every day because it takes about 5 seconds. I've swapped bands on my mechanicals maybe once this year, because it is super finicky, the spring bar always launches into another dimension and you spend 10 minutes feeling around on the floor to find it. All while you risk scratching the finish on your watch as you try to push back a tiny metal spring with a tiny metal pick. And that is if you have a springbar tool available, which is the best case scenario.

I suspect people are downvoting because they're imagining the older style of watch band spring bars. The older ones like this [1] require a tool, dexterity, and also some luck that it doesn't go flying across the room.

Bands with the newer style like this [2] can easily be done without tools or any stellar dexterity, but are still a bit more fiddly than how it seems Apple watches are. I'm betting this is the type you're talking about, as it's the only kind I've had to deal with across my ~decade of smartwatch use.

[1] https://www.bartonwatchbands.com/products/stainless-steel-sp...

[2] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B9FQ3PXF/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b...