Celebrate Pride With New Apple Watch Bands, Faces

pcmag.com:

Wear your heart on your sleeve and a rainbow on your wrist with fresh Apple Watch bands and digital faces.

Apple this week unveiled(Opens in a new window) its seventh annual Apple Watch Pride Edition band, featuring a color gradient with the word "pride" woven into the band.

A not-so-subtle nod to LGBTQ+ community members, the adjustable Sport Loop uses a new technique to reveal a cursive "pride"—inspired by Apple's original "hello" greeting which was displayed on the first Macintosh computer in 1984. Stitched hues represent colors drawn from various pride flags, including light blue, pink, and white for transgender individuals, and black and brown to symbolize Black and Latinx people.

The electronic strands of a matching watch face—designed to "represent the strength and mutual support of the LGBTQ+ movement," according to Apple—move as the Digital Crown is rotated, the display is tapped, or the user's wrist is raised.

For brand enthusiasts, Apple also introduced a Pride Edition Nike Sport Loop and corresponding rainbow-hued Nike Bounce face that "honors individuals who are expanding sport for future generations and inspiring others to feel the joy of being authentically themselves," Apple said.

The $49 Pride Edition Sport Loop and Pride Edition Nike Sport Loop bands are available now to order via Apple's online shop(Opens in a new window) and mobile app (as well as from nike.com(Opens in a new window)), and will hit Apple Store shelves on Thursday. Pride watch faces, meanwhile, are downloadable today, and require Apple Watch Series 4 or later running watchOS 8.6, and iPhone 6s or later running iOS 15.5.

Each June, LGBTQ+ Pride Month commemorates the 1969 Stonewall riots, often considered the impetus of the gay