BARTON WATCH BANDSBARTON Elite Silicone Watch Bands - Quick Release - Choose Strap Color & Buckle Color (Stainless Steel, Black PVD or Gunmetal Grey) - 18mm, 20mm, 22mm & 24mm Watch Straps

A-Maze-ING! Bought a new Garmin Forerunner 165. Love the watch but the band was sticky, made my skin itch, felt cheap. Researched and this looked like the best "rubber" watch band out there. I don't think I could have made a better choice. Totally took my watch up, like, 3 notches and for rubber, is very comfortable, not sticky, not as cheap and super-stretchy as cheaper, thinner, models. Has almost the feel of woven nylon. Very classy. Actually came with two different band ends (opposite the clasp part of the strap) so should fit women/smaller wrists no problem and without lots of strap slop.I bought the leather too, but, it may go back. It's actually a more heat retaining and not as comfortable on the skin. The quality is definitely there, but, for a sports watch, I'm not sure it makes sense.Quick release bands work great. But, not sure I would flip back and forth often between bands... not sure eventual wear and tear on either the spring or pin would cause it to pop out, or, if the pocket on the watch could eventually get loose. That said, i want the next watch up in the Garmin line so, maybe a happy accident could occur... hmm.. I'll let you know if I do switch out bands often and try to post if I get any good data/info.

Bought a navy blue and smoke grey band for my and my SO's new Galaxy Watches (navy blue was for the rose gold watch, grey for black). We were initially intending on switching them out with the OEM bands that come with the watches as needed. I was also hesitant about the higher price tag of these bands compared to others (I'm generally a huge fan of getting cheap Chinese versions of things!). However, after putting these bands on, we both decided that these bands were well work the cost and that we were going to use these bands permanently.The bands feel amazing and are extremely comfortable. They are silicon so they work well with sweat when working out. They also look great in general. The ones with a different color on the inside/outside seemed like a insignificant detail but end up providing a nice subtle accent to the band.Compared to the OEM bands, we both found that this band fit better. On the OEM bands, both of us found that we were between two different holes for our ideal size. The holes are so close together that they shouldn't have this issue, but I believe the material of the Galaxy bands was stretchier or something and that exaggerated the gaps. It is true that compared to those bands, these bands are more rigid and feel more solid in their sizing. We both found that this band had no issue with "in-between" sizes.Another nice feature of this band I didn't realize until I used it was that the outer band loop holder thing has a locking mechanism with it. The outer one will "lock" into the band below it. The OEM bands would constantly slide and often I found the band would come out of the holder or the holder would get pushed far in and cause the band to stick out. No such problem with this band - great feature.My only issue I had is that the largest holes are near the end of the band. My wrists are at the large end of the small strap so I used the small strap instead of the longer one to reduce excess strap. This means I'm in the 2nd or 3rd hole from the end. Trying to feed the small amount of extra strap through the two holders is difficult as there is only just enough space past the buckle to fit both of them in. The OEM strap had a little more extra space after the last holes to prevent this issue. I ended up having to remove the inner holder and leave just the outer one, but fortunately since there isn't much excess strap, this doesn't cause a problem.All in all, these are great bands. I will be purchasing more of them for more color options in the future.

I love watches. Watch bands - not so much. I still wear a watch nearly every day and own at least a dozen at any given time. One watch - a Seiko - was a gift from my wife around 1972. It's a cool watch but had a stainless steel band that I always hated.Back then, you either got a leather band or a stainless steel band. Leather was easily damaged by sweat; stainless steel added weight to an already heavy timepiece. In addition, the metal bands didn't provide the range of sizes for all wrists without compromising the closure. If you wore it too snugly around your wrist, it felt like you were being cut; too loose and the watch flopped around and made you feel like it wasn't a part of you. Worse, metal bands aren't as easily adjusted without visiting your local jewelry store.But I digress . . . I didn't wear the Seiko very long or frequently because of the band - and it was among the first self-winding watches. Being accustomed to strapping on a quartz watch in the morning and not having to think about resetting the day/date and time made it more of a pain than anything. So, here I am, 50 years later and retired. I'd kept the Seiko all those years and still in the original box. Remembering that I had an old Timex Explorer on which I'd put a cheap rubber band, I wondered what was "new" in synthetic bands and my Amazon search suggested the line of Barton silicone watch bands. Wow!!I immediately ordered two - one for the Seiko and one for another watch that I wanted to wear that has a metal mesh band that was too fancy for everyday use and comfort. The premium Barton bands come with two straps for different wrist sizes. And there are two band retainers, one of which has a locking lug to keep it from sliding off. On the shorter band, you can remove the retainer without the lug. They look great and were relatively easy to install (my 70 year-old hands with some arthritis not withstanding). They come in a wide variety of colors. On many of them you can select both an outer and inner band color as well as the color of the metal clasp. I chose a blue band for the Seiko with a crimson inner band (see photo) with a stainless steel clasp. After 50 years, this is now my favorite watch.I highly recommend the Barton silicone bands for everyday use, working or playing outdoors, etc. They're comfortable and look great.