Some interesting 3rd-party Pixel Watch bands are finally starting to appear on Amazon

I’ve said this before and I’ll continue to say it: I don’t come from a ton of smartwarch experience, so the Pixel Watch has been pretty fantastic to me. While I didn’t expect it to compete with the 8-year-old Apple Watch on the first attempt, I went into my time with Google’s new watch needing it to be good enough to want to keep around. After all, I was perfectly content with my Fitbit Versa 3 (not at all with the Versa 4, unfortunately) and not looking for a whole lot more from my wrist-bound companion.

But the Pixel Watch has been a delight to use. The things I need it to do, it does quite well and I’m ignorant enough of its shortcomings to not have it bother me too much. I enjoy wearing it, I enjoy interacting with it, and I’m overall pleased with what it has allowed me to do just from my wrist.

My one gripe so far

There is one nagging thing that has bothered me with this release, however, and it doesn’t have anything to do with the abilities of the Pixel Watch. Instead, it comes down to 3rd-party accessory support. With a watch that has been in the rumor mill for so long, I really expected screen protectors, bumper cases, and especially watch bands to be all over the internet the day this thing was announced.

As it turned out, that wasn’t the case. Early buyers of the Pixel Watch were stuck with Google’s frankly overpriced watch band selection and that just felt odd to me. Sure, Google’s options are nice, but I freely assumed that there would be an absolute boatload of options upon the arrival of the Pixel Watch. While that wasn’t the case, the accessories are definitely on the way, and a cursory search of Amazon today revealed a bunch of new options out there that are actually shipping to customers right now.

For today, I’m just focusing on watch bands. There will be other stuff on the way, but bands are really the heart and soul of the accessory market for a smartwatch. So far, I’ve found stretchy nylon bands, a metal mesh band, a leather band, other versions of the active-style bands, firm nylon bands, and a very interesting heavy-duty casing/band combo.

It’s exciting to start seeing more options becoming available and I’d guess this is just the beginning. We have no idea how many Pixel Watches Google has sold thus far, but I’d contend that it is selling quite well at this point. As we move into the holiday shopping season, these sorts of affordable, interesting gifts will be popping up more and more. We’ll continue to be on the lookout, but definitely think you should check out the options below if you want to add a bit of distinction to your Pixel Watch.