For nearly 20 years, watchmaker Eugene Ho has been making luxury timepieces for the likes of Hugo Boss, Tommy Hilfiger, Timberland, Ecko and Reebok. Now he’s branched out on his own. His startup, Juuk (pronounced “juke”), makes beautiful, high-end bracelets for Apple Watches.
Juuk’s wristbands rival Cupertino’s aesthetics and quality — but cost half the price.
Revo brushed stainless steel Apple Watch bracelet by Juuk
“We’re aiming for the high end of the market and are targeting customers who appreciate a solid, well-made stainless steel bracelet,” said Ho, who is based in Hong Kong. “Our goal is to create beautiful bracelets that transform the Apple Watch from a tech gadget that’s cool to use into a timepiece that you’ll love to wear.”
Take the 42mm Revo brushed stainless steel bracelet, which I’ve been wearing for several weeks. The wristband is made from the same 316L stainless steel alloy that Apple uses for its watches and wristbands. It’s a similar design, with a double butterfly clasp, and is just as strong and good-looking. But where Apple’s stainless steel bracelet costs $449 (or $549 for a black one), Juuk’s is $195. That’s not cheap, but it’s beautiful and bulletproof. It’ll last longer than the watch it’s attached to.
Juuk’s bands come in different styles and sizes, with offerings for both of Apple’s Watches (38mm and 42mm). For example, there’s a Revo wristband in matte gunmetal for $225.
For a limited time, Juuk is offering a special 10 percent off discount code for Cult of Mac readers on the 38mm and 42mm Revo bracelets. Just use the code “CultOfMac2016” at checkout. The code will expire Feb. 29, 2016. In addition, Juuk is offering pre-order discounts for its upcoming Locarno bands that will be shipping in late April (20 percent off this month, 15 percent off in March, 10 percent off in April).
Price: $195
Buy from: Juuk
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Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac.
Leander is a longtime technology reporter and the author of six acclaimed books about Apple, including two New York Times bestsellers: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products and Inside Steve’s Brain, a biography of Steve Jobs.
He’s also written a top-selling biography of Apple CEO Tim Cook and authored Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, which both won prestigious design awards. Most recently, he was co-author of Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition.
Leander has been reporting about Apple and technology for nearly 30 years.
Before founding Cult of Mac as an independent publication, Leander was news editor at Wired.com, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Wired.com website. He headed up a team of six section editors, a dozen reporters and a large pool of freelancers. Together the team produced a daily digest of stories about the impact of science and technology, and won several awards, including several Webby Awards, 2X Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism and the 2010 MIN (Magazine Industry Newsletter) award for best blog, among others.
Before being promoted to news editor, Leander was Wired.com’s senior reporter, primarily covering Apple. During that time, Leander published a ton of scoops, including the first in-depth report about the development of the iPod. Leander attended almost every keynote speech and special product launch presented by Steve Jobs, including the historic launches of the iPhone and iPad. He also reported from almost every Macworld Expo in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s, including, sadly, the last shows in Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo. His reporting for Wired.com formed the basis of the first Cult of Mac book, and subsequently this website.
Before joining Wired, Leander was a senior reporter at the legendary MacWeek, the storied and long-running weekly that documented Apple and its community in the 1980s and ’90s.
Leander has written for Wired magazine (including the Issue 16.04 cover story about Steve Jobs’ leadership at Apple, entitled Evil/Genius), Scientific American, The Guardian, The Observer, The San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications.
Leander has a postgrad diploma in artificial intelligence from the University of Aberdeen, and a BSc (Hons) in experimental psychology from the University of Sussex.
He has a diploma in journalism from the UK’s National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Leander lives in San Francisco, California, and is married with four children. He’s an avid biker and has ridden in many long-distance bike events, including California’s legendary Death Ride.
You can find out more about Leander on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can follow him on X at @lkahney or Instagram.
4 responses to “Steel Apple Watch bracelet rivals Apple’s, but costs half the price”
juuk does not seem to make any claims that this band is bullet proof.
i feel you should delete the line claiming that this band is bulletproof.
It’s a figure of speech meaning that the band is durable, not a literal claim of bulletproof-ness. Good grief! Besides, a watch band is pretty minimal protection if someone’s shooting at you.
one of the apple programmers who used to work on cut and paste on os x, warns not to use stainless steel apple watch bands when using an aluminum unibody mac book, because it can scratch your computer.
i really wanted to go out and test this and ‘ ballistic glass ‘ screen savers with my glock 45 semi auto , but i don’t have the money in my budget.