When's The Last Time You Cleaned Your Watch Band?
I have an Apple Watch, and I have a bunch of watch bands for it, but I really just like one of them. They don’t sell it anymore, but is basically this one. I may BE that one, just from a different seller. The point is, it is my favorite style and I have it in three colors. A few weeks ago I switched from wearing the black one to wearing the maroon one, because the black one was looking a little shabby. I just thought, “Well, that’s what happens when you buy a watch band for $7 on Amazon.” But then I was watching a TikTok (of course) where a jewelry store manager was pleading with her viewers to clean their watch bands. “They’re full of dead skin!” she said. I immediately remembered my recent watch band switch and thought, “Maybe I just need to.. clean my watch band??” So I did. And it was, as you may imagine, SO gross but also deeply satisfying.
My bands are made of silicone, which is great if you workout daily, and don’t pay a lot of attention to whether or not your wrist (and therefore, watch) are say, submersed in water or coated in whatever you’re cooking. I do all of these things. You’d think I’d have cleaned my watch bands sooner but ALAS. I do often give them a swipe with an alcohol wipe after a particularly sweaty workout. But the thing I like about these bands - that they’re super breathable because they’re covered in little holes - is also why they get gross. An alcohol wipe isn’t going to get into all those holes and clean them, but they can get filled with all kinds of gunk I’d rather not spend time thinking about.
I started with a little bowl filled with rubbing alcohol, and a bunch of Q-Tips. I imagined the Q-Tips as being perfect for scrubbing all the little crannies in these bands, but they were too big, and I had to switch to toothpicks. I tried wiggling a toothpick around in each of the little spots, but finally my best solution was to dunk each section of watch band into the alcohol bowl, then scrape each opening with the toothpick, then use a Q-Tip soaked in alcohol to run over the whole band, clearing away all the (what I’ll politely call) debris from the band.
After going through this process on two bands, a total of four little pieces, my formerly shabby looking black watch band is back in rotation. It was disgusting and thrilling to see all the little flakes of grit and grime on the paper towel after I cleaned off my bands. And that’s about 6 months’ worth of wear, so if you haven’t cleaned your watch band in a year, or two, or NEVER… I’d suggest you get to cleanin’. You’re in for some gross clean fun.
