The Fitbit Air is already a sleek fitness tracker, thanks in part to its slim, screenless build, but several users have been able to shuzh it up with a clever hack which adds their analogue watch to the band, with surprisingly impressive results.
Although the thought of sliding a traditional watch onto the Fitbit Air Perform Band might sound a bit haphazard, users posting their creations to social media tell a different story, with the Fitbit Air going almost incognito securely underneath the wrist as opposed to on top where it’s in full view.
One post comes from none other than Dan Seifert, who works as a Product Critic at Google, wherein he’s managed to loop the standard Perform Band right through the lugs of his Instrmnt Field Watch, creating a rather eye-catching 2-in-1 device. It just looks like a regular watch with a fabric strap.
Credit: Dan Seifert
It’s a great idea, particularly for anyone who isn’t a fan of smartwatches and wants to buy the Fitbit Air specifically because it’s a screenless device. Having a single strap that houses both your watch and the Fitbit Air itself means that you don’t have to be bogged down with two wearables on either wrist.
It’s not a perfect system however as user Josh Makeshfit depicts in his video when trying to attach a Casio calculator watch. In this instance, the Perform Band is too thick to slot through the default lugs of this particular watch, so a 3D printed set of adapters is required in order to house the watch as intended.
The Fitbit Air band might also be narrower than the width of many watch straps at 17mm, so you may need to wear it with the strap able to slide a little in the slot.
At the very least, it shows that there’s an appetite for combining trackers like the Fitbit Air with analogue tech, feeling like a natural offshoot of the market that hybrid watches like the Withings Scanwatch Nova and the Garmin Lily 2 have tried to attract.
Given that Google released the official blueprints for the Fitbit Air last week, it shouldn’t be too long before third parties are able to make custom-built bands that better accommodate traditional watches, so keep an eye on this space as we’re sure to see some interesting innovations.