The first stands released for the Apple Watch were rubbish. We had just about despaired of finding a stand that we were happy to slap our expensive new watches on every night, and then one came along. That was
Twelve South's HiRise, and we enthused about it. Now we're going to evangelize
Nomad's Stand for Apple Watch, and if it's frustrating to have two recommendations, it's better than we were just using the boxes our watches came in.
Twelve South's stand has the advantage that it clicks together into a piece that supports the Watch, and runs Apple's charging cable through the base. It's an advantage chiefly because you can un-click it all, and fold it mostly flat for transport. In comparison, Nomad's Stand is a single piece of metal that doesn't fold. It doesn't fold, bend, twist or in any way acknowledge your Strong Man efforts on it.
This is a sturdy piece, quite beautifully crafted. Nomad's Stand is also heavy: not so much to be an issue if you do wedge it in your bag, but exactly enough to feel brilliant in your hand.
As with the HiRise and currently all Apple Watch stands, what you get is the stand itself, and no charging cable. That will change eventually, and we might well get distracted by a shiny new model that incorporates its own charger some day. For now, though, you have to use the Apple-provided one, and it tucks in very firmly. We did have a spot of worry about how the channel for the cable runs along one edge and then through a hoop at the bottom: it felt like we were stretching it as we slotted it all in.
It's more of a job than you'd want to do every morning and every night, but this stand is for setting up once and forgetting. It is for slipping your watch onto it at the end of a long day. It is for rather admiring the stand as you turn off the bedside light.
There is the issue of whether this is any good with watchOS 2.0's nighttime clock, as that requires you to place the watch horizontally across the stand. It does work, it does fit, but it's not what this was meant for, and we'd expect to knock the Watch flying someday. You can well argue that this is a limitation on the usefulness and the appeal of the stand, but in practice we've just decided we like it so much that we're not going to bother with the nighttime clock.
Nomad Stand for Apple Watch
costs $70, and comes in Silver or Space Gray from the official site.
Who is Nomad Stand for Apple Watch for:
We'll be buying these as Christmas presents this year, and the question of who we get it for is less about the stand, and more about whether we like these people enough.
Who is Nomad Stand for Apple Watch not for:
Maybe if you're enough of a traveller that it's a pain undoing the cable, but not so much of a traveller that it's worth buying a second Apple charger, then there's something better out there for you. Can't say we've seen one, though.
-- William Gallagher (
@WGallagher)
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