Apple Watch Pride Band 2023 hands-on — cue the confetti!

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This year's Pride Edition band brings the celebration

Apple Watch Pride Edition Band 2023
(Image credit: Future)

Next week kicks off Pride Month; to mark the occasion, Apple has, for the past seven years, released a special Pride Edition band for the Apple Watch. 

For this year, Apple's Pride Month band is all about celebration. The Pride Edition Sport Band ($49 at Apple) is a while fluoroelastomer band featuring confetti- or sprinkle-like shapes in different colors throughout. And the shapes don't just come in rainbow colors — the flag colors of transgender and gender-nonconforming communities are also included. There are black and brown shapes for Black and Latinx communities, too.

Now, this band doesn't have quite scream "pride" as much last year's Apple Watch Pride Edition band. As a reminder, that band came in two variations, both with woven threads and the word 'Pride' literally debossed in Apple's iconic 'hello' cursive typeface. 

But this year's party-evoking design carries on the Pride Edition band tradition Apple started back in 2017. The company supports a number of LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations, including the Equality Federation Institute, Encircle, Gender Spectrum, The National Center for Transgender Equality, PFLAG, The Trevor Project and more.

To complement the new Apple Watch band, there's a new watch face called Pride Celebration. In the preset configuration, the confetti shapes are animated on a white background to match the band, swirling around the clock arms and temporarily dispersing when tapped. 

The face can be altered to turn the confetti into more traditional-looking hour marks or bubble numbers. In these styles, up to five complications can be curated, offering more information at a glance. I'm all for personalizing your Apple Watch experience, so I'm glad that this year's Pride watch face has several customization options. 

Otherwise, if you know how to use a photo as an Apple Watch face, you can set a picture you take at your city's pride celebration as your watch face. You can also use the Stripes watch face to design a flag you feel best represents you. There's no shortage of options to make your Apple Watch your own during Pride Month.

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Kate Kozuch
Kate Kozuch

Kate Kozuch is the managing editor of social and video at Tom’s Guide. She writes about smartwatches, TVs, audio devices, and some cooking appliances, too. Kate appears on Fox News to talk tech trends and runs the Tom's Guide TikTok account, which you should be following if you don't already. When she’s not filming tech videos, you can find her taking up a new sport, mastering the NYT Crossword or channeling her inner celebrity chef.