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Apple's Limited-Edition 2026 'Close Your Rings' Watch Band Revealed

Apple's employees who participated in the company's annual Close Your Rings Challenge have begun to receive a limited-edition Apple Watch band and a special enamel pin marking the 10th anniversary of the internal challenge.

Apple Watch 2026 Close Your Rings Challenge Band
This year's band is a black Sport Loop with special lugs and an end piece that are colored similarly to the Apple Watch's Move, Exercise, and Stand rings.

Apple Watch Close Your Ring Band 2026
Given that these bands are limited to Apple's employees, rather than being sold directly to customers, they are relatively rare. You can keep track of hundreds of Apple Watch bands released since 2015 through the Bandbreite app on the iPhone.

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Top Rated Comments

12 hours ago at 04:18 pm

I cringe at the thought of my employer monitoring how I exercise or manage my weight.
Are there fat people working for Apple? It is it a hinderance to be pudgy in your career there?
This is what I get from this.
It’s an opt in ‘challenge’.
The only thing work will know is if you received a prize or not. It’s super open and pretty much everyone gets a participation prize.

There’s plenty of fat people at my store. I’d say around a 3rd of the staff are fat.

There’s been challenges in the past which focused on weight loss, but the feedback was it wasn’t inclusive. So no we have the Close Your Rings challenge and the Mindful Minute challenge.

So yeah.
If you wouldn’t want to participate, then you wouldn’t have to.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
15 hours ago at 01:45 pm
Prior years are on eBay. I'm sure this one will be also.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mjs916 Avatar
13 hours ago at 03:14 pm

So why doesn't it match the 3 colors of the rings?..
The 2019 band was much closer to matching the ring colors and has the same design.

They probably just didn’t want to full-on duplicate the old band.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
11 hours ago at 05:21 pm

I cringe at the thought of my employer monitoring how I exercise or manage my weight.
Are there fat people working for Apple? It is it a hinderance to be pudgy in your career there?
This is what I get from this.
It’s optional to participate and just seems like a fun event to encourage people to exercise. If you work for Apple and don’t like it, you can just not participate.

Health and exercise affect things like work performance, sick days, annd overall quality of life, so I don’t think it’s weird for an employer to care about their employees’ health. I don’t really see the issue, especially when voluntary.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
alexandr Avatar
14 hours ago at 02:13 pm
So why doesn't it match the 3 colors of the rings?..
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
choreographics Avatar
14 hours ago at 01:48 pm

Prior years are on eBay. I'm sure this one will be also.
Fingers crossed. I will keep an eBay tab open just in case.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)