As part of my exploration of the manufacturing techniques behind Apple's leather watch straps, I've been tearing down and performing some (mostly unscientific) tests on a Loop band. This is an intensely constructed item. Apple is deploying some very exotic adhesives, advanced materials (hint: it's really a Vectran strap with leather trim), and manufacturing trickery I still can't quite figure out. In short, this Loop band is one of the most impressive pieces of soft goods engineering I've seen.

In parallel, I'm also working on a somewhat exhaustive guide about caring for the Apple Watch, and thought I would do some experiments with the bits of the Loop band I have to see just what the water resistance is. Mostly unscientific, I'm just performing soak and air dry cycles with room temp, RO filtered tapwater.

For the strap I acquired, I've only disassembled one end of one of the two bands (hoping to uncover better ways of dissecting the other parts without so much destruction). I intentionally used the half of the turnabout band that had already been cut, hoping to test the worst case scenario - water saturation on a large portion of leather where the top skin had been compromised.