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.
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.
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.
Wednesday October 7, 2026 12:02 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Some Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 owners have experienced unexpected skin irritation with the new models, according to reports on the MacRumors forums and Reddit.
Affected users complain of a burning sensation and redness under the sensor area. The Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 measure heart rate every five seconds, and some people have wondered if that's the cause of the skin...
Friday October 9, 2026 10:20 am PDT by Juli Clover
For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with Southern Straps to offer MacRumors readers a chance to win an Apple Watch Series 12 and a nylon band from Southern Straps to go along with it.
Southern Straps is a California-based company that has been making high-quality bands for the Apple Watch since the device first launched in 2015, and the company's selection of bands offer a an...
Tuesday October 6, 2026 6:09 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Apple's $634 million patent loss to medical technology company Masimo has just gotten even bigger, after a federal judge ordered Apple to pay an additional $184 million in interest on what it owes (via Bloomberg Law).
The ruling takes Apple's bill to around $818 million, but that doesn't include any post-judgment interest continuing to accrue until the judgment is paid.
Judge James Selna ...
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.
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.
