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 September 16, 2026 8:53 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
The new Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4 have hardware changes that allow for faster charging, but you will need to use the new version of the Apple Watch Magnetic Fast Charger included in the box in order to achieve this boost. If you need extra ones for your own charging stands or travel or so forth, Apple released the new version of the charger on its online store last week, with...
Thursday September 17, 2026 1:34 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Apple released watchOS 27 on September 14, bringing a new Audio Intelligence feature set to its latest Apple Watch models, but as a result, owners of previous models are set to lose out doubly in the process.
Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 models later this year will get Live Rewind, a feature that provides a transcript of any spoken audio that was picked up by the device in the last 15...
Friday September 18, 2026 1:07 pm PDT by Juli Clover
The Apple Watch Series 12 came out today, and we picked one up to get a look at the new feature set. There are no major external changes, but Apple updated the device's internals and health sensors.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.
The Apple Watch Series 12 has the same design as the Series 11, but it does come in different colors. The aluminum models are available...
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.
Apple's first foldable iPhone, with a book-style design featuring a 5.4-inch outer display and a 7.6-inch inner display with a minimal crease down the middle.
