A polyurethane armband with a rubber shell that holds a bare Apple Watch body against the upper arm. That's the ActionSleeve 2, a Twelve South armband for workouts where the wrist is the wrong place for a watch: CrossFit, cycling, yoga, physical jobs. The watch rides with crown and button exposed, and the sleeve fits arms from 9 to 15 inches.
Slide the watch body out of its band and into the sleeve's shell, strap on, done. Sizing splits by watch: the 40mm model also takes 41mm watches, the 44mm takes 45mm, covering Series 4 through 9 plus the SE. Heart rate keeps reading from the bicep, a point AppleInsider's Wesley Hilliard checked in his 4-out-of-5 review. Nothing touches the crown, so Siri stays quiet through push-ups. When it gets rank, the whole sleeve goes through a gentle machine cycle and then air dries, never the dryer.
What works
- Lays flat without bouncing through workouts, per AppleInsider
- Bicep heart rate held accurate in the same testing
- Stitched polyurethane build that 9to5Toys says fixed the original's wear problems
What to know
- The rubber shell is stiff; getting the watch in takes effort, per AppleInsider
- 9to5Toys found the snug fit slow to remove after a workout
- Fit is by watch body, 40/41 or 44/45mm, so check the list against your model
9to5Toys' Rikka Altland framed the 2 as the version that fixed the original: new polyurethane, stitching where the first one came apart, and a tighter loop that improved heart-rate accuracy. Her caveat scopes the product: casual exercisers do fine on a regular Sport band, and the sleeve earns its place for boxing and weightlifting.
iPhoners deep in Apple Fitness+ or a gym habit are who this is for. The hardest knock in either review is that it grips too well to come off fast, which for CrossFit gear is nearly praise.
