Kickstarter project promises steel Apple Watch strap at Sport Band prices

If you’re an Apple Watch wearer without the coffers necessary to facilitate any of the company’s pricier metal bands the HyperLink might be for you.

This isn’t web speak we’re using here, California-based project creators, Hyper/Sanho Corporation are launching a crowdfunding campaign via Kickstarter to finance their new steel watch strap for Apple’s debut smartwatch.

As the preview of the company’s Kickstarter page points out, those after Apple’s Stainless Steel Link Bracelet can expect to pay a whopping $449/£379, making it the priciest of all the Apple Watch bands on offer. By comparison the HyperLink band will go on sale for just $49 at launch – the same price as the basic Apple Watch Sport Band.

Whilst the HyperLink doesn’t sport quite the same iconic design work or link structure that Marc Newson’s Megapode/Apple Watch Link Bracelet does, it offers a three-piece link design that falls in line with convention for most modern metal-bodied watches and should appeal to most tastes.

Speaking of metal, the HyperLink is even hewn from the same 316L-grade stainless steel that Apple’s most expensive strap comes in, so you can expect the same resilience to scuffs, scrapes and corrosion that you would from Apple’s official wares.

Hyper’s campaign launches on Kickstarter on August 25th with 38mm and 42mm versions of the silver HyperLink and a 42mm black version too. Funding tiers range from $49 for a single strap (standard retail price will level out at $99) to a $10,000 distributor tier that includes 100 units of each of the three HyperLink variants.

We can’t embed the Kickstarter video pitch here until the project goes live, but click through on the source link below if you want to see more of the HyperLink in action and how it looks in situ.