Griffin’s WatchStand ($30) is one of the first Apple Watch stands to hit the market. WatchStand is made of plastic and rubber — the most visible portions of the stand are almost all black plastic. Notably, Griffin has come up with a few very clever and welcome touches for its stand. The first is cord management, as an inner rubber core allows users to wrap the Apple Watch’s long charging cable around it, significantly cutting down on the amount of exposed cable which needs to be fed out the bottom of the stand. The other bit of inspired design is an asymmetrical weighted base with a wedge, which allows iPhone users to charge the device while displaying it for viewing.
WatchStand includes a small rubber spacer to be used with the stainless steel Apple Watch charger.
WatchStand is tall — about 7” high, which makes it easy to dock or remove a watch from its charger — and doesn’t have a terribly large footprint, as the square base is 4.19” across. The middle plastic piece can be rotated to face any of four possible directions, making it simple to have the watch facing one way, with its band hanging down or curled up, and a charging iPhone facing another direction. The base has some heft — the stand weighs about a pound in total — and its rubber bottom ensures WatchStand won’t be slipping about. While the mostly black plastic WatchStand likely won’t be the most attractive Apple Watch stand we see, it’s certainly not bad looking, and will likely fit in just fine on most nightstands.
We appreciate Griffin’s thoughtfulness for adding a place for an iPhone to rest and charge while being displayed. While we don’t think we’ll use it too often as a dock for viewing, someone with an Apple Watch has to have an iPhone, and it only makes sense to present a charging solution for both devices, makeshift though it may be.
We hope to see similar solutions from other companies as time goes on.
The cord management feature is another good idea here, considering Apple Watch’s 1-meter and 2-meter charging cables. The charging puck is placed on top of WatchStand, and the cord is fed through the middle and out the back side of the base. Unfortunately, if you’d like to wrap the cable around the hidden rubber core, it can be a bit of a nuisance. Without taking the time to install it properly, there will likely be a small, but annoying gap between the top plastic piece and the rest of the hollow plastic core. For users who travel often, this might seem to be more trouble than it’s worth.
We saw the need for Apple Watch stands almost immediately after we received the device — almost any solution is an improvement upon having the watch and long cable splayed across your desk or nightstand.
