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One advantage of an unobtrusive fitness tracker like the Fitbit Air is that you can wear it at the same time as another watch without looking like you’re wearing two watches. Some Fitbit Air owners have taken this to another level by combining the Fitbit and a mechanical watch on the same band. Here’s how to do it—but be warned that you may not be happy with the result.
How to fit a Fitbit Air and a watch onto the same band
Combinations of the Fitbit Air and a mechanical watch are all over forums like Reddit. Here are some examples so you can see how it looks on a few different watches. To do this maneuver, here’s what you’ll need:
A Fitbit Air in its standard nylon band (the one that comes in the box with it—no need to buy a different band). The Fitbit Air requires its own special strap, so you can’t do this trick with a regular leather watch band. I’m recommending the nylon band because the Active band is too thick to fit, and the Elevated Modern band is to stiff to be practical. (I tested all three.)
A watch with at least 18 millimeters between the lugs. This is because the Fitbit Air’s band is 18 mm. Most watch bands are at least 18 mm, but some are much larger—this is going to look silly on a 24-millimeter watch. Note that you need the standard type of lug that takes a spring-loaded pin. Unfortunately this will not work with specialty connectors like what’s on the Apple Watch.
Spring pins to fit the watch. Since you likely have a watch band already, in theory you can just pull the pins out of the band. This is easier to do on some bands than others, though. If you don’t want to mess with your good watch bands, you can buy pins or steal them from a spare band. Note that these need to match the size of your watch, not the 18-mm size of the Fitbit band.
I don’t have a mechanical watch on hand, but I have plenty of smartwatches, so I experimented on some Garmin Forerunners I had at hand. Here are the steps:
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Remove the band from your watch.
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Lay the Fitbit Air band across the back of the watch, making sure the outside of the band faces the back of the watch.
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Install the spring pins into the holes in the watch lugs, making sure that the Fitbit Air band gets sandwiched in between the pin and watch.
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Slide the Fitbit band as needed so that the Fitbit Air device will be on the bottom of your wrist when the watch is on top.
Why combining a Fitbit air with your watch may not work for you
After trying this with several watches, I’m honestly not impressed. This setup seems like it should work (a strap is a strap, after all) but there are some issues.
First is sizing: If you have a small wrist you may not have enough room for the watch, the Fitbit device, and the band’s closure to all be in appropriate places. Without a watch, my Fitbit Air’s band has several inches of contact between the two sides of the hook-and-loop closure. With a watch threaded onto the band, the watch takes up some of that space, leaving part of the strap as a loose-hanging flap.
What may work better—although I haven’t tried it—is a third-party adapter like this to position the Fitbit Air under your regular watch band. This option looks bulky and I can’t say it looks ideal, but perhaps worth trying.
Another problem is comfort and accuracy of the Fitbit when worn on the bottom of the wrist. I haven’t tested the Fitbit for accuracy in this position, but typically the bottom of the wrist is a less reliable place for optical heart rate sensors to read your pulse. And as thin and narrow as the Fitbit Air device is, it’s kind of long. I don’t find it particularly comfortable to wear on a watch band this way.
You’ll also have to forgo any sensor that might be on the back of your watch. This strap hack covers up the back, so you can’t wear a Fitbit and a Garmin together if you want the Garmin to be able to pick up your heart rate, HRV, or blood oxygen.
That’s a lot of caveats for a simple hack. I won’t be wearing my Fitbit Air this way. But if your wrist is just the right size relative to your strap, you find it comfortable, you don’t mind a gap if your lugs are more than 18 millimeters apart, and you don’t care about getting the very best accuracy from your Fitbit’s heart rate sensor, this may be a convenient way to keep from wearing a second wristband.
