Is My Apple Watch Braided Band Too Tight?

It's funny, before I got my first Apple Watch, I questioned whether or not I really needed one and if I really would actually use it. Three years later, there was no doubt in my mind that I needed to replace it after losing it a few weeks back.

I went to the Apple store over the weekend and upgrade to an Apple Watch Series 6.

I picked out the watch I wanted (red) and the band (braided red). I really liked the new braided bands. They looked super summer-y and beach-y. The interesting thing about the braided bands, though, are that they need to be fitted to your wrist, unlike a regular watch band, which fits around a wrist, similar to an adjustable belt.

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Apple had a disposable paper "ruler" that was used to measure what size band was needed. The ruler showed a size 7 when I measured, but the clerk suggested pulling the paper tighter around my wrist.

"Because of the health monitoring of the watch, you'll need the back of it to be in tight contact with your skin," she said. She encouraged me to go with a size 6.5 instead of a 7 for the band.

It's been a few days, and the band is pretty tight. It leaves a mark on my wrist when I take the watch off. It has me wondering if I went too tight.

I have 14 days to figure out if I want to make a one time exchange for the bigger size, and I don't know what to do. I'm wondering if I'll get used to the band, or if it will stretch a bit to conform to my wrist.