Apple Watch Nike+ hands-on: two unique customizable watchfaces, complication for direct access to Nike+ Run Club app, perforated bands, available October 28
Apple has teamed up with Nike to create the running-focused Apple Watch Nike+. The special version of the new Series 2 models …
Context & Ripple Effects
The Nike+ edition is the payoff to a quiet clearing of the decks: in early 2015 Apple pulled the Jawbone Up and Nike FuelBand from its stores, removing the standalone trackers that competed with its own watch before the partnership was announced. A year later, Nike is back on Apple's shelf — not as a hardware vendor but as a brand layer on Series 2 hardware, with two exclusive customizable watchfaces, a complication that jumps straight into Nike+ Run Club, and perforated sport bands.
First-order effects
- Runners buying on October 28 get a differentiated product at the same core hardware as Series 2, while Nike+ Run Club gains default-feeling placement on the watch face instead of competing for attention among App Store downloads.
Second-order effects
- Third-party fitness apps now face a platform owner granting a single partner exclusive face and complication real estate — a precedent other health and workout developers will press Apple to extend or explain.
Third-order effects
- The trajectory runs from Nike selling its own tracker, to licensing its brand onto Apple silicon, toward features migrating into the OS itself — later watchOS releases like watchOS 9's expanded running metrics show Apple absorbing exactly this fitness functionality natively, leaving co-branded editions as a marketing wrapper rather than a capability gap.
The trend: Smartwatch platforms are converting former wearable competitors into software partners, then folding their features into first-party OS updates.