February is Black History Month, and as we approach the start of the month, Apple has announced a number of ways in which it will be celebrating the occasion. The celebration spans almost all of Apple"s services, but it also comes with a new product to buy - a new sport band for the Apple Watch.
Called Black Unity, the new watch band has three colors - red, green, and black; the colors of the Pan-African flag. The band is actually made of different pieces of colored fluoroelastomer, which are compression-molded into one piece. The band also features the text "Truth. Power. Solidarity." engraved on the inner side of the steel fastening pin. If you haven"t bought an Apple Watch yet, you"ll also be able to buy a Series 6 model outright with the Black Unity band.
The Black Unity sport band will be available from February 1 and cost $49 on its own, while the Apple Watch Series 6 Black Unity model will cost the same as the regular version, at $399 for the GPS-only variant and $499 for the LTE version. Aside from the new hardware, Apple is also launching the Black Unity watch face, which features a pattern that changes as the watch moves. This will be available later today as part of the watchOS 7.3 update.
Apple"s celebration of Black History Month extends to pretty much every other part of its ecosystem. For Apple Watch users, a new Unity Activity Challenge will reward users that close their Move Ring seven days in a row in February with a limited-edition award. Other services, including Apple Music, Podcasts, TV, Maps, and the App Store, will highlight content and stories created and shared by black artists, businesses, and personalities. Even Apple Fitness+ will have a collection of workouts featuring black artists, and the new Time to Walk feature will get a new story by author Ibram X. Kendi.