Twelve South Forté for Apple Watch
Twelve South MRSP: $59.99 U.S.
Forté for Apple Watch
A stylish and elegant charging station for Apple Watch, the Forté excels either when a quick power top-up is needed, or as an ideal bedside table stand for the Apple Watch in nightstand mode. Its stylish chrome finish and smart cable management solution make this a desirable top of the range Apple Watch accessory.
The first impression of the Forté is the attractive packaging which matches the sleek design of the product. Like all Twelve South products the Forté comes in packaging that is the equal of Apple’s own, and shows the thought which has gone into it; the added touch of a helpful thread to assist the removal of the stand from the box exemplifies this.
The design of the stand can only be described as beautiful and eye-catching. This stand has a stylish, clean design with the noticeably solid base topped with soft black leather. The charger arm has a chrome finish and mounts the charger holder. This complements the polished stainless steel of the Apple Watch perfectly, and even my 38mm Aluminium Sport Apple Watch combines smartly with it. Although not included with the stand, either the plastic or the metal Apple charger can be used.
The charger is easily connected to the stand, the head slotting easily into the circular ring, and it is secured with the plastic covering. Even more usefully, the Forté presents an innovative cable management solution, with the charger lead being channeled neatly and invisibly through the back of them stand arm.
Watch OS 2.0 introduced the nightstand mode whereby the Apple Watch can act as an alarm clock if placed in the horizontal arrangement; the Forté is one of the second generation watch stands designed to accommodate this. Impressively though, the arm is designed to enable charging in either the vertical or horizontal orientation. The standard vertical charging mode wraps the watch band securely around the loop in the stand and is ideal for that quick top-up after the a heavy day of use or for secure storage.
I’ve used all four of my watch bands (Sport band, Modern Buckle, Milanese Loop and a third party Casetify band) without encountering any problems. The Milanese Loop, because of its wraparound design, hangs lower from the charger head but is still perfectly secure. People with small wrists may not be able to loop the band around the arm in the secure vertical position.
The Forté particularly excels in the horizontal nightstand mode arrangement. The head is ingeniously angled at 40° to be visible on most bedside tables from the prone position; ideal to hit snooze just one more time! The watch is less securely held in the horizontal position but one placed on the charger and aligned it is perfectly stable.
Because the watch is connected to the stand only via magnetism it can be knocked off from the charger head, particularly in the horizontal night stand mode; it’s therefore probably a good idea to make sure it is safely away from the edge of any tables or where it might be inadvertently displaced! On the other hand, the heavy base does mean that the stand is not easily knocked over though.
Whilst not the least expensive such product, the Forté is an elegant, high quality stand for safely storing and charging your prized Apple Watch; the stylish design complements that of the Apple Watch and as such it is my current stand of choice.
My Mac review rating is 8 out of 10.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.