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Mini-review: FŪZDock for Apple Watch, a compact charging stand ideal for nightstand mode

A lot of Apple Watch owners who splashed out on a nice charging stand must have been swearing at Apple when watchOS 2 was announced. Most existing charging stands out there position the watch vertically, which was the obvious thing to do at the time – but then along came watchOS 2, with Nightstand mode one of its headline features.

Nightstand mode allows the watch to serve as a bedside clock while charging – but only when on its side, with the buttons on top. Bad news for anyone who already laid out the cash for a vertical stand, and worse news for manufacturers whose stock was effectively rendered obsolete overnight.

For those who haven’t yet bought a stand, the good news is that manufacturers have been quick to respond. Zac Hall reviewed Spigen’s low-cost Apple Watch Night Stand, and now FŪZ Designs has launched a similarly-priced alternative in the form of the FŪZ Dock for Apple Watch … 

If the company’s name sounds familiar, you may recall it from the Bluetooth padlock shown at CES back in January.

The FŪZ Dock is rather similar in design to the Spigen model, but there are two notable differences.

First, the FŪZ Dock is a little taller. Second, it has cable management built-in, which to my mind makes it a little neater. The dock is formed of two pieces: a plastic frame, and a silicon outer. You insert your charging puck, feed the cable down the back of the stand and then place the silicon cover over it to tidy things up – leaving the cable to exit at the rear.

That little extra neatness costs you an extra ten bucks: the FŪZ Dock is $29.99 against the Spigen’s $19.99.

(Incidentally, the above photo makes it appear that the base sits unevenly – that was simply due to me leaning on the cable when I took the photo and not noticing until later; it actually sits flat.)

The metal charging puck supplied with the steel model Apple Watch is slimmer than the plastic one supplied with the Sport, so FŪZ designed the stand to accommodate the thicker plastic puck and supplies a spacer so that the metal one sits flush. I have the plastic one, and the black-and-white design looks pretty nice.

The silicon cover is available in a choice of black, white and blue, to suit three of the most popular Sport models of the Watch.

The silicon finish makes it an excellent aesthetic match for the Sport band.

With the Watch attaching magnetically to the puck, it gives the same secure attachment as any other watch stand. The base of the watch has a similar microsuction material to the Spigen, holding it firmly in place.

My single complaint is that the silicon material acts as something of a dust magnet – you can see that in the photo showing the puck in place – but otherwise this is a neat, affordable solution which will work well with Nightstand mode. Recommended.

The FŪZ Dock for Apple Watch costs $29.99 from FŪZ Designs.

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Comments

  1. b9bot - 9 years ago

    I’ll make my own dock. Take a block of wood cut out the puck paint it black and glue it together. How much could that really cost to make. $5?

  2. Stephen (@MorningZ) - 9 years ago

    These docks may be great and all, but MOST of them fail the “i have a heavy watch band” test and the magnetic connector is not strong enough to support the watch on it’s own

  3. Chris Murphy - 9 years ago

    And how well will this work when you go to press the digital crown “snooze” (WatchOS 2) while you’re half asleep? My guess is it’ll fall right off the magnetic puck and stop charging… kinda dumb.

    • Ben Lovejoy - 9 years ago

      Don’t know, I never use the snooze function – if I have to be up early enough to need an alarm, I get up when it goes off.

      • typemrt - 9 years ago

        Except that it doesn’t actually work well with Nightstand mode. Your personal “no snooze” habit aside, t’s reasonable to expect that an average person will want to press the side button while their watch is on the dock…and that will cause their watch to fall of the dock. Fuz says a redesign to fix that is coming soon.

    • typemrt - 9 years ago

      Exactly. That’s why I sent mine back and settled on the Spigen S350 dock with the bottom support.

    • galley99 - 9 years ago

      That won’t be an issue with the Spigen. The watch rests on a ledge.

  4. for the 42mm, the spiegen model is AWESOME. It works great when pressing buttons, since it has support, and it’s cheap.

Author

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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