The original V800 band is textured with a groove down the middle and has a two-pronged buckle. The watch itself also has the groove and it makes for a nice continuous look to the bracelet. This replacement band has no texture and no groove, and a one-pronged buckle. So it looks kind of dumb. But my watch still works fine except the band was cracked, so I’m glad I can now strap the watch to my wrist again.At the band attachment points, the replacement band has a tube for the pin that will block the pin prongs on your watch. The tube is hard to see because it’s black on black. You need to cut the tubes out or you won’t be able to shove the gray pinhole prongs of the watch into the prong indentations in the band. You’ll THINK you’re putting watch into band but the pin will never go through the assembly because the stupid tube is blocking it. Hard to describe without images; sorry. Cut the tubes out of both sides of the replacement band.It took me AN HOUR to switch out the band, which is ridiculous. The amount of force required to get the pins through was crazy; I put holes in a wood cutting board. It was easy to remove the old pins with the pin tool but good grief all the holes did NOT want to line up. It really annoyed me that the replacement band had a one-prong buckle; if the replacement had matched the original I only would have needed to replace the strap side and not the buckle side. That would have spared me some suffering and then only one side of my watch would now look stupid. As it is, both sides mismatch the watch itself because no texture and no groove.Beware: the charging port cover is attached to the watch with the band and pin on the buckle side. When you remove the buckle side of the band the charge port cover will fall off. Don’t lose it. Make sure you orient it correctly when you put put it in place with the replacement band. The band will hold the port cover loop in the right place to be caught and reattached by the replacement pin.The edge of the band is very flush with the edge of the watch. That aspect of fit/finish is very good.All in all, it’s kind of a crap product, but I’m giving it three stars because I’m very glad it exists. Even Polar doesn’t sell a replacement band for this watch anymore, and the only other replacement band (which looks like a better match) had an eight week lead time.
