Garmin Forerunner 10 - Watch Band Issue

I have had the Garmin Forerunner 10 for about nine months now. For three of those months, it sat unused due to my IT band injury and the lack of running while rehabbing it. So, after six months of normal use, the watch band came apart. Up to that point, I had been very happy with the watch. I looked at the construction of it, and it is composed of a rubber watch band over-molded on a plastic anchor. Now, this is basically what I expected to find. What I didn't expect to find was that the anchors have no lands or barb-like geometry that would properly hold the overmold in place. The plastic is smooth, and they were basically relying upon the adhesion force between two flat surfaces to hold the band together. There were no physical barriers to separation: picture the barb on a fishhook holding the hook in the fish's mouth. As a materials engineer with a manufacturing background, I find this to just be a poor design. From a quick scan of the web, it appears that plenty of other users have had this issue.

In all fairness, Garmin offered to waive the normal $20 (plus shipping) replacement cost of the band. Awfully nice of them. I asked the woman on the phone if she knew if they had changed the design. She stated that she didn't think they had changed it, and basically acknowledged that they have had issues with this. I imagine I might have to make the same phone call in another few months.

The part of this watch's design that really bugged me was the band lugs. As you might be able to see in the photo, the lugs are designed so as to preclude the use of an aftermarket band. They are too narrow in the middle to allow an aftermarket band to be placed around/under the pins that hold the band in place. I work in medical devices, and in that field it is a matter of safety and liability that you might design something with proprietary fittings. After all, if a medical device fails, it could cost someone their life, which in turn can cost a manufacturer its reputation and business. In the case of a sports watch, there is no real reason to preclude aftermarket bands, particularly when your band is ultimately designed to fail under normal use conditions.

If it weren't for those two design flaws, I probably wouldn't even post this. The watch performs well as a GPS watch. I find it to be within +/- 5% of my runs, tighter than that on most. I love the auto-pause feature. It's just the band... Sometimes, the simplest part of the product is the easiest one to botch.

/Rant

EDIT: I should add that the customer service rep was extraordinarily helpful in the phone call. I have yet to receive notice that my order has shipped, but barring a disaster on that front, the Garmin folks seem to handle CS quite well.

EDIT II: I also realize that there is any easy way to fix this issue by wrapping a wire through the original rubber band and securing it with some twists. Adding a heat shrink wrap over the top of the wrapped wire would help any snags on clothing or skin.