Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
I doubt they'll sell 850,000 watches at $10k plus either. But maybe they will go after a niche market so the gold watch is more exclusive

John Gruber himself is the one reporting the Apple Watch Edition will comprise 17% of the 5 million Watch orders this year. That's far from niche.

Hey, as a shareholder...if Apple can pull it off at anything close to those numbers more power to them.
 
And regarding people spending $10,000+ on something that'll be obsolete in a years time - perhap the market they're after is fine with spending $10,000+ annually.
 
With these classic type watches, they are considered an investment, are timeless, and never outdated. They will also function and keep good time for decades.

I don't think the same could be said for any smart watch. Apple or otherwise.

.

Don't try to rationalize the purchase of a $20K battery powered gold watch that will be obsolete in three years. These models are aimed at a different type of customer... The Chinese even have a word for them: tuhao.



korean-drama-chinese-tuhao-01.jpg


tuhao.jpg


408845_f520.jpg


tuhao-bathroom.jpg


tuhao.jpg



 
John Gruber himself is the one reporting the Apple Watch Edition will comprise 17% of the 5 million Watch orders this year. That's far from niche.

Hey, as a shareholder...if Apple can pull it off at anything close to those numbers more power to them.

No, it was the Wall Street Journal. Gruber just did the math (which makes the 17% number sound extremely unlikely.
 
John Gruber himself is the one reporting the Apple Watch Edition will comprise 17% of the 5 million Watch orders this year. That's far from niche.

Hey, as a shareholder...if Apple can pull it off at anything close to those numbers more power to them.

I don't doubt that they will sell 5 million watches this year, maybe in a few weeks if they have the supply. I seriously doubt that 17% of the sales will be a watch starting at $10K. I can't speak for anyone else, but I know I won't be one of the Edition owners.
 
John Gruber himself is the one reporting the Apple Watch Edition will comprise 17% of the 5 million Watch orders this year. That's far from niche.

No, I believe Gruber quoted someone who claimed the Edition comprised 17% of the models Apple was manufacturing for their initial release.
 
You're still thinking about the Apple Watch in iPhone/smartphone terms.

That's everyone's mistake here - we have no idea what Apple has in store for the device. What if it's not a device you replace every year or two - what if it's upgradeable by itself somehow? What if they come up with a way to incorporate years of updates in the original price?

I think we need to stop trying to fit the Apple Watch into current mobile device upgrade/pricing models and wait until the thing is released.


The problem is that my Great Grandfather's solid gold pocket watch still keeps time exactly as it did the day he bought it 100 years ago.

The Apple watch will never last that long. In fact, it will be 'out of date' within 2 years and no longer supported by apple within 5 (the same way they no longer support the 3GS). This product has an expiry date. A luxury watch doesn't.

Apple has a very clear business strategy in all their products that relies on planned obsolescence. Having a Luxury watch item which isn't disposable and has a lifespan beyond 2-5 years clashes with their entire business model.

The sub $1000 smart watches though seem like a good fit for Apple.
 
Internals will not upgradeable.

Band selection will likely be limited to a few specific ones per watch casing.

To prevent someone from making hideous combos, I bet each series of watch will have a different type of attachment that only mates with the preselected choices above.

In fact in Apple fashion, these may even be proprietary connectors so that the third party can't make hideous band combos.
 
A gold watch fits in your pocket and can also be melted down (while retaining value). Which Apple computer also has these properties?

The price of gold watches far exceeds their worth as gold bullion.
 
The watch won't be using pure gold, so the cost will be far less. The watch will be using a gold alloy.

No one uses pure gold for making watches. Apple is using 18k gold for the :apple:Watch Ediiton, which means that the case will be 75% pure gold and 25% other elements/metals. 18K gold is around $900 per oz, meaning that if the watch case has 2 oz of gold, its value is roughly $1800 (in gold).

If the :apple:Watch Edition indeed does contain 2 oz of 18K gold, no way will the price be $2499. Apple would be losing money with that price. (Just add in the cost of electronics, sapphire, bands (especially those which contain significant amounts of 18K gold)).

Take the iPhone for ex. It costs Apple between $200 to $270 to make an iPhone 6(Plus), and how much are they selling them for?? $649 or $749 for the basic model. That's 3x what they're worth in parts. (There are obviously plenty of other costs involved, but lets not discuss them now as it's not the point).
If we take that "3x more than what they're worth in parts" philosophy and apply it to the :apple:Watch Edition, we easily get to the starting price of $5000+ (Again not counting the electronics, sapphire, bands etc.).
 
Short version: I know nothing, so I'll just randomly guess with no real logic behind it.

Remember back when people were SWEARING up and down that the iPad would be $1200 to start? They ended up looking like total fools.

if you dont think theres logic in gruber's post, then you didnt read it. you should also read his posts predicting the iphone 6 resolutions and why. pretty much nailed it.

and gruber didnt predict $1200 to start for ipads.

----------

$10,000?! That's more than a Mac! Why would you waste your money on that?

because, wealth?

dont think so? here's a $38,000 cell phone:

http://www.vertu.com/us/en/collections/signature/shop-collection/

...what more is there to say? it exists.
 
The watch COULD contain $2,000 worth of gold if the case is 2oz. The case might actually be closer to 0.5 oz, with the parts inside adding 1.5oz to the weight. This would only be about $500 worth of gold, even with a solid gold case.

Gold is very dense, so watch electronic won't outweigh it by that much, if at all. (We don't know at the moment). It will probably have at least 1 oz of gold not counting the crown and the band which will contain significant amounts of gold as well.
 
They're using 18K gold, which is 75% pure.

75% pure means 25% something else. Alloy.
Rose Gold: 75% gold, 22.25% copper, 2.75% silver
White, red, pink, green, purple, or blue gold have varying percentages of different metals to achieve the color and characteristics desired by the metallurgist.

You based your calculation on the average 2 oz weight of a smart watch. Your calculation didn't subtract the weight of the internals. There could be as little as .5 oz of gold in the case.

Gold is also just a color.

Not sure what you're actually saying here. Apologies.
 
All you people decide to just throw numbers like 20K is a good number to say the gold apple watch could be?? Ives latest New Yorker column exactly stated " A watch would be for the masses" not the High-class, Rich-only masses.. I predict the gold apple watch to land at around $1449.. Ill explain why ... Recently there was an article that said, that in gold alone apple's cost would be around $795 for the edition model. if you factor just a 20% profit it would calculate to $159. well over the iPhone's current profit margins gentleman. lets then calculate at the high end if we put the iPhone 6 on your wrist which is a more developed, time consuming , elaborate and hardware intensive device. what would that cost?? One would have to pay $695 for the iPhone 6. calculate $795 + $159 + $695 = $1649. lets say apple does some great marketing trickery.. They'll land at a beautiful number like $1449 for the entry level edition watch. That's my best guess.. Stop all you idiots saying 20k.. You don't belong on these comments... Get off now!!! Your welcome...

You're delusional :eek: , and your post doesn't deserve a quality response. Get off now
 
Yea, agreed. Great point and best we all just wait till next month to see (assuming there is an Apple Keynote).

Although this time it may be different since Apple already did announce the intro price roughly 6 months in advance. They didn't do this with the iPad.

Apple announced the price of Apple Watch because if they didn't, everyone would be guessing $249 or $299 so we would all be disappointed. They set us up last year to prepare for slight sticker shock in April.
 
John Gruber himself is the one reporting the Apple Watch Edition will comprise 17% of the 5 million Watch orders this year. That's far from niche.

Hey, as a shareholder...if Apple can pull it off at anything close to those numbers more power to them.

No, it was the Wall Street Journal. Gruber just did the math (which makes the 17% number sound extremely unlikely.

Yes, yes very true. Sorry for the error. Thank you for correcting me.

Although, I certainly did not glean from Gruber's article on Daring Fireball that he was skeptical of the 17% nor the $5-10K price range.

He wrote:
If Apple actually sells 1 million Edition units per quarter, and they sell for an ASP of $5,000, that’s $5 billion in revenue per quarter — just for the gold Edition models. If the ASP is closer to $10,000, which I still think is possible, double that.
 
"Solid Gold" is not a real term that makes a lot of sense in your regards.

Solid Gold itself (24 karrot) is very soft and pliable material. Nobody uses "solid gold" because of the weight and pliability, especially in jewellery or watches

I've seen the 18k gold number used, so what that means is that of your Gold, lets say 2oz of Gold, that means that it is 18/24ths pure gold, or only 75% gold, or roughly 1.5oz of actual gold.

but thats also neither here nor there. if the estimated total weight of the entire watch body is 2oz (Pebble steel, Moto360 and samsung gear range from 1.9 to 2.3oz), that is total body weight including the mechanics, non gold portions and internals. In all likelihod, there is probably well under 1 oz of gold per watch. I'm willing to bet there's probably not more than $500 worth of gold actually used.

Gold is much denser than steel, plastic or whatever those other watches are made of, so you cannot compare those numbers just like that.
 
I would still rather spend my money on a watch that is going to last forever. Not for months. Anything with three 0's behind it for an Apple Watch is crazy, but I am sure there will be people with more money than brains that will go for it.

I will always be more impressed by a Patek Phillipe or Cartier, hell even by a Rolex before some Golden Apple.


Obviously firedept knows about watchs from Patek Phillipe, Cartier, Rolex, Mont Blanc, & Breitling these watches are hand crafted and how very intricate movements on the inside. These types of watches stand for things such as precision and delicacy. These timepieces last forever and gain value as time goes on. These timepieces also require maintenance. Technology on the other hand loses value as time goes on 99% of the time.

This is my philosophy if the Apple Watch will cost more than $5,000-$20,000 it will go in yearly for maintenance. Notice the S1 chip it's all encapsulated in one. It would be very simple to make an S2 (same size as the S1 - technology gets better and smaller every year; so they will cram more technology in to a chip the size of the S1 which will be able to keep up with soft wear updates) chip and take your watch in for service and upgrade to the new chip and keep the same display technology for the next 5 to 7 years. You will go in for new "S" chip every year. This is my thought on how people will see the value if the watch does in fact cost that much.
 
An In-Depth Look at Apple Watch Band Options and Potential Pricing

$10,000?! That's more than a Mac! Why would you waste your money on that?


Simple answer - because it won't be marketed as a tech product, and because you are not the target market.

There are people who pay $20k for a single first class air ticket alone. Keep that number in perspective before you denounce the apple watch for being too expensive.
 
Not sure why people believe it'll be obsolete in a year. Like a car, it'll be obsolete once you drive it off the lot!

Seriously, it's not an iPhone. It should work just fine after a year.
 
What do you consider to be a "standard" Apple watch? They've already given that number out. Question is how much you are willing to pay for cosmetic upgrades. As with iPhone and iPad memory, it's these upgrades that make most of the profit for Apple.

The one which has no suffix. The Apple Watch.

They have given no upper ceiling on price, merely a “starting at” price.

The iPhone “starts at” $450 unlocked (or $0 with a plan). This is for an 8GB 5c. Think of that in a similar way to the Apple Watch sport. Using less premium materials, a smaller storage size etc.

The upper ceiling of the iPhone is $949. That gets you everything and the kitchen sink. OIS, 5’5” screen, aluminium body, NFC, Touch ID etc.

I know the price will start at $349. I also know I will be paying more than that. I’m interested to know what the maximum I will pay is. I’ve budgeted around $780, with the aim of getting an Apple Watch with black classic buckle and maybe a fluroelastomer strap too.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.