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Apple Watch first generation, a good investment?

J

johnny_b

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 14, 2003
55
0
Norway
If we know what we knew today no one would break the seal of an iPhone first generation without having at least one to spare.

Do you think a sealed in case Apple Watch will be worth a lot of money in say like 10 years? And if so, what model would be the best investment?
 
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Of course it is. Even just for the collection factor. I mean look at the iPhone 1, everyone wants one to say they have one. I'd imagine the Apple Watch will be the same as well. I think they'll sell incredibly well.
 
No. It's a mass produced product that will be bought in its millions.

The iPhone did sell 6.1m units, but Apple were much smaller back then. The Watch is unlikely to hold much value at all as a collector's item.
 
you could sell the $349 sport watch, weeks before gen 2 comes out for $265 or more

if you want the the next version

apple products have good resale value :apple:
 
Che Castro said:
you could sell the $349 sport watch, weeks before gen 2 comes out for $265 or more

if you want the the next version

apple products have good resale value :apple:
Click to expand...

Doesn't sound like a good investment... In an investment you are suppose to earn money :) But a good tip if I wanted one to use for myself (which I don't).
 
johnny_b said:
Doesn't sound like a good investment... In an investment you are suppose to earn money :) But a good tip if I wanted one to use for myself (which I don't).
Click to expand...

If it somehow increases your time/productivity, then it may be considered a good investment.
 
johnny_b said:
If we know what we knew today no one would break the seal of an iPhone first generation without having at least one to spare.
Click to expand...

Who would do that? Those things are going for far less than the original cost, surely. No, there is absolutely no collectability in electronics, unless it is something like the first of an assembly line and signed by the original designers, and 40 years later. Other than that, a mass produced, readily available item will not be worth anything down the road.
 
johnny_b said:
Doesn't sound like a good investment... In an investment you are suppose to earn money :) But a good tip if I wanted one to use for myself (which I don't).
Click to expand...

An ISA, or a well managed stock portfolio, or wine, or pretty much anything else is a better investment.
 
Cashmonee said:
Who would do that? Those things are going for far less than the original cost, surely. No, there is absolutely no collectability in electronics, unless it is something like the first of an assembly line and signed by the original designers, and 40 years later. Other than that, a mass produced, readily available item will not be worth anything down the road.
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Looks like a good investment to me:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-VERY-RA...962?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item418521b8ca
 
johnny_b said:
...Do you think a sealed in case Apple Watch will be worth a lot of money in say like 10 years? And if so, what model would be the best investment?
Click to expand...

Yes, and should buy 10 or 20 Editions on launch day to put away for retirement. :D
 
Julien said:
Yes, and should buy 10 or 20 Editions on launch day to put away for retirement. :D
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lol and then you try to turn it on 10yrs later and it doesn't even work.

i'd bet money its like a iPod touch or iPad where the battery isn't replaceable by apple.
 
I'm hoping when they come out with the 2nd generation they keep the bands compatible. It would be kind of cool to carry them over and have more options/acquire a little collection for different occasions
 
Che Castro said:
you could sell the $349 sport watch, weeks before gen 2 comes out for $265 or more

if you want the the next version

apple products have good resale value :apple:
Click to expand...
If you expect an iPhone-like return on your Watch (e.g., 65-75% of the purchase price), I think you'll be sorely disappointed.
 
KenAFSPC said:
If you expect an iPhone-like return on your Watch (e.g., 65-75% of the purchase price), I think you'll be sorely disappointed.
Click to expand...

What do you base this on? Almost all Apple products offer excellent resale value. Without any actual history to go on you can only generalize using all Apple products as the reference.
 
Julien said:
What do you base this on? Almost all Apple products offer excellent resale value. Without any actual history to go on you can only generalize using all Apple products as the reference.
Click to expand...


battery life will be crap after a while. and from looking at it, i highly doubt you can replace the battery, I'm sure it will be like the iPod touch/ipad. apple does not replace the battery on those products either.

----------

any electronic purchase should never be considered an investment.
 
lakaiordie said:
battery life will be crap after a while. and from looking at it, i highly doubt you can replace the battery, I'm sure it will be like the iPod touch/ipad. apple does not replace the battery on those products either.

----------

any electronic purchase should never be considered an investment.
Click to expand...

I'm was responding to KenAFSPC post saying the :apple:Watch will not retain as high a percentage of resale value (65% to 75% in first year) as the iPhone. We can't know this for sure. The iPhone doesn't have a replaceable battery either.
 
Julien said:
I'm was responding to KenAFSPC post saying the :apple:Watch will not retain as high a percentage of resale value (65% to 75% in first year) as the iPhone. We can't know this for sure. The iPhone doesn't have a replaceable battery either.
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you can pay apple to replace the battery for you for like $69. i used to work there.

but the iPod touch, iPods, and iPads we don't replace batteries, we don't even open them up, if you open one up you damage the housing (3rd party people do this, but I've seen it done and it bends the aluminum and the display is bonded on and it just comes out horrible afterwards.) this design looks to be similar.
 
Julien said:
What do you base this on? Almost all Apple products offer excellent resale value. Without any actual history to go on you can only generalize using all Apple products as the reference.
Click to expand...
There are plenty of reasons for this, but I will give you three.

First, the demand and potential market for the Apple Watch is a tiny fraction of the demand and potential market for every Apple iPhone. Second, cellular providers provide a "floor" for phone prices because they accept older models as trade-ins after a new model is released; cellular providers then offer/resell these used phones to phone customers that renew their contracts. Third, the 1st generation Watch has significant limitations (e.g., 1 day of battery life, very thick face) and the public is already anticipating a model that addresses these limitations.
 
Julien said:
What do you base this on? Almost all Apple products offer excellent resale value. Without any actual history to go on you can only generalize using all Apple products as the reference.
Click to expand...

My take on it:

This is an _accessory_ to the iPhone, if later down the road it becomes unsupported in let´s say ios10 or by hardware in iphone 8 then it´s as useless as all the old 30-pin accessories for your old iphone 3gs..

Shure, it can still tell you the time but you have to charge it 3 times a day by then :) (Maybe not, but you get the idea of ageing electronics)
 
if you want an investment on a 'watch'

buy a rolex or patek phillipe or the such. plenty of vintage rolex's sell for big bucks these days.
 
lakaiordie said:
if you want an investment on a 'watch'

buy a rolex or patek phillipe or the such. plenty of vintage rolex's sell for big bucks these days.
Click to expand...

Buy them used, though. Even Rolexes depreciate when purchased new, at least for a while.

It'll be interesting to see if smart watches become the next essential thing, and the values of Rolex don't hold as well in the future as they do currently.
 
douglasf13 said:
Buy them used, though. Even Rolexes depreciate when purchased new, at least for a while.

It'll be interesting to see if smart watches become the next essential thing, and the values of Rolex don't hold as well in the future as they do currently.
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a fine handmade watch will always hold value even 100yrs from now. a smart watch thats made from electronics that eventually fail over a way shorter period of time than a mechanical watch won't hold that value, a rolex can always be repaired (unless you run it over with a truck or something or the sort). a smart watch once it stops working or gets liquid damage, etc turns into "buy a new one"
 
lakaiordie said:
a fine handmade watch will always hold value even 100yrs from now. a smart watch thats made from electronics that eventually fail over a way shorter period of time than a mechanical watch won't hold that value, a rolex can always be repaired (unless you run it over with a truck or something or the sort). a smart watch once it stops working or gets liquid damage, etc turns into "buy a new one"
Click to expand...

I certainly don't think that a smart watch will hold value. My point was that, if wearables take over, mechanical watches may fall out of favor, because people won't find a use for them. The Swiss watch industry barely weathered the Quartz storm in the 70s, but the popularity of Swatches bailed them out. It remains to be seen if they can do it again.

BTW, my Rolex was not hand made. Just about everything, outside of a few things like applying the hands, is done by machine. It probably costs less than $500 to make an $8K Rolex. They're desirable because they're expensive. It's jewelry. Patek is handmade, though.
 
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