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Apple Watch Launches April 24, Price Ranges From $349 to Over $10,000

urbanslaughter said:
I own a Tag and an Omega. I would never spend over $1,000 on a watch that will need to be completely replaced in 3 years. I don't get it. But I'm sure it will do well. This is the kind of watch I wouldn't spend more than $400 on.
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Hehe. Same here. I own a Tag (Monaco) and a Omega (Speedmaster) as well. I just don't see Apple Watch in the same league. For me it is more in line with my G-Shock. Not because of the quality or the finish, mainly because it is a digital watch. Thats more sports to me anyways. Still I think to get a Apple Watch Sport with a blue band.
 
magbarn said:
Since you keep using the 'keeping time' argument... A $100 Atomic solar g-shock will keep the same time accuracy as the Apple watch and won't need to be recharged either.

Most of us who buy expensive watches (I have a PO also) wear them for style or as jewelry. For $350 you're getting rubber/plastic made in China in the bargain.
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And since when has Apple tried to compete with the low end of any market?

I don't want to wear an Atomic Solar G-Shock. They look terrible.

I understand why people like the PO, but mine falls short when I am on business trips and going through multiple time zones. So I'm thinking I'd like a different watch to wear during the week. One that could keep better time. Maybe I'd use the boarding pass feature too. I'm sure there will be other travel related functionality down the road too.

As for the rather racist 'made in China' reference, the iPhone is considered one of the best made phones one can buy right now. The fact that it is made in China is immaterial. It has some of the lowest production tolerances possible.

Fact is, no other country on the planet could churn out that many phones to that standard in that time period. And according to the stats in the keynote today, Apple's iPhone has a 99% satisfaction rating. Not bad for something made in China?

BTW even the entry level model here is not rubber and plastic, it is high end aluminum with a rubber strap. As I'm sure you know, you can get the PO in a rubber strap and that costs $5800 vs $6100 for the stainless.
 
Oh dear!

the way this thread is trending, a lot are disappointed. i wanted an apple watch for the health tracking part...

might as well go and get that jawbone i guess...
 
Top of the line Gold Apple watch in Canada is hitting $22,000...

We may not think it's reasonable but in China owning and displaying gold products are a sign of wealth and their culture is such that displaying wealth is totally acceptable. It's no coincidence that so many Apple products are now "gold coloured". They're aiming straight at the Asian markets with the whole range now.
 
rwsimon said:
However, spending $500-1000 on a watch that will be out of date and therefore have minimal resale value in a year or two is unprecedented.
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Sort of like spending $2000 on a laptop that will be outdated in six months?
 
Timothy said:
The release of the $10k+ watch is a huge marketing mistake.

The device on the lower end is already too expensive. And releasing the upperend product simply says "This is an expensive device!" That price point will be included in most news stories about the device, and the consumer take away will be that this is a niche device for the wealthy, and not something targeted to the middle class of consumers.
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How many things made of gold do you know that are reasonably priced?

You know when the first iPhone was around, someone put an app on the iTunes store that cost $999. It didn't actually do anything, just put some funky icon on your screen. People actually bought them to show off.

I was passing through Vegas recently on business. You can pay hundreds if not thousands of dollars to sit at a nice table in one of the clubs. And you can have waitresses bring you bottles of liquor that normally would cost $30-$300 in a liquor store. Only in that club, at that table, they will add a 1000% markup for you, just so you can feel special.

The Edition watch is a status symbol. Those guys on Instagram in Dubai with their pictures of Bentley's with an actual lion standing on the roof, those guys will probably pick up one in each color just so they can Instagram a picture of them having them.

Truly rich people who like to show off could care less. Spending $17K on a watch would be like the average Joe buying a tune on iTunes for 99c.

I think they will sell a surprising number of gold ones, and the publicity that will generate will drive the sales of the more normal ones. I think it is actually a brilliant move.
 
chairguru22 said:
Pricing is on par with designer fashion watches. Gold one is obviously for people who don't have to know what price it is.
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except a designer fashion watch (usually) doesnt get antiquated with the next years model (Apple watch 2, coming April 2016)

who in their right mind.....
 
VZvL said:
Hey guys, I do not know if this has come to your awareness, but Apple seems to have changed their pricing. It used to be that the Dollar prices of the Apple products remained the same, only thing that changed was the currency (e.g. 299$ -> 299€). Now they seem to have changed it radically: AppleTV: 69$ or 79€ – MacBook 1299$ or 1449€ – Apple Watch 399$ or 449€. Why?!
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Umm... exchange rates?
 
Avatar74 said:
Sort of like spending $2000 on a laptop that will be outdated in six months?
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There's outdated and then there's outdated. A 2015 rMBP is hardly any faster or more usable than a 2012 rMBP. Heck even the new 'Macbook' has a core-M cpu that heavily throttles to keep it running fanless. In other words we have stagnation in the laptop/desktop cpu world. Compare the speed of the iPad Air 2 of today vs 2012 iPad 3 and there's definitely a world of a difference in performance.
 
hexcalibur said:
The apocalyptic comments that followed today's event make me LOL.

In 2001 Apple introduced the iPod, a 5GB mp3 player that cost around $400 and only worked with Macs. Eventually that turned into a pretty good business for them.

In 2007 Apple introduced the iPhone, a 4GB smartphone that lacked 3G support (and basic functions like copy-and-paste) and cost $500. Over time that bet seems to have worked out okay.

Now in 2015 they’ve developed a watch that only works with iPhones (5 or newer), won’t last 24 hours without recharging, and starts at $350.

I don’t know if it'll be a smash hit and transform the industry the way the two earlier examples did, but clearly it’s not the *price* that’s going to determine its success. They know better than anyone on this board that they’ll sell only a handful of the Apple Edition models. It’s the Sport and stainless steel models that need to sell in quantity to make the product a success.

I’ll probably get one of the Sport models. I need to replace my Garmin anyway and, for me, there’s enough functionality in the accumulated features in the device that I’m intrigued enough to buy one. There’s no way the Apple Watch is going to be as successful as the iPhone, but it will only flop (I think) if it turns out that Apple’s bet is wrong and the average consumer simply doesn’t *need* a smartwatch that complements the features of their phone. In other words, if the Apple Watch flops, it will be because the whole idea of smartwatch can’t escape from being a nice product.

In the meantime they’ll continue to bring in billions in profit every quarter.
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Your Garmin (likely) has GPS. This is a glorified pedometer.
 
I think Apple just got another new hobby.

So good news for you, im not evenly remote interested in buying one, so you can get yours faster.

I was briefly excited on the new macbook. When he announced it i was rooting "iPad Pro".

On to WWDC for the skylake macbook pro.
 
ZCT said:
How many things made of gold do you know that are reasonably priced?

You know when the first iPhone was around, someone put an app on the iTunes store that cost $999. It didn't actually do anything, just put some funky icon on your screen. People actually bought them to show off.

I was passing through Vegas recently on business. You can pay hundreds if not thousands of dollars to sit at a nice table in one of the clubs. And you can have waitresses bring you bottles of liquor that normally would cost $30-$300 in a liquor store. Only in that club, at that table, they will add a 1000% markup for you, just so you can feel special.

The Edition watch is a status symbol. Those guys on Instagram in Dubai with their pictures of Bentley's with an actual lion standing on the roof, those guys will probably pick up one in each color just so they can Instagram a picture of them having them.

Truly rich people who like to show off could care less. Spending $17K on a watch would be like the average Joe buying a tune on iTunes for 99c.

I think they will sell a surprising number of gold ones, and the publicity that will generate will drive the sales of the more normal ones. I think it is actually a brilliant move.
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If this made business sense they'd make real gold iPhones and MacBooks which would undoubtedly sell to the conspicuous consumption crowd as well. My guess is that there are far fewer of these people than you realize.
 
If Apple released the Apple Watch as purely a mechanical watch with the same materials and same price tiers but with maybe a Bluetooth heart rate monitor attached, there would be less confusion over the prices. People are correct to see this as a device with an interface that will expire which is different to a mechanical watch. But, they will still sell well as there is a market for over priced hyped products.

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littleebo356 said:
The Uk prices are bumped up again like normal, we are ripped off over here!
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Australia has got it the worst. $24000 for the most expensive edition. $800 for the cheapest stainless steel.
 
bad timing for this event....

I think the fact that one can not pre-order for another entire month and the watch does not ship until April 24 will cost Apple a bunch of sales....


People have way to long to realize that they really should not spend hundreds of dollars to buy this thing.
 
When one of its highlighted advantages is to retain your boarding pass info, I burst out laughing... Apple was reaching out a long ways to find "reasons" why this watch is useful.

Make no mistake, it's an appealing watch to some. But I'm not taking the bait.

I do hope they sell since I'm holding a lot of Apple stock, I don't have to think twice to be put off by everything about it.

That said I am an enthusist that does wear a watch. It makes me smile every single time I look at it... Why? It takes me back decades to when trained highly skilled Swiss watchmakers hand made all mechanical luxury chronographs.

Not a battery or wire or circuit board in sight. Beautiful gears, lots of them, fine designs machined into the sides of every tiny metal piece, they're a complete contrast to the all digital world I work and play in.

You can't touch one for under $60,000. Nor is it enclosed in a gold case. One pays for the dying art of a world class horologist creating just one watch at a time out of a variety of special metals. Each custom designed to the buyers taste. Only one man touches the watch. Spending up to a full year, a labor of love.
 
Rose Gold Watch...WTF?

So, if you wanted the smaller rose gold Apple Watch Edition with the sport band, you'll drop $10K. If you want the modern clasp band, it's an extra $7K? Seriously, and extra $7K for a band?
 
Anybody who pays that for a first edition Apple product is a moron.

1G Apples are always like that - they sell you the vision, but Gen. 1 is never there. It'll have lots of practical issues which will be mostly if not completely gone by Gen. 2 or 3.

I'm most worried about the battery. It's a tiny little thing (being in such a small device) and will be in constant use, so that 18 hours is probably going to cut in half within 18 months.
 
Silly prices... Cheapest watch is 500 au Dollars!

A leather band costs 380 bucks now? Such a massive massive rip off for a watch that will last a year until its outdated.
 
jamescobalt said:
This is not a high end designer watch, despite what Apple tells you. It's a tech gadget that will be obsolete in 2 years, dead in 5, and ugly in 0.
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I love people like you who are so sure.....as if anything Apple has done has flopped.

Same things were said of the iPod, iPhone, iPad....ya, you're probably right. Apple's grasping at straws here :rolleyes:

If that's the actual size on the sizing sheet, I may actually go for the 38mm. Will have to see in person. I'm a little miffed the only way to get the space black ss one is to pay for bands I don't want.

I was originally thinking of just going with a sport model for the first gen. But the pricing on the ss isn't too much more so that's in play now. I'll have to see them in person.

Also, I'm still not convinced these devices will follow smartphone or even tablet upgrade cycles. It's a different category. Open your minds and stop trying to force new product into existing category paradigms.

It's Apple - have they failed recently?
 
Still not seeing it. Some cool stuff about it. But .. at the end of the day I can do that stuff on my phone. Just dont need another gadget to keep track of and to spend money on and to maintain in exchange for a posible small convenience gain here and there.
 
These prices are a JOKE! $1000 odd $ for a stainless steel watch? My TITANIUM watch cost a lot less than that, and it has world time, atomic, solar powered, etc etc. Of course it won't send you a notification, but i have my phone, or garmin band for that.
 
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