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Apple Watch Pricing
- Thread starter mcfinch
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Of course. I am only speaking generally.
It will be interesting to see how easier it is to use & see the larger screen, that alone may sway some people to have the larger model.
There's no reason to have such a price difference at the Sport and standard level. The material difference wouldn't be that significant, people are only buying it for cosmetic reasons to suit their wrist size. Al and Steel are inexpensive. The finishing labor and tools, and selection, and design are the same for both sizes.There are no men's or women's versions.
Looks to be way off and wrong on series. There is NO Base and the Sport is the 'starter'. Here are more plausible starting price guesses.
Sport 38mm: $350
Sport 42mm: $450
Watch 38mm: $500-$1000
Watch 42mm: $600-$1100
Edition: 38mm: $1200-$5000
Edition: 42mm: $1200-$5000
For the Edition, the gold, yes... there would be an expected difference.
I could definitely see your pricing. $350 / $500 / $1200+
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4mm... 4 measly mm.
It'll be for the cosmetic effect if you have large or small wrist.
Where are people coming up with 1200+ for the Watch Edition. Each of those watches is 18K gold. They aren't electroplated. It's completely impossible for them to start at 1200 based on the raw price of gold alone. Go look up solid gold watches on the Internet.
We have and it's not THAT expensive
The issue is what is deemed to be a 'Case'
Do you consider your Suitcase or Briefcase a 'Case' under the definition of the word 'Case'
VERB
[WITH OBJECT]
Surround in a material or substance:
Don't do what many here do and confuse Case and Body
Whilst no one other than Apple knows how much gold they are using.
We know this device is a computer in a shell of metal.
Circuit board inside, connected to a screen at the front, battery behind, then sensors behind that.
This will all be screwed into an internal framework body/skeleton.
This will will then all be encased in the finish material/shell of your choice.
Think of it like an Easter Egg.
Again, whilst we don't know until it gets stripped down, we should not think we are dealing with a MASSIVE chunk of gold here that all the internals are screwed onto.
I would be very surprised if it's basically a Gold Unibody type of construction.
Apple are VERY clever with words. VERY clever.
Solid 18k Gold Case on this device may very well not mean the same in reality as 18k Gold Case on a proper watch.
As I said, you could say, you have an 18k solid gold briefcase.
Just picture if you scaled that down to the size of the Apple device.
It would still be a solid 18k gold case, but think how thin the gold would be.
We shall have to wait for the 1st strip-down to see just how much over raw material costs Apple are loading onto the devices cost for the difference in metal types.
The Watch is also has premium materials like sapphire crystal and ceramic coated back that the Sport lacks. Stainless steel is a premium material in the watch industry. No doubt the Watch with the fluoroelastomer Sport band will be the least expensive in the Watch line (Watch offers 6 type band options and the Sport only one type) but IT will probably be at least $500 starting.
4mm may seem to be 'measly' in length (unless you are trying to fit something tighter) but it's significant in the aWatch sizes.
38mm = 1227 sq mm
48mm = 1500 sq mm
That is OVER 20% difference in size. 20% is significant and not 'measly' by any standard.
EDIT: Also the 38mm is 10.6mm thick and the 42mm is 12.5mm which is a 16% difference.
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Are you in engineering?
Please stop using imaginary made up pretend differences in what fashion thinks different materials cost to reality.
Other than of course precious metals, material costs can be minimal difference against the final cost of the item.
One could say the 1" cube of Aluminium is say 1 dollar.
But the 1" cube of stainless is 3 dollars - OMG THREE TIMES THE PRICE !!!!
Or the 1" cube of Titanium is 5 dollars - OMG FIVE TIMES THE PRICE !!!!
Yeah, but get over it, it's 2 or 4 dollars more.
When you are selling the final product for $300, $400, $500 the cost of the material difference, in reality is virtually zero.
There will be some machining time differences. You will be able to machine Aluminium faster than Stainless or Titanium, perhaps another couple or so minutes of machining time.
Of course, companies want the consumer to imagine these things deserve much higher prices, but those prices often have nothing to do with reality of cost to make.
If you were ordering say 10,000 watches from Apple, and they cost five dollars each more as you were having Stainless over Aluminium, THEN the cost differences are very apparent.
That would be $50,000 dollars in difference between the materials.
But individually, what's 5 dollars to the consumer on a single $350 product? Nothing.
It's a bit like how Apple paid say $5 or $10 difference for 16MB or 32MB in an iPad, but charged you the consumer $100 for the difference.
There is no connection. It's what Apple think the maximum you, the public are willing to accept to pay. That's why they exist. Not to make you happy, or make the world a better place. They exist as a company to make THE most money they can.
I think it's easy to not have the true cost of manufacturing not be reflected in the final prices.
I think both are plausible42mm costing more and 42mm costing the same. As a customer though, I would probably prefer that they cost the same because too many prices make things unnecessarily complicated.
It would be like an expensive clothing shop charging me more for XL vs. Small, which they do not usually do.
You are quoting a post about the difference in materials and costs of the Sport vs the Watch. Are you saying you think that they will cost the same $350??????
Do you also think the Edition will be $350?EDIT: I edited my post with a ------ to differentiate the 2 topics that I was quoting that were in the same post. Read the post I quoted. It contains 2 topics.
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You are quoting a post about the difference in materials and costs of the Sport vs the Watch. Are you saying you think that they will cost the same $350??????
EDIT: I edited my post with a ------ to differentiate the 2 topics that I was quoting that were in the same post. Read the post I quoted. It contains 2 topics.
oh no i was commenting on the 38mm watch vs 42mm watch and 38mm sport vs 42mm sport.
38mm edition vs. 42mm edition price difference is justified imo.
Stainless steel isn't that expensive. I have cutlery made of the stuff.
Exactly.
for those who are thinking OMG Stainless steel watch, that'a going to be a premium cost.
Look at this:
http://www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-Single-Bowl-kitchen-Sink-Stainless-Steel-RH-Drainer/p/141535
And that's = Weight: 3.67 kg
Exactly. Apple will gouge us in a performance/capability.
But on a trivial 4mm cosmetic wrist size? Surely not at the Al or steel level.
At the 18kt gold level? Sure.
Yup.
We've had people saying things like 350 for aluminium 500 for stainless steel versions.
1. I had agreed with you... 350 / 500 / 1200+ (Al / steel / gold)
2. 20% is insignificant when you are talking al and steel.
Look at Al, Steel, Ti bicycles. They dont charge based on size. A specific model handmade craftsman $6,000 Ti bike, same price whether 48cm, 50, 52, 54, 58, or 62cm. All the same price. They dont punish people for being genetically short or tall.
The labor is the same, the same tube forming for each part, finishing. All the labor and tools are the same. You just have an insigficant raw material difference.
I know, it's funny isn't it.
I come from a fine engineering & quality control background over many years. Material costs are nothing in reality.
I think it's a different viewpoint, when you come from reality in an engineering background, and the fantasy viewpoint consumers have that has been artificially created by clever marketing, and presentation by the companies selling the whole quality/image thing to the consumer.
As I have said in the past. Whilst it's the same thing.
A giant spool of gold wire, being fed into a chain making machine, making hundreds of yards a day probably is the reality.
An 18" length of this same chain, in a fancy shop window with some 12 volt lights shining on it, draped over a blue cloth which is laying on some cardboard box's, with a could of roses and some fake glass crystals scattered around is the consumers fantasy with the XX markup for the fancy store, and members of staff in smart suits showing you the chain
http://youtu.be/-D0x9V5Yb_Q
They can't even avoid playing some fancy music over that
We've had people saying 350 for aluminum and 999 for stainless steel, because that's somehow sensible.
Any examples?
I'm admittedly not knowledgeable in this price segment but i find it hard to believe.
even if this were true, apple watch's innards are more costly than a run of the mill pedestrian automatic movement from ETA.
like someone mentioned Tissot has one.
And you have to factor in that in Switzerland, minimum wage is just over 22 USD per hour. I'm not even gonna bother to see if china has one, but you can see that child/slave labour significantly reduces your production costs.
And of course MASSIVE buying power for MASSIVE quantities make such a difference.
You could be making say 10 dollars profit per item as a particular component supplier when you sell in a few hundred here a thousand there.
When someone come along and says what price for 5 million things get interesting
You could be making say 10 dollars profit per item as a particular component supplier when you sell in a few hundred here a thousand there.
When someone come along and says what price for 5 million things get interesting