Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Bloomberg: $10,000-Plus 18-Karat Gold Apple Watch Edition Sales Fizzled After Just Two Weeks
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
And it's a worthless number without knowing costs. GM had $149 Billion of revenue in 2008. Sounds great! You should have invested your life savings in it.
Yes but after 10 years these things will be sold with double the price
That solid gold will never get old
Yes precisely, Apple made a ton of money off of these due to the high price point and large profit point. If we look at how much gross came in from just 10,000 units, that equals $100,000,000 gross. If Apple only made 10% of that in profit, and I suspect their profit level was much higher than that, then for every 10,000 units sold they had a net of $10,000,000. The article states multiples of 10,000 units sold, so they made a nice profit, even counting they screwups and scrapping of early units, plus it served as advertisement.
People like me have a difficult time understanding the investment of even $500 in a watch that will last only a few years, much less an investment of $10,000 plus tax! However, I'm a person who has limited funds to work with. For the filthy rich $10,000 is pocket change. Heck they probably spend more than that on a lavish party for their friends and business interests. Their liquor cabinet and wine cellar likely have several times that value in stock at any given time.
Last edited:
You're not. Most of the people writing here are not in the financial echelon where buying one is an option, and would absolutely not gain any value from it, thus they scoff at it.
I, too, think it is absurd, but I understand where someone with the disposable income at the time would find great enjoyment from it. New product sold en masse to the plebs, but you are one of a smaller group that gets to have the *nicest* of said product.
No one *needs* the gold apple watch, it does the same thing as the $300 apple watch *functionally* but it accomplishes a different goal in terms of status. The same way no one *needs* an Infiniti QX80 (they're stupid big) an Escalade or a Bugatti (it is far more car than anyone will ever use) but that's entirely relevant when it comes to having money and status.
There's a lot of people here essentially poking fun at someone else's greater fortune.
Yikes, so this is the Apple suit we have to blame for all of the poor design choices in hardware? Does “overseeing hardware on all Apple products” mean he is the finally say in what is or isn’t? Like could he have said no to the horrible camera design in the upcoming versions?
[doublepost=1563809584][/doublepost]
They’re poking fun at the idea that anyone could actually believe it’s a “greater fortune” or provides them any extra “status.” It really doesn’t, and depending on the mindset of the individual poking fun, it may actually make them appear to be the lesser human / bigger loser. Spending $10,000 on an 18k Apple Watch is absurd, and actually (in my opinion only) displays all of the worst traits of humanity. I wouldn’t even want to associate with anyone who purchased one - ever. I already know I’m highly unlikely to enjoy their company just from where their heads are at.
[doublepost=1563809584][/doublepost]
They’re poking fun at the idea that anyone could actually believe it’s a “greater fortune” or provides them any extra “status.” It really doesn’t, and depending on the mindset of the individual poking fun, it may actually make them appear to be the lesser human / bigger loser. Spending $10,000 on an 18k Apple Watch is absurd, and actually (in my opinion only) displays all of the worst traits of humanity. I wouldn’t even want to associate with anyone who purchased one - ever. I already know I’m highly unlikely to enjoy their company just from where their heads are at.
Couldn’t have helped that third-party app load times were so bad and that first-party apps like Maps were basically unusable. I did really enjoy glances and messaging on the original Watch.
Err, the one who wanted AW as a fashion item was Jonny Ive, as as far as I understand it, this gold edition was Cook's way of reaching a compromise so Ive can still be happy that his goal for AW as a fashion statement was reached.
Good thing Ive has left Apple.The future looks bright.
If they sold all the ones they produced, then yes. But reportedly, there were thousands of gold Apple watches that went unsold. They should’ve been made to order.
It's because she's still wearing it doesn't mean it's not obsolete. Anything Apple product that has been declared unsupported is obsolete. SMH!
If they'd made it so the watch portion would slide out of a gold shell I think they would have done better with the ludicrously high price watches. I always get the cheapest watch, and love it.
They were for collectors with too much money. I think, given time, they will be much more valuable. Wish I had one for that reason. I already feel kinda dumb buying the stainless steel model and upgrading it every three years. In the past I would get a new stainless steel mechanical watch for less than that and wear it for 5-6 years. At least this is more useful and has helped me to become more healthy. I pay more for the stainless steel because I prefer the look but it seems so wasteful given the short lifespan.
This is a "Duh" moment for Apple. I'm sorry if others feel differently, but the Apple Watch is an ugly, plain piece of functional hardware. Gussying it up with gold isn't going to make it any less ugly. I have two non-gold watches, but I'm finding myself wearing them less and less. I am gravitating back to my stylish watch collection for anything outside of active wear. I feel Apple really missed the mark on the style side of this device, and it gets more ugly every year that goes by. I bought my son a Huawei watch that looks much classier, and other manufacturers are stepping up styling as well. I can't see many people shelling out $10K for a watch as homely as the Apple Watch.
Because the headline is Clickbait.
[doublepost=1563812641][/doublepost]
Apple didn’t make the gold Watch expecting it to be a big seller. It was basically marketing expense. Oh and having a $10K gold Watch made the $1K SS model look a whole lot more affordable.
Indeed, I'm wearing a day-1 original Apple Watch at this very moment. It's neither as fast, nor as waterproof as the current ones, but it serves its purpose just fine.
The gold watch was a brilliant marketing strategy that paid off.
I’m surprised many still don’t understand that.
I’m surprised many still don’t understand that.
And if it’s obsolete for someone who bought the gold model it’s just as obsolete for someone who bought SS or aluminum. They all shared the same internal hardware. Anyone who could afford a 10K AW obviously doesn’t have concerns financially. And I’m assuming they’re not morons so they’d know the tech would get better with future models. But for basic things like telling time and getting notifications the series 0 watch still functions just fine.
You might be highly unlikely to enjoy their company simply because your wealth or potential lack thereof doesn't even enter their radar.
I don't get your mindset. What is wrong with where their head is at just because they buy a $10k Apple Watch? Its deprecation of value being a wrist-based computer updated every year is not relevant.
The person who buys one could be a great parent and spouse, a respected member of their community, and an overall upstanding human, and you wouldn't want to associate with them because they choose to spend their money on a watch? And you want to talk about who is the lesser human / bigger loser?
...I think you need more things to do with your time than resent people. Try reading a book, it might enrich your life a bit.
Look, I despise the excess of humanity. We do not need to make a lot of the gigantic cars that I cited in the post you quoted, we do not need $10k gold apple watches, we do not need mansions and yachts, yet we still make them.
We also do not need to resent someone simply because of the things they buy. I cannot afford a $10k apple watch, and even if I could, I would not want one; I would rather spend $10k elsewhere if I had it.
Funny how you chalk up other's opinions to feelings, but state your opinion as if it were an absolute truth. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and conventional notions of beauty change over time and from one society to the next.
Round watches are not inherently classier or more beautiful, they're simply using a shape that was dictated by the mechanisms that were most readily available for the first few hundred years of watch design (mechanical analog hands rotating around a central pivot). Having smart watches be round merely makes people uncomfortable with change feel more at ease. They're not inherently prettier, just more familiar.