Mass Production of Apple Watch Reportedly Slated for January 2015

[d-klumpp]

Swiss mechanical > Apple Watch

If millions buy an Apple Watch, those people are less likely to buy a Swiss watch. I'm sure that their sales WILL go down. How much remains to be seen.

I disagree.

I will likely purchase Apple Watch. But whatever the functionality of Apple Watch, it will not diminish my hopes to purchase another Swiss mechanical watch. No level of gizmo utility will overcome the beauty some of us see in traditional timepieces. It remains to be seen that Apple Watch is much more than functional redundancy of the iPhone in my pocket, and it will merely complement the fine watch I now wear -- not replace it.

Besides, watches are like pairs of shoes or bicycles: one is not enough.

 

[StyxMaker]

Sounds like it may be ready for a Valentine's Day weekend launch, though maybe Apple would want to avoid a Friday the 13th launch date.

Or, demonstrate they are rational people and launch their product on that day if they want to.

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Mmm I don't know about this. By the time I get finished turning that little dial and finding what I want, I think I could have pulled out my phone, found the app/ pay option and put it back.

I would imagine, if you already have a default credit card designated on your iPhone, all you have to do is hold your watch close to the sensor without messing with it at all.

 

[pithy]

Fail, not.

We will see. The watch is not in the wild yet so we don't really have a good idea as to how it will work in everyday use. We can't talk to people who are using it, we can't see people using it, we can't hold it in our own hands, we can't see what apps are available for it, etc...

I remember when most people wore watches (before cell phones) and my opinion is that overtime we will see more and more people wearing watches again, and it will be because of the Apple watch. They won't all be wearing Apple watches but they will be wearing smart watches. And much like Apple and Android have begun to push out Blackberry and Nokia, traditional watch makers will be forced to retreat even further into the realm of elitist jewelry as they simply can't compete with the modern computerized smart watches.

The watch is the traditional wearable device and will again be so, as the functionality of having body sensors directly connected to your digital data-stream will prove natural and invaluable as we start to realize all of the possibilities associated with it. Along with the traditional ones related to ease of access to critical data.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

If millions buy an Apple Watch, those people are less likely to buy a Swiss watch. I'm sure that their sales WILL go down. How much remains to be seen.

Yes and no. It would impact the low and mid-end watches (sub $800). The president of Swatch Group recently admitted as much in a WSJ article. He is putting some "smart" features in their lower end lines next year to compete. But the Apple Watch will not affect the high end watches though anymore than BMW affects Lambroghini sales. Many owners of expensive watches are actually collectors and have multiple watches so highly probably they'd buy the high end Apple watch just to add to their stable.

 

[StyxMaker]

I never wait for second gen. I love new technology and am always ready to try it. And, I can't think of a time when I've been disappointed, either. So, bring on the Watch - I am ready.

I agree I purchased the first generation iPhone and enjoyed using it right up to the time I bought the 3G and gave the original iPhone to my sister. That iPhone became the first iPhone for three other people before it came back to me and is now setting in a drawer. Apple would, in the long run, have made money on that phone even if they had given it to me free.

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I would be interested in this if... It were more attractive/elegant, as well made but round, thinner, had better battery life. I also wouldn't mind a cheaper version that had a b&w paper white display, (who needs color on a tiny screen, especially in harsh daylight).

I hope they have a grey scale option for the display. I turned that in for both my i5 and mini retina as soon as I installed iOS 8. I'm moderately to severely red/green colorblind and the color choices of some developers made their screens totally unreadable for me. Grey scale option fixes most of this.

 

[bawbac]

It remains to be seen that Apple Watch is much more than functional redundancy of the iPhone in my pocket, and it will merely complement the fine watch I now wear -- not replace it.

Exactly!

So far, all news/leaks point to that the AW is nothing but an extension of the iPhone and the AW can now be used for data mining/tracking your health that can be sent to your health care provider (at your discretion of course... )

 

[bbeagle]

Besides, watches are like pairs of shoes or bicycles: one is not enough.

I only have 1 watch. I wear it everyday - to TELL TIME.

I've had the same watch for the past 10 years. I'll get rid of mine for an Apple Watch.

I have 1 bicycle and 1 pair of shoes, so I don't understand why you think all people have many of those. 1 is plenty. When the 1 wears out, I get another.

 

[isoft7]

iLaugh at this because I have a lot of friends who are quite the Apple fanatics... they've dismissed larger phones for years, but as soon as the iPhone 6 was announced they all had to have it!

...the smart watch concept is the same thing.

When Samsung announced their smart watches all my friends discounted them as stupid and worthless devices.

Then the Apple watch was announced and the excuse train is already rolling down the tracks!

"...uhh, yeah, I'm going to buy it for health. You know, to track my heart rate and stuff."

Just keep tossing that many at Apple, that's all that matters.

 

[StyxMaker]

A Swiss watch at $2,000 is a low end toy. people who like watches spend as much money as sports car collection.

Not everyone who likes watches can afford to spend the equivalent of a sports car for each watch. They will collect the watches they can afford to collect.

 

[pithy]

When Samsung announced their smart watches all my friends discounted them as stupid and worthless devices.

Then the Apple watch was announced and the excuse train is already rolling down the tracks!

"...uhh, yeah, I'm going to buy it for health. You know, to track my heart rate and stuff."

Just keep tossing that many at Apple, that's all that matters.

Well, Samsung's early offerings are truly early versions of the modern smart watch. As is typical of Apple they have taken their time and will probably set the mark for Samsung. If you paid attention, Samsung openly admits to trying to model their smart phones after the iphone. In this case, they don't have a model yet, so I guess it shouldn't be a surprise that they are struggling.

 

[theheadguy]

A Swiss watch at $2,000 is a low end toy. people who like watches spend as much money as sports car collection.

They're both toys.

 

[bobob]

So, the person spending $2000 on a Gold Apple Watch to show off at a party is NOT the same market as a person spending $2000 on a Swiss Watch to show off at a party? Yeah, right.

A person who spent only $2000 on a Swiss watch wouldn't be showing it off at a party, they'd be hiding their head in shame.

What an ignorant and shortsighted view. I'll take a $2000 timeless Swiss watch that will be worth double that (or more) in 20 years to a old piece of unsupported technology that could only measure a heartbeat and won't turn on any longer when the 15th version of the iWatch comes out.

I own a very nice Tag that I paid less than 2k for, and I certainly don't hang my head in shame when I wear it. I take my compliments with a smile on my face, thank you very much.

If you really believe I should be embarrassed for having a nice watch that isn't a Rolex or Panerai, maybe it's you that should be embarrassed for your snobbishness.

Easily one of the DUMBEST comments on MR I've ever seen. "ONLY" $2,000? That's a lot of money for a piece of jewelry (because that's what watches are).

I guess when you have all Panerai and Rolex like yourself you can get delusional... but I wear all my watches with my head up, from G-Shock to Rolex.

I'm sure your budget-priced Swiss watches are entirely adequate and I'm glad to hear that your self esteem is such that you can wear such modest examples of the Swiss watch craft without humiliation.

However, my point still stands.

The person spending $2000 on a gold Apple Watch is buying the top of the line model, whereas the person spending $2000 on a Swiss watch is buying a stainless steel economy model, likely primarily for the self-winding mechanical movement.

They are not the same market at all.

 

[rsocal]

iLaugh at this because I have a lot of friends who are quite the Apple fanatics... they've dismissed larger phones for years, but as soon as the iPhone 6 was announced they all had to have it!

...the smart watch concept is the same thing.

When Samsung announced their smart watches all my friends discounted them as stupid and worthless devices.

Then the Apple watch was announced and the excuse train is already rolling down the tracks!

"...uhh, yeah, I'm going to buy it for health. You know, to track my heart rate and stuff."

Just keep tossing that many at Apple, that's all that matters.

When Samsung came out their watch, I thought it was cool and I like the Pebble. I can't wait for Apple's watch.

I don't know how popular it's going to be, but I do think the health portion benefits will sell a lot them.

Eventually we will see a lot of smart watches, especially the health conscious.

I will try it, but not right when it's released, I think I'll wait for the dust to clear. I'm a big Apple fan but, I want to see a few in the wild first and get some feedback from friends.

 

[cube]

If millions buy an Apple Watch, those people are less likely to buy a Swiss watch. I'm sure that their sales WILL go down. How much remains to be seen.

There's an estimate going around that the Apple watch will impact the Swatch brand sales 10% and the Tissot brand 5%.

Swatch Group's $200 to $500 watches represent 5% of their profit.

The Swatch brand is not even in the top 5 of Switzerland by revenue.

 

[UpperQuadrant]

that makes sense, they have to work out the OS before beginning any of that

They are giving the 3rd party app developers some time to develop apps, so when the hardware gets released, there will be a lot of titles to download, which will make it a more useful product. With the Gear and other smart watches, there isn't much in the 3rd party app development, which is going to further separate the value proposition for the AppleWatch over the other smart watches. It's all about the apps.

It'll be interesting to see what apps will be out there. Obviously, the AppleWatch has a bunch of apps on it, but they aren't really showing what the 3rd parties are up to.

I'm just wondering if Apple's recent hiring of sensor engineers is going to produce additional sensors that are slapped on your wrist and communicate with the watch vs having to constantly buy a new watch every so many years. That's what might make the AppleWatch a long term investment rather than constantly buying a new Watch every couple of years.

In the Health kit, they have blood pressure listed, but I think that just gets the info from a 3rd party blood pressure cuff with built in BlueTooth just like they have those scales that take your weight and body mass information and feed it to your iDevice.

I think the AppleWatch will sell fairly well, but it's not going to be as popular as iPhones themselves, so the estimates of selling between 12 and 15 Million AppleWatches in the first year are probably realistic numbers, still pretty good cash flow due to the pricing.

I just wonder how much they are going to charge for the stainless steel version as that's what I personally have an interest in.

 

[sshambles]

The price of some 'meh' watches out these days, can be in their thousands $2-3+, so I think the Watch will have a bigger dent in the market than many 'meh' commenters are thinking. It looks good, it works well, it'll be huge.

My thoughts are how to update the thing. Via wifi? No plugs or input devices like an iPod or iPhone, so wirelessly it'll have to do.

 

[CairnsRock]

I've read all the posts till now and the one that says it all is..

Meh.

 

[telefono]

You've read every post and the only word that says it all for you is Meh ?
Why would you waste all your time reading every post ?

Can't wait until this Watch is available

 

[imageWIS]

How are people on MacRumors so "meh" about the Watch? I'm betting on *much* more hype and marketing before the actual release/pre-order, so I'll also wager that all the "meh"s we're seeing now will flip soon enough.

Well, I'm a lifelong horologist and I have to tell you, I'm meh about the watch and I was all for the Pebble... I expected A LOT more from Apple.

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Easily one of the DUMBEST comments on MR I've ever seen. "ONLY" $2,000? That's a lot of money for a piece of jewelry (because that's what watches are).

I guess when you have all Panerai and Rolex like yourself you can get delusional... but I wear all my watches with my head up, from G-Shock to Rolex.

No, some watches are works of art, handcrafted in a way that NO Apple watch will ever compare... they also don't target the same market.

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A person who spent only $2000 on a Swiss watch wouldn't be showing it off at a party, they'd be hiding their head in shame.

Are you also this silly in real life or just online?

 

[TurnerMartin]

Valentine's day? Noooo.
I'm leaving the US the day before, and here in Chile is nearly imposible to buy Apple products cuz its price

 

[bigandtasty]

I'll take 4 of them! Wonder how many people are going to get jacked when this thing rolls out.

 

[heeloliver]

Okay but that's only one aspect of mushroom of things the watch will be able to do. It just seems that there will have to be a lot of turning a dial to find what you want when just pulling the phone out of your pocket will be faster.

I think it's a beautiful idea to have the watch but I don't see it streamlining daily tasks as of yet. Maybe when it comes out and I see it, I can see a difference.

I would have to agree. We just simply don't know how easy it'll be to do things on this yet.

 

[Felipefiq]

No, but no thanks! If I wanted a watch with a horrid design I could pay way less for a big variety of watches in Paraguay! When I buy a new watch I'll go with Switzerland!

 

[jouster]

I only have 1 watch. I wear it everyday - to TELL TIME.

I've had the same watch for the past 10 years. I'll get rid of mine for an Apple Watch.

I have 1 bicycle and 1 pair of shoes, so I don't understand why you think all people have many of those. 1 is plenty. When the 1 wears out, I get another.

One pair of shoes is plenty? How does that work in summer? When you wear a suit? At the gym?

Yes and no. It would impact the low and mid-end watches (sub $800). The president of Swatch Group recently admitted as much in a WSJ article. He is putting some "smart" features in their lower end lines next year to compete. But the Apple Watch will not affect the high end watches though anymore than BMW affects Lambroghini sales. Many owners of expensive watches are actually collectors and have multiple watches so highly probably they'd buy the high end Apple watch just to add to their stable.

Yes - wasn't it Bentley or some other high-end car company that produced research showing that the average Bentley buyer already owned four cars? High end watch makers will not be affected by the Apple Watch - though many will buy one, I suspect, it won't stop them picking up an IWC as well...

 

[UpperQuadrant]

I only have 1 watch. I wear it everyday - to TELL TIME.

I've had the same watch for the past 10 years. I'll get rid of mine for an Apple Watch.

I have 1 bicycle and 1 pair of shoes, so I don't understand why you think all people have many of those. 1 is plenty. When the 1 wears out, I get another.

You only have 1 pair of shoes? You are the only 1 person that has that, unless you are homeless and can't carry more than 1 pair at a time.

I've gone though the 1 pair of shoes phase and I didn't like it, especially when you wear that one pair of shoes on rainy days and they get wet, it's nice to be able to switch shoes to dry shoes. Same thing with socks. Do you only have one pair of socks and underwear? Yuck. That's kind of disgusting to have only one pair of socks and underwear.

I like having more than 1 pair of shoes depending on other factors. For hot summer days, I like to wear sandals, for colder days I like wearing shoes. If I'm dressing more formal, I like a more formal look, for other activities I might a more informal look, so I have several pairs of shoes. Some people have many watches to wear as they see a watch as a piece of jewelry that changes depending on their attire. If you are wearing a black suit, having a watch with a brown watch band doesn't go well, but a black watchband does. Some like wearing gold watches for a more formal look, and stainless steel for a more informal look. Some people are a little more fashion conscious and some people aren't. Is it bad to be fashion conscious? To those that aren't, they seem to think it's bad, but to those that are fashion conscious say the same thing about people that aren't.

It all depends on the person. For professional bicycle riders, 1 bicycle isn't enough. They typically have many and are always getting better performing every year.

Professional musicians usually have many instruments because they sound different from one another, so guitar players will typically have a collection to choose from, etc.

Living in a world with only 1 of everything doesn't always work out, even though some are forced to live like that, they don't typically prefer to live like that. So it depends on the person and what's important to them and what they can afford.

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I only have 1 watch. I wear it everyday - to TELL TIME.

I've had the same watch for the past 10 years. I'll get rid of mine for an Apple Watch.

I have 1 bicycle and 1 pair of shoes, so I don't understand why you think all people have many of those. 1 is plenty. When the 1 wears out, I get another.

Do you have only 1 song in your music collection, 1 movie to watch and since your audio system only has 1 speaker, you listen to everything in mono? That would be a boring existence to only listen to 1 song and 1 movie to watch for the rest of your life.

And I assume that you only eat one type of food and only drink 1 type of drink.

Either you are homeless or don't have any money or have a very boring life.