Starting Price of Edition Watch

[Night Spring]

Here's a ladies 18K yellow gold watch, quartz movement, gold bracelet, and some small diamonds on the case.

Thank you for all the links. I know different people have different tastes, but to me, those all look very ugly, lol.

Do you know how much the diamonds add to the cost?

 

[Night Spring]

Yes, the traditional luxury watchmakers will never be in trouble by the luxury Apple Watch's presence in the market. The rich geeks will have both - the (exotic) rounds traditional luxury timeless pieces and (iconic) squares (for the ages ), luxury Apple Watch masterpieces.

Sure, rich people can afford both, but once they start wearing Apple watch, will they ever want to take it off? Especially if they use the fitness tracking functions. And they aren't going to wear both at once (or maybe they will?). If people do get to the point where they never take off their smartwatch, will that affect the sale of traditional watches?

 

[MeFromHere]

Thank you for all the links. I know different people have different tastes, but to me, those all look very ugly, lol.

Do you know how much the diamonds add to the cost?

I have no idea about the diamonds... but the watch description just says "Diamonds on Case and Bezel". Nothing about the quality of the stones, how they are cut, total carats, carats per stone, etc.

Diamonds have little intrinsic value. They are NOT rare -- the exceptions being large, colorless, flawless stones. Even those are not really rare, but the diamond cartel is very effective at limiting the supply and keeping prices up.

Since theses watch descriptions don't call out anything that would indicate rare or valuable diamonds, we should assume these are dirt cheap. I'd assume the raw material cost of the diamonds is no more than a few percent of the raw material cost of the gold. If I had to guess a number, I'd say Cartier pays no more than $100 for the diamonds on one of these watches.

 

[troop231]

Just wondering why there isn't a Platinum version of the Edition, wouldn't that be nice?

 

[JayLenochiniMac]

Just wondering why there isn't a Platinum version of the Edition, wouldn't that be nice?

Too similar to stainless steel and Apple wants their Edition models to stand out more and scream "I'm exclusive"?

 

[kmj2318]

$999

 

[cleirac]

Sure, rich people can afford both, but once they start wearing Apple watch, will they ever want to take it off? Especially if they use the fitness tracking functions. And they aren't going to wear both at once (or maybe they will?). If people do get to the point where they never take off their smartwatch, will that affect the sale of traditional watches?

I don't think they will wear both at the same time. Some of them have multiple traditional luxury watches and wearing them all at the same is out of the equation. And for some who have already at least one luxury traditional watch and will definitely buy and wear AWE for all it's fitness functions (and geeky informal occasions). For formal occasions, it will be whatever they think is the most stylish on their collection and perfect for the occasion. Maybe no AWE if they want less distractions. And for sure, they will not mind or not bothered at all, if any of their collection will just stay in the drawer forever. As those pieces are just good to have options or as collections.

 

[Armen]

I'm going to take a stab at this and say:

Sport - $349.99

Steel - $449.99

Edition- $999.99

Rubber Bands - $39.00 each
Leather Bands - $49.00 each
Steel Bands - $99.00 each

 

[Cashmonee]

I am beginning to wonder if Apple simply won't say what the Edition costs on stage, unless it is cheaper than what most people think. I mean, think of the slide, the one they throw up when it's price time. Do you really think that slide would read $349 for Watch Sport, $699 (or whatever) for Watch, $9999 for Watch Edition? If they throw out anything north of roughly around $2500, the crowd reaction may not be positive, and could border on negative if it goes real high.

My prediction: Watch Sport $349/$379 for the base sizes. Watch $649/$679. Edition Prices vary.

 

[The Doctor11]

I'll say $3499

 

[douglasf13]

Here's a ladies 18K yellow gold watch, quartz movement, gold bracelet, and some small diamonds on the case. Cartier, which I don't think is at quite the same level as Tag Heuer, Rolex, etc.
http://www.authenticwatches.com/wf9001y7.html
$27,300 list, $21,790 from a gray-market web seller. "Usually ships in 8 weeks", which gives them plenty of time to find an authorized dealer with excess stock going a bit cheap. This is a small watch, only 20mm square. Not a lot of gold here.

The quartz movement is nothing special, I suspect. Hours, minutes, seconds; no complications. I think this is the movement:
http://calibercorner.com/quartz/cartier-caliber-157/

Nearly identical watch in rose gold, $35,000 list, $16,775 gray market. This one is in stock and priced to move! ("Order by noon and wear it the next day!")
http://www.authenticwatches.com/cartier-santos-demoiselle-wf9008z8.html

Here are larger ladies watches (26mm square) from the same seller (still Cartier watches):
http://www.authenticwatches.com/dela.html
There's a white gold quartz watch shown for $53,000 list, $43,470 gray.

Same watch in stainless steel (without little diamonds), $4,900 (but discontinued).

When people say Apple CAN'T price very high, and Gruber is smoking crack, and similar comments seen here in recent weeks, it seems to me the same comments ought to apply to watches like these Cartiers and other low-end luxury names. But the watches exist and people must buy them or the sellers would disappear.

I'm not sure Apple will aim this high. They might. Or they might enjoy selling at lower prices and draining some of the crazy money out of the low-end "luxury" watch market. But it's clear to me that there's plenty of precedent (in the watch business) for prices that seem insane to tech geeks.

Or as Gruber said in September,
"But at the same time, there is room for [Apple Watch] to be disruptively low from the perspective of the traditional watch and jewelry world. There’s a massive pricing umbrella in the luxury watch world, and Apple is aiming to take advantage of it."

The last four paragraphs of Benjamin Clymer's article from September are worth re-reading:
http://www.hodinkee.com/blog/hodinkee-apple-watch-review

Clymer (unlike Gruber) is a watch expert.

FWIW, Cartier is a pretty well known watch maker. Oddly enough, it's their square Tank watches that are probably most well know. I'd consider them generally a notch above Tag, but it depends on the model.

 

[Night Spring]

Any more votes before the announcement Monday?

 

[telefono]

$999

I hope so

 

[papa8706]

If this thing really ends up being 10 grand theres gonna be a lot of dead man walking. Nothing like walking down the street with the most mainstream/recognizable 10 grand strapped on your wrist lol