Why not sell case and strap separately?

[Marco123]

I want the 38mm silver steel with blue classic buckle but I cant.
Why did they not follow the iPad and iPhone model and sell the case and strap separately?
I am being forced into purchasing something I don't want.
Would it not have been easier to stock them separately at the stores so customers can buy what they want?

 

[Julien]

(Almost) All watches are sold with a strap. Can you provide any examples of watches sold without a strap?

Also the SS Classic Buckle is in black only so how would this help you?

 

[Piggie]

(Almost) All watches are sold with a strap. Can you provide any examples of watches sold without a strap?

Also the SS Classic Buckle is in black only so how would this help you?

Almost all watches are not small computers with a screen and a fake winder on the side. So you point is meaningless

 

[mattopotamus]

It is an easy way to up-sell consumers. Why not from a business stand point?

I am actually surprised they offer so many stock variations.

 

[bunnicula]

I want the 38mm silver steel with blue classic buckle but I cant.
Why did they not follow the iPad and iPhone model and sell the case and strap separately?
I am being forced into purchasing something I don't want.
Would it not have been easier to stock them separately at the stores so customers can buy what they want?

Because watches need a strap and iPhones and iPads do not require cases.

Also? What blue classic buckle?

 

[Piggie]

I want the 38mm silver steel with blue classic buckle but I cant.
Why did they not follow the iPad and iPhone model and sell the case and strap separately?
I am being forced into purchasing something I don't want.
Would it not have been easier to stock them separately at the stores so customers can buy what they want?

I have been saying this from day 1 as it's the only way of selling that makes sense, of course almost every disagree's

It's moronic in every way to pre-package the same watch with different colour straps at the factory, when you can just ship bodies and straps from the factory seperatly and only bring them together at the final point of sale.

Like you do with almost all other products.

What's more stupid is the scenario will happen that say you want a sports watch with a blue strap, but they don't have any boxed ones with blue straps they have sold out, so you have to buy one that comes pre-packaged with a green strap.
However, they do have "additional straps" for sale seperatly and they do have some in blue. so you have to buy the seperate add on blue strap and the watch boxed with green straps.

Again, utterly moronic way to sell items.

 

[Zxxv]

What happens when you want to sell it but keep the blue classic buckle strap you bought?

 

[bunnicula]

I have been saying this from day 1 as it's the only way of selling that makes sense, of course almost every disagree's

It's moronic in every way to pre-package the same watch with different colour straps at the factory, when you can just ship bodies and straps from the factory seperatly and only bring them together at the final point of sale.

Like you do with almost all other products.

What's more stupid is the scenario will happen that say you want a sports watch with a blue strap, but they don't have any boxed ones with blue straps they have sold out, so you have to buy one that comes pre-packaged with a green strap.
However, they do have "additional straps" for sale seperatly and they do have some in blue. so you have to buy the seperate add on blue strap and the watch boxed with green straps.

Again, utterly moronic way to sell items.

Not for Apple. Sells more straps.

All watches are sold this way.

 

[chicagofan00]

I have been saying this from day 1 as it's the only way of selling that makes sense, of course almost every disagree's

It's moronic in every way to pre-package the same watch with different colour straps at the factory, when you can just ship bodies and straps from the factory seperatly and only bring them together at the final point of sale.

Like you do with almost all other products.

What's more stupid is the scenario will happen that say you want a sports watch with a blue strap, but they don't have any boxed ones with blue straps they have sold out, so you have to buy one that comes pre-packaged with a green strap.
However, they do have "additional straps" for sale seperatly and they do have some in blue. so you have to buy the seperate add on blue strap and the watch boxed with green straps.

Again, utterly moronic way to sell items.

No one says that you have to buy a different one, you can just as easily wait for the one you want to become in stock.

 

[Knowimagination]

I have been saying this from day 1 as it's the only way of selling that makes sense, of course almost every disagree's

It's moronic in every way to pre-package the same watch with different colour straps at the factory, when you can just ship bodies and straps from the factory seperatly and only bring them together at the final point of sale.

Like you do with almost all other products.

What's more stupid is the scenario will happen that say you want a sports watch with a blue strap, but they don't have any boxed ones with blue straps they have sold out, so you have to buy one that comes pre-packaged with a green strap.
However, they do have "additional straps" for sale seperatly and they do have some in blue. so you have to buy the seperate add on blue strap and the watch boxed with green straps.

Again, utterly moronic way to sell items.

The bold part should probably tell you something. It really doesn't make sense to sell something warn on the wrist without the ability to wear it out of the box. If they are sold out of the color you want then wait.. it's that simple really.

 

[Piggie]

The bold part should probably tell you something. It really doesn't make sense to sell something warn on the wrist without the ability to wear it out of the box. If they are sold out of the color you want then wait.. it's that simple really.

I never said that.
I said to hold bodies and straps seperate in-store.
Not to sell a body without a strap.

 

[Knowimagination]

I never said that.
I said to hold bodies and straps seperate in-store.
Not to sell a body without a strap.

That just makes the store logistics worse and also doesn't solve your problem of being sold out of the blue band in your hypothetical scenario. Just because the bands are packaged separately wouldn't help you keep it in stock longer.

 

[JayLenochiniMac]

The only blue classic buckle is found on the Edition model but it's in 42mm and has yellow gold accents.

 

[profmjh]

It would be perfectly possible to sell the body of the watch and the straps separately. The only possible argument to support the fact that Apple is not doing this is the maximisation of profit.

Apple is the largest company in the world. Supermarkets sell tens of thousands of different items simultaneous and seem to be able to manage it. Amazon has an unimaginably large inventory and it seems to cope, too.

Other watches are not sold like this because they are not designed like this.

I've been upsold to the SS with the black sports band (in part) because I couldn't get the silver aluminium with the black sports band. I have no doubt Apple anticipated this and desired this outcome. It has absolutely nothing at all to do with logistics. The idea that Apple couldn't handle the logistics of separate straps and bodies is risible.

 

[Glideslope]

Easy

Margins.

 

[TonyC28]

(Almost) All watches are sold with a strap. Can you provide any examples of watches sold without a strap?

Also the SS Classic Buckle is in black only so how would this help you?

The difference here is the Apple watch is designed specifically to have interchangeable bands.

 

[Piggie]

That just makes the store logistics worse and also doesn't solve your problem of being sold out of the blue band in your hypothetical scenario. Just because the bands are packaged separately wouldn't help you keep it in stock longer.

No you are wrong.
That's why other products are not sold this way, as it's dumb.

You can store, and ship many many more bands seperatly, and just order the colour bands you need more stock of.

You sell a cake with a choice of 4 ribbon colours.
If your cake shop, you have the cakes in the store room, with no ribbons, and you have many hundreds of ribbons in stock as they take up almost no space.

When a customer wants a cake, you ask what colour ribbon they want, then you fit that ribbon to the cake and sell it.

Only a moron who does not understand stock control, would say, ok, the cake factory needs to fit ribbons on at the factory.

So we have to now stock 200 cakes with red ribbons, 200 cakes with yellow ribbons, 200 cakes with blue ribbons and 200 cakes with green ribbons.

that's dumb.

 

[Esexx]

First of all, I do not think Apple is "forcing" the OP to purchase the Apple watch, or anyone for that matter.

I am not saying he is complaining, but if people do not like it for any reason (band type, bracelet or price) just don't purchase it.

 

[JayLenochiniMac]

The difference here is the Apple watch is designed specifically to have interchangeable bands.

Then why not sell all other watches in the world as case only as they all take the standard 22mm straps, meaning they're all pretty much interchangeable.

 

[dannyyankou]

They'll probably do that for the second generation so that people can upgrade their watch without buying a new strap.

 

[TonyC28]

Then why not sell all other watches in the world as case only as they all take the standard 22mm straps, meaning they're all pretty much interchangeable.

Is that seriously your argument? Your defense of all things Apple is getting laughable. All OTHER watches in the world are not sold this way. Apple is doing it differently. I didn't tell them to do that. They decided to do that all by their adult selves. Considering all of the possible Apple watch combinations it isn't so crazy to suggest that buyers choose a watch case and then separately choose a band. That's essentially what we're doing anyway except Apple has pre-selected some of the combinations.

 

[JayLenochiniMac]

They'll probably do that for the second generation so that people can upgrade their watch without buying a new strap.

Not likely. Do any other companies do this?

 

[Brian Y]

No you are wrong.
That's why other products are not sold this way, as it's dumb.

You can store, and ship many many more bands seperatly, and just order the colour bands you need more stock of.

You sell a cake with a choice of 4 ribbon colours.
If your cake shop, you have the cakes in the store room, with no ribbons, and you have many hundreds of ribbons in stock as they take up almost no space.

When a customer wants a cake, you ask what colour ribbon they want, then you fit that ribbon to the cake and sell it.

Only a moron who does not understand stock control, would say, ok, the cake factory needs to fit ribbons on at the factory.

So we have to now stock 200 cakes with red ribbons, 200 cakes with yellow ribbons, 200 cakes with blue ribbons and 200 cakes with green ribbons.

that's dumb.

That might work for a company that handles logistics better than Apple.

Apple doesn't do product "bundles". So you'd have a watch at £269 + a strap at £40. That's not the Apple way of doing things.

Plus, from a product perspective, it makes sense to have product ranges - a cheap range, and a higher range. You'd be pretty pissed off if you wanted to buy a stainless steel, or in fact, a gold watch, but everyone who bought the much cheaper sport had used up the inventory of higher end straps.

It's logical to say that they'll sell many more sports than SS or gold. Say, per 100, 80 are sport, 15 are ss, 5 are gold.

You therefore make 80 sport straps, 15 ss straps, 5 gold straps, plus a few extra. But, say 50% of people buy the sport with a SS strap, that means you have to make extra ss straps to meet this demand, or face people buying a more expensive watch having to buy a cheap plastic strap instead. Who wants that?

By doing that, you're introducing the need to stock far more straps than watches. This results in higher costs:

- Higher production costs, since you're making more but probably selling the same number
- Higher transportation cost (more weight)
- Higher storage costs (more space)
- Higher staffing costs (organising stock at stores, staff required to do counts, etc).

Then there's the extra cardboard and packaging, if every strap comes in an extra box. THEN there's the potential lost sales - "I want a SS watch but I don't want a crappy plastic strap with it".

There's far more to it than just "mating" them at the point of sale.

You really don't have a good grasp of retail store logistics. It works for cases, because you don't *need* to buy a case, and there aren't certain pairings that are not going to work.

 

[JayLenochiniMac]

Is that seriously your argument? Your defense of all things Apple is getting laughable. All OTHER watches in the world are not sold this way. Apple is doing it differently. I didn't tell them to do that. They decided to do that all by their adult selves. Considering all of the possible Apple watch combinations it isn't so crazy to suggest that buyers choose a watch case and then separately choose a band. That's essentially what we're doing anyway except Apple has pre-selected some of the combinations.

The OP says follow the iPhone and iPad model and sell the case entirely separately. You countered an argument that no other watches in the world are sold as case only with the argument that Apple's connectors are interchangeable. Well, many watches take the standard 22mm connectors so they're interchangeable too.

 

[KauaiBruce]

I have never in my life bought a watch and had a choice of bands. Maybe the luxury watches have a choice but I have never heard of any of those that do. I know every time I look at a Rolex you get the band attached to it in the store and that's it!

Did the Swatch have a choice? I doubt it because each Swatch was considered an individual collectable. I HAVE seen some women's watches that had a set of 5 different color leather bands that swapped out but that is still a different issue.

I just don't get it that Apple is giving us more choices than I have ever seen offered and people are complaining that they are not prepackaging every single combination. If this is a deal breaker for some then they really should not buy one or they should just admit they cannot afford to spend $400 on a watch.

I am in the camp of thinking the bands should NOT have been interchangeable between the models. Someone out there is going to put a SS Link on an Aluminum body and it is going to look like crap. BUT, since Apple IS letting you get a leather strap for that less expensive Sport model, stop complaining they are going to let you do that.

AND if you really need the money, just sell your extra band on eBay. Plenty of people will want an extra sport band and will go through the hassle to save $5.