Apple put a price and release date on the Apple Watch on Monday: the device will be retailing at a base of $349 for the aluminum version on April 24, with preorders starting April 10. The base price of the stainless steel version will be $549, and for 18k gold, customers will have to pay a minimum of $10,000. Each version has customization options for different bands that can drive prices up further. Apple also revealed the watch’s battery life of 18 hours.
In Apple’s September event, they showed off the crown for the first time, and previewed some apps that would make use of it. During Monday’s event, Apple demonstrated a new feature of the watch, Glances, which are small previews of running applications that display quickly readable information, and showed off some more apps that would be coming to the watch. Among those apps were Expedia, Uber, Mint, Evernote, Mailbox, and most other third-party apps you’d expect.
Apple is also including functionality for photo viewing apps like Instagram, Facebook, and Photostream, though it’s unclear why anyone would prefer their watch to their phone for such purposes. In so many words, Apple covered the what, but not the why, for their first entry in a rapidly developing market.
The biggest news of the event was the $10K-level gold watch, which Apple is apparently hoping will capture some of the higher-end watch market currently dominated by incumbents like Rolex, whose watches regularly sell for well beyond $10k. The difference between an Apple Watch and a Rolex, however, is that a Rolex might be purchased once, and last for years and years. Great watches are passed down through generations.
The Apple Watch does not have this selling point. It is fundamentally a computer, one whose battery will degrade over time, whose firmware will require updates (and will eventually be too dated to receive updates), and whose processor will be outclassed by the processors of future Apple Watches. Unlike fashion products, technology does not get better with age. No one is walking around with Palm Treos or old HTC Windows Mobile devices as a fashion statement, so will the Apple Watch remain as “in” as Apple is positioning it even one or two years from now? What about when the next generation of watches comes out?
If spending $10,000 on a computer seems silly to most people in general, spending $10,000 on a watch seems ludicrous. It will be interesting to see how Apple will market the gold version of the watch, though the steel and aluminum models will no doubt sell like hotcakes.
For $10,000 you could buy yourself a 18k Rose Gold Audemars Piguet