“For months I’ve been asking friends who might know — or know someone else who might know, or even know someone who knows someone who might know — whether my guess of $5,000 is too high for the Edition starting price,” John Gruber writes for Daring Fireball. “The answer has always been ‘No.’ But the way I’ve been told ‘No’ has given me the uneasy feeling that I’ve been asking the wrong question. I should have been asking if $5,000 is too low.”
“I now think Edition models will start around $10,000 — and, if my hunch is right about bands and bracelets, the upper range could go to $20,000,” Gruber writes. “I walked out of [Apple’s Apple Watch event] under the assumption that all of these bands would be available to purchase as accessories, like iPhone cases. So that one could, say, buy an Apple Watch Sport with a white sport band, and buy a Milanese Loop or one of the leather bands to make it dressier. I am no longer certain that’s going to be the case. And if it is the case, the non-Sport bands are going to be expensive — in most cases, even more expensive than the Apple Watch Sport itself.”
“I think the spread between these tiers could be significant, ranging from, say, $700 for the entry model with the Sport Band to well over $1,000 for the Link Bracelet,” Gruber writes. “I still think the average for the steel Apple Watch will be around $1,000, but depending on your strap choice, you’ll pay several hundred less or more… Further, I don’t think any of the stainless steel bands will be available for retail purchase. They’ll sell sport bands, which you’ll be able to use on any Apple Watch, but I don’t think any of the nicer bands will be available for retail purchase. Don’t hold your breath for a space black Link Bracelet to put on your $349 Sport model. The nicer bands aren’t accessories that Apple hopes you’ll tack onto your purchase; they’re signifiers of how much you paid for your stainless steel or gold Apple Watch.”
Tons more in the full article – highly recommended – here.
Related articles:
Apple Watch Edition will cost at least $5,000, probably much more – February 19, 2015
Will you pay $4000 or more for the 18-karat gold Apple Watch Edition? – November 5, 2014
Why the Apple Watch can afford to cost thousands of dollars – December 12, 2014
Hmmm, $20,000. I could buy two of them or wait and buy one Apple Car. Decisions, decisions.
Some special editions of the Edition Apple Watch will actually have a removable compartment that unfolds into a subcompact Apple Car, thanks to Apple innovations in 3D printing and origami.
$20,000 for a watch, with much of that price driven by status, doesn’t seem right.
for years, AAPL has argued that its products were not only worth their price, but a bargain, considering all the value added through the ecosystem.
charging $20k for a watch could undermine the hard-won battle of value.
Well, that’s a bit out of my price range. I don’t know if these rumored prices are real or not but there are going to be a lot of people yelling, “Apple products have outrageous prices.” Wow! If Apple can really sell a fair amount of these Edition models I will certainly be impressed. This is not the sort of world I’m used to seeing up close. More power to Apple if they can really attract those high-end consumers.
I believe out of the top 1% in the world who are filthy rich, even 10% of them could buy in the gold Apple watches-
Well…if it happens Globally….
Apple will make tons of money !!
Some super rich people will not buy those Watches from Apple anyway.
They will have some UK jewellery design shop (that currently updates phones) to incrustate it with diamonds or something. 😉
Crabapple says that the shop that top judges go to is called “The Uppercrust!” 🙂
You need a fairly modest income to be in the top 1% in the world.
Buying very expensive watches is likely to be the choice of the top 100th of 1%
And when is Samsung copying the idea and start selling their “smart watches ” in gold . Or according to their usual practice they will sell one golden version to look like the gold Applewatch .
They will go one leg up….
They will make Platinum smart watches and sell for $50,000.00 each….
I bet they make a lot of money…./s
Sure hope Apple has allowed for upgrading the electronics without buying a whole new watch. We know more sensors and faster smaller processors will follow.
Someone was suggesting a tradein option for the edition versions…
Makes sense to me !
May be they will…..
For Gold one’s….give a 50% rebate if you buy another one within 5 years…
Nobody knows…..
How about a pre-owned/refurbished marketplace for those upgrading to Version 2 !
Imho.. No way! 5 to 8k maybe!
But if apple does not make all the bands availible as an accessory one can buy separately …. It will be a huge mistake!!!
It will leave lots of potential sales and money on the table and will creat band counterfeit galore!
I doubt they will do that… It will be idiotic ! Specially with the cool band snapon feature!
Leaving sales on the table and counterfeit products haven’t hurt Apple yet.
What high end brand doesn’t have counterfeits? Anyone who can afford an really expensive item is going to buy the real item anyway.
An old Rolex is still wearable – it will be interesting to see how Apple manage the issue of obsolescence. Rental perhaps… Or perhaps the expensive watches will come with free hardware upgrades…
We’ll see – it’s a bulky watch unless you have a big wrist…
Damn! My limit was $9,999.99!
I guess I’ll have to settle for stainless steel ;-(
Don’t get frustrated!
Lot of us are willing to spare a penny for you!!
Don’t forget tax.
All these pricing guesses are based off of nothing more than rumors and pure speculation, mostly from people who don’t know anything about selling watches.
I doubt Apple is making separate molds for each version of the watch (other than the two screen sizes), and I doubt Apple wants there to be only a few bands to buy. One of the great advertising features for the Watch is how easy it is to switch bands, so Apple would very much like for you to buy many bands, change them frequently, and create styling statements.
Just like with iPhone cases.
Actually John Gruber did talk to people who know a lot about watches and that market.
Easy to switch bands to create an after market. Once you build markets around your product, it gains legitimacy.
2K max. That’s it. The very most expensive combo is $2K.
Not the gold version, no way. The parts alone will be 1.5k at least.
Wow, time really is money!
That’s simply stupid.
Apple’s got the world buzzing in a tizzy again with guesswork and speculation, hahahahah. Priceless!
most of Gruber’s calculations are not correct.
he shows he knows nothing about so many of the factors that go into this pricing.
in his “analysis” he never even gets into important considerations.
18K gold is by definition not “solid gold”.
thickness of the gold plating is just as critical when determining the value of the gold in the watch.
an 18K Patek Phillipe vs. an 18K tech watch: which holds value indefinitely (or until apple deprecates support in 3 years).
a fashion item for the newly (chinese) rich is priced differently than an investment watch.
etc
Gruber knows several Apple employees by their first names.
How many Apple employees do you play poker with?
Should be $6,666.66! 😊
“…the Swiss watch industry is ___ked!”
I don’t think anyone should compare the pricing of other high end watches to the pricing Apple will choose for its higher end models. Apple will have volumes that other watch makers could only dream about. The midrange and edition watches won’t be cheap. But they’re not going to be outrageously priced either. Apple aims to dominate this market.
I just don’t see many people paying $10K – $20K for what is somewhat functionally the same watch that otherwise sells for $349. Sure there may be capacity and other extras, but that’s not going to be enough to push someone into that high of a price.
On the other hand, I do see how a $349 product that is the hot “it” consumer product could have a premium version that offers no additional utility but simply visually stands out and lots of people would pay a couple hundred or up to a couple of thousand for that privilege.
Think of it this way… iPhone have all had 3rd parties willing to gold/diamond encrust them, and we see one new model being offered each year, but we don’t see them actually being used in public… not by the Kardashians or by successful actors, musicians, rock stars, etc…
At some point, the price difference, and $10K-$20K seems well within that range, and no longer are you driving a Mercedes S class, but rather Elvis’s Solid Gold Cadillac. It seems like more money can be made selling the S class.
Really?
People spend tens of thousands of dollars for something that tells them time of day, and yet you can buy a cheap watch for a single dollar.
Name one watch that is exactly the same functionally and has the same internals that has a price range based on frame and band that goes from $349 to $20K.
That’s the problem, and it’s why so few people buy a $10K version of a the exact same iPhone only with gold/diamonds.
LOL at Apple. So in 18 months when a new version is released of the Apple Watch edition it becomes obsolete! What a waste if money and how much I will laugh at people who will buy it. Does the battery last much longer than a day? I hope so for the buyers sake!!
MacPro or a stupid effing watch…
decisions, decisions, decisions.
What a total waste of time.
20K for an Apple Watch is absurd. 18K Gold is what the highest end watch will be made of and not more than 1/16 of an ounce will be used. The prices of the Apple Watch will be $500 to $2500 and they will still make a ton of money. Anything more than that is LUDICROUS. Don’t fall for all this absurd price speculation.
I am going to put all my roulette chips on $350 – $5000, because I don’t see Jon Ive’s designer friends wearing anything less than $5000 and if his friends don’t wear his watch Jony will be sad.
Nobody knows but guessing is fun.
Much as I like John Gruber, this guesstimate is way off in LaLa Land. I won’t hold him to it.
You could always call him on it like he does with his claim chowder to others
John Gruber doesn’t offer any way to comment on posts at his blog.
The obsolescence question is a good one. Already, when I look at the Apple Watch, the thickness looks two or three years from being dialed down.
Watches don’t make radical changes, and they tend to stay around for ten years or more.
This will be interesting…
Well, if Apple doesn’t sell the full range of straps you can bet someone in China will produce knock-off copies that fit ( and from 2 metres distance won’t be distinguishable from the real thing). There will be nothing ‘technical’ that can’t be made to fit.
Apple should sell the range of straps – they cant stop others making after-market straps so they might as well licence them and sell their own.
As for the cost – he might as well throw a dart at the wall – he’s just guessing.
My wife says this is a glorified calculator watch and 20K is a ridiculous figure. “It’s not a Rolex it’s a computer on your wrist.”
Meh. Big deal. I don’t like gold anyway. It looks tacky.