“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
If true then Apple is making sure that they will have very few customers who will complain about the product, Or is it!! I really am excited to see how the product turns out. I don’t believe it will last for more than 5 years, unless SJ was launching it I really am not sure if Tim Cook is that much of a products man. They can’t even stick to their guns about existing products. Launching ground breaking products is out of their league.
Stranger things have happened, I am really waiting for the product launch and success just like everyone.
If Apple is planning on selling them through boutique counters in high-end department stores, they’ll have to charge a lot to cover the related overhead (small store, premium space cost and relatively low volume). If they don’t that means their sales/square foot, currently the envy of the retail world, will drop like a rock. Good job, Angela. With the margins eaten away in order to serve the 0.1%, the costs to cater to the overlords will be subsidized by the rest of us. Again.
Of course, there could always be the secret room in the back of every Apple store that you can only get into by flashing your black American Express card. How will they keep the overlords from having to breathe the same air as the hoi polloi?
Prediction: The Apple Watch Edition will never be sold in an Apple Store if the price is above $2000.
When the iPhone came out, there was a gold rush to put out cases and keyboards and other complementary devices. Does it seem likely that there is already a race to put out bands for the Apple Watch that will click right in place? Will there not be a bunch of services who will gold plate your sport model?
The only different approach Apple may take with the Apple Watch may be that they will sell upgraded electronics packages every year that may be installed in the expensive cases.
$10k would be absolutely insane pricing. That’s more than the new high-tech ceramic-bodied, platinum-faced Omega Speedmaster coaxial “Grey Side of the Moon” edition moon watch.
A watch is a very personal thing, You will keep your watch with all of your bands, When it comes time to up upgrade every 12-18 months you will go to the apple store where it will take them only about 1 min to loosen the back and remove the module which contains the processor, battery and censors and replace it with the newest and greatest.
I still don’t see the must-have feature (for me). Between bulk, cost, battery life, lack of water-proofing, and fragility/delicacy (all that shiny metal is going to get scratched and banged up, of course), I don’t have any real interest (which is a shame, as I’m a long-time Apple fan).
Not to mention the fact that I and lots of other people over 40 can’t see small things up close all that well, and would find the experience tedious to say the least.
Waiting to see what the user experience is really like.