“The Apple Watch Edition might be Apple’s most unusual product in years. Questions abound about the 18-karat gold smartwatch,” Josh Centers reports for TidBITS. “How much will it cost? Will Apple offer an upgrade path for it?”
“But I have a broader question: how will it affect the world’s gold supply?” Centers reports. “The Wall Street Journal has reported that Apple plans to ramp up production of the Apple Watch Edition to over 1 million units per month in its second quarter of production. That’s an unbelievable number of gold watches, especially considering that they could cost as much as $10,000 each. But I’ll never underestimate Apple’s ability to sell lots of an expensive product.”
“For the sake of argument, let’s assume that each Apple Watch Edition contains 2 troy ounces of gold (Apple Spotlight estimates 50–75 grams in the Apple Watch Edition; 2 troy ounces equals 62.2 grams). Now, 18-karat gold is only 75 percent pure, because pure gold is too soft for everyday use, but for easier math, let’s also assume that 75 percent still uses 2 troy ounces of gold. (Even if Apple uses only 1 troy ounce, halving all the numbers below, they’re still huge),” Centers reports. “If Apple makes 1 million Apple Watch Edition units every month, that equals 24 million troy ounces of gold used per year, or roughly 746 metric tons. That’s enough gold to make even a Bond villain blush, but just how much is it? About 2,500 metric tons of gold are mined per year. If Apple uses 746 metric tons every year, we’re talking about 30 percent of the world’s annual gold production.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: That right there is music to Jack and Todd Hoffman’s ears. No guts, no glory!
[Attribution: Cult of Mac. Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]