“Apple could soon be a major buyer of gold, according to estimates of how much of the precious metal will be required to produce the 18-carat version of the forthcoming Apple Watch,” M Rochan reports for The International Business Times.
“Bullion dealer GoldCore has estimated that each gold edition of the Apple Watch could contain two ounces of gold, suggesting that Apple could use 746 tonnes of gold per year, or one-third of the total annual global mine supply,” Rochan reports. “The figure is based on estimates that Apple has ordered between five and six million units of smartwatches from its manufacturers, CNBC reported.”
GoldCore’s research director Mark O’Byrne said, ‘In the end it will probably come down to the price. Even at the lower-end [selling price] estimate of $4,000, it’s hard to imagine Apple shifting one million units each month.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Seems rather farfetched to imagine Apple consuming 1/3rd of current world gold production for Apple Watch Edition units, especially if they price that line properly (high), doesn’t it?
Sounds like the making of a gold futures pump and dump. What a crock.
I mean, that’s, what, nearly 24 million ounces of gold?!
And about $30 billion at raw gold price.
Writer is effectively claiming that Apple will sell 10-20 million Apple Watches made with a Gold case.
Not reality. Mere journalistic excess.
This isn’t cool. We’re raping the earth.
What are you, a member of PETM (People for the Ethical Treatment of Minerals)?
So are we supposed to marry it before we mine? If we must, I insist we raise the children as protestant….
True. But it’s certainly not being raped because of Gold. There is far, far more destructive mining going on.
746 tonnes of gold a year and the circled donut will not take off, it will sink right out of sight.
There are 12 ounces in a Troy pound; the unit in which Gold is measured. Still, it would seem the anal-ist based his prediction on total production, not the fraction that would actually purchase the gold version. 😀
OK, then adjusting for my mistake, that would make it 17,904,000 Troy ounces that Apple will allegedly purchase. Per year. Uh huh.
747 tons of gold equals 17,904,000 Troy ounces of gold. At 2 Troy ounces per watch (seems a high estimate) that’s almost 9 million gold watches. 😀
The watch is 18 carat gold not pure gold. So only 1.5 ounces of the 2 ounces is pure gold. That estimate seems really high, must also include the watch band. The innards aren’t gold, just the case. 😀
The gold is not being mixed with copper or other usual alloy material but “low density ceramic” making it MUCH harder to scratch, but at the same time using less gold. How much less is the questions since it is mixed by measured by weight for the 18K, but sold by the volume in the watch. I have yet to see anyone try to calculate out the real amount Apple will use…
And here’s where it gets really crazy. Let’s use the $10,000 per watch that everyone is estimating the price will be. That means Apple will get $90,000,000,000 for those fancy watches alone! That’ll be a pretty good quarter for Apple, eh?
The innards aren’t gold, the back of the case isn’t gold, and according to my reading most gold watches don’t use close to two ounces of gold in the case (and that was before “Apple Gold” with its ceramic particles entered the mix).
Plus a million units a month is more than most luxury marques are known to sell in a year.
So a super crock.
My SWAG is that about 250,000 Gold Apple Edition watches, not 9,000,000, will be sold by years end. We’ll have to wait and see what happens. 😀
Asia’s the wild card. We’re about to find out how many Chinese are now able (and ready) to cough up $4-10,000 for one. There’s still rampant rural poverty and hard work for assembly-line employees, but there’s also a lot of the Western world’s money sloshing around.
And, say, a million buyers would be well less than one out of a thousand residents of the Middle Kingdom (like 0.08% or so). Plus Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Singapore, etc.
Apple would only need 0.03% of that area’s population to sell more than half a million – and another half a million in the West and the rest of the world.
Which I think is not out of the question.
So I peg your 250K as the floor and somewhere around 1M at the top – with a skew towards Asia that skews even more if sales are high.
Looks like that “analyst” will have to reduce his estimate by about 800 tons or so (SWAG.) 😀
…reduce by 600 tons or so… 😀
Each watch will contain 2 oz. of gold???
Another fabricated assumption…
Agreed – but these “Brikked” custom versions will contain up to several carats of diamonds…
http://www.cnbc.com/id/102458902
In related news, levels of methane may have spiked dramatically since the media began reporting of the car.
Historically, methane concentrations in the world’s atmosphere have ranged between 300 and 400 nmol/mol with levels probably reaching between 600 to 700 nmol/mol around election time
Methane levels in the Arctic were measured at 1850 nmol/mol, a level over twice as high as at any time in the 400,000 years prior to the reports of the car.
The ancient alchemists were looking for a way to change lead into gold, looks like the jouranalists conglomerate have been successful at converting gold into methane.
That would really be the wet dream of all gold-bugs.
They’d be Au-struck.
BBBBBBBBBBBSSSSSSSSSSSS
The banks of the world are going to have a fit if that much gold is wanted. They have been renting the gold for years and have rented out several times the total amount in the world according to a documentary that was released a few years ago.
How much Gold in a 18K Gold Rolex? They must sell a fair number of them. I have several friends with them.
According to this link, there’s less than $1K worth of gold in a Rolex President.
http://www.ebay.com/gds/How-Much-Gold-Is-Really-In-A-Rolex-Watch-/10000000001632748/g.html
One post I saw estimates that Rolex sells about 650K watches a year. I presume that, say, 10% are Presidents.
I’m surprised. I thought there were more sold. I also thought there was a little more gold in a Pres. Live and learn. Thx.
The stainless steel Apple Watch is going to be the “luxury” model for most buyers. It looks just as good as the gold models. It has sapphire glass and ceramic back, like the gold model. And it has the most choices for bands, including intricately designed metallic bands made of matching stainless steel. Apple won’t put those bands on the gold Apple Watch. And unless there are gold versions of those bands, which are currently not shown on the Apple Watch web pages and will more than double the gold used for one Apple Watch, the stainless steel Apple Watch is the one that will garner the most attention in a crowd.
I’m getting the black stainless steel watch.
I can’t remember which mob movie it was, but I remember one of the assassins saying … “If I wanted you dead, you’d be dead already.”
Similarly, I’m sure Apple has already procured in advanced purchase agreements all of the gold they might need for whatever projections they made. That’s just the way they roll.
Sounds like whoever wrote this is trying to make money in gold futures
I am waiting for the clams that Apple can’t prove their gold is mined in humane conditions and is a “conflict mineral”
2oz / watch ——-16oz/lb >>>>>>0.125 lbs /watch
2000lb/ton……..6.25^-5tons/watch
746 lbs/ 6.25^-5= 12,0000,000 watches.
I higly doubt apple will sell 12 million gold versions in one year !
More like 100k/year if u ask me …
100,000 watchs x 6.25^-5= 6.25 tons
Aprox 0.2% of world annual production of aprox 2100 tons
Even if they sell 1 million gold watches/year
That would be
2% of world annual gold production ( which is huge imho )
Only 12 ounces in a Troy pound, the unit of measure for gold. I posted this previously. 😀
Thanx,. Nevertheless that wont make a huge differance
2oz = 0.16 troy lb per watch
2679 troy pounds/ tonne
0.16troy lb/ 2679= 6.22^-5 tonnes / watch gold
100,000 watches x 6.22^-5=6.22 tonnes >>>> 0.2% of 2100 tonnes
1000,0000 watches >>>>> 62.2 tonnes. >>>> 2%. Of 2100 tonnes
M Rochan is not worthy of “analyst” in a job title. Too many errors:
1. 12ounces Troy in a pound
2. Innards not gold
3. Back ot gold
4. Watch case (only) of gold (excluding possibility of gold band)
5. 25% (6 carat by weight) of less dense ceramic filler to strengthen case
6. Due to less dense ceramic alloyed with gold, less gold in same volume
The “analyst” did not do his homework. 😀
3. Back not gold
My SWAG is 1/2 once (or less) of gold per watch. At 1/2 oz/watch: 5.2083 Tons/250,000 watches produced. Will have to wait and see the actual weight and units sold. 😀
The analyst assumes 2 oz of gold per watch ….Im assuming this is 2 oz pure gold before the hardening of the gold with ceramics..
See 1 through 6 above. 😀
746 Tons would be somewhere in the $20-25 billion range and that is just raw material price …. While no expert but I doubt Apple will sell say $100 billion or more in a year in JUST the GOLD Watch???
Think this guy carried over a decimal or two that he shouldn’t of!
I struggle to see any mass market for an expensive gold version of the Apple watch. People invest in $2000+ watches as items of jewelry that will be passed down through the generations, as a family heirloom. The value of the watch can even appreciate over time. The Apple watch will have a lifetime of, what, 3 years? Then it will be technically obsolete and its value will plummet. Totally different market. The gold Apple watches will sell only to a few people with a taste in bling and more money than sense…