Linked List: March 8, 2015

Sunday, 8 March 2015

One Last Spitball on Stainless Steel Apple Watch Pricing 

Here are my “final guesses” from last night (for 38/42mm models):

  • Apple Watch Sport (all colors, with Sport Band): $349/399
  • Apple Watch, steel, Sport Band: $749/799
  • Apple Watch, steel, Classic Buckle: $849/899
  • Apple Watch, steel, Milanese Loop: $949/999
  • Apple Watch, steel, Modern Buckle (38mm only): $1199
  • Apple Watch, steel, Leather Loop (42mm only): $1299
  • Apple Watch, steel, Link Bracelet: $1499/1599
  • Apple Watch, space black steel, Link Bracelet: $1899/1999
  • Apple Watch Edition, Sport Band: $7499/7999
  • Apple Watch Edition, Modern Buckle (38mm only): $9999
  • Apple Watch Edition, Classic Buckle (42mm only): $10,999

I’ll stick with those — “final” is final. But here’s a spitball idea that moves the bottom two rungs down a bit:

  • Apple Watch, steel, Sport Band: $649/699
  • Apple Watch, steel, Classic Buckle: $799/849

What occurred to me tonight is that very few people might buy the steel Apple Watches with the rubber Sport Bands. If they wanted that look as their only band, they’d save money and buy a $349 Apple Watch Sport. And the steel ones only come with black and white color choices. The point of the steel Apple Watch with Sport Band is to set a lower number for the “Apple Watch collection starts at $_” figure. People who want a leather or metal band will buy the model that comes equipped with it, because (I think) those bands won’t be available for purchase as accessories. Instead, they’ll buy a Sport Band accessory — in whatever color they want — for, say, $79.

I don’t think Apple will go as low as $549/599 for the steel Apple Watch because they’ll want to capture sufficient value from people who plan to replace the rubber Sport Band with a leather or metal band from a third-party. And to me, $200 is not enough of a difference to establish Apple Watch Sport and Apple Watch as separate collections. Also, with at least a $300 difference between collections, that leaves room for, say, $150 Classic Buckle leather bands as an add-on for Apple Watch Sport to bridge the gap.

Hublot Magic Gold 

Apple isn’t the first watchmaker to expand into custom metallurgy to produce hardened ceramic-blend 18-karat gold. Here’s a video from Hublot explaining their process.

Hublot gold watches sell for $20-50,000 on Amazon. (I went ahead and made that a referral link, just in case any of you are in the mood to drop $40,000 on a watch from Amazon today.)