In my previous post, I speculated that the high end Apple Watch Edition model would be priced between $3,400 and $6,800. This was purely an educated guess. Regardless of the price, the Edition models will certainly set you back a pretty penny.
Serenity Caldwell, writing for iMore:
I understand the justification of replacing an iPhone or a Mac when they’ve become too slow or outdated for their task — at most, I’ve spent $2000-$3000 on such a device, and its cost-per-year averages out to something where I don’t feel wasteful in replacing the machine.
Watches are different. They’re jewelry. They’re as much a fashion accessory as they are a device. And watches can have a long lifespan, if treated properly. Watches have people trained in the art of repair, keeping someone’s $20,000 timepiece from becoming a useless paperweight.
Once Apple jumps into that price point and that industry, should it expect that users will pay $10,000 again 18-30 months down the line to replace their watch? Does the advent of digital mean we’re expected to replace our heirlooms now, rather than pass them down? I really don’t know. Maybe the Edition is truly just meant for those who look at $5000 cost-per-year of ownership as no big deal on their bank account. Companies like Vertu have made a living off those customers; why shouldn’t Apple?
But I’d like to believe Apple is better than that. If they truly want to command the watch industry, they might take another page from watch-makers: repairability.
Read the whole article. Serenity lays out the premise of a replaceable core, an inner working that can be drag and drop replaced. Rather than laying out for a new Apple Watch every few years, is it possible that Apple will make the Apple Watch repairable/upgradeable? A solid idea.
I just don’t see anyway Apple could sell a $10,000+ watch, that’s heavily reliant on internal tech, and not have it upgradable. That’s something you’ll keep for years, and with the way Apple iterates, especially first gen products, it could be obsolete in 18 months with most new apps not running, or running poorly.
An upgradeable watch makes all the sense in the world.
People would easily pay $350 every few years to upgrade the internals.
So much fretting over how Apple will build value and trust into the Apple Watch ownership experience.
Critics/doubters need only to look at Apple’s game tape. Customer “sat” rankings, Apple’s out of warranty (aka “wholly shi*) device replacement stories. It’s all there.
I see this as a logical path as well. It kills many birds with one stone with little or any downside for Apple.
Historical demand for luxury watches should telegraph Apple’s future in this space. Rolex customers often do not stop at just one Rolex, for example.
As for the Apple Watch, perhaps ONLY the Edition will be upgradable. Because there will always be only one first-edition Edition watch, Apple will not curtail demand for the second-edition Edition by offering an upgrade path for the internals of the first-edition Edition (for a reasonable amount of time, of course).
People forget that watch movements also become obsolete over time. The key is that watchmakers will keep servicing them and will keep them running. Apple will do this, without necessarily replacing the internals. They might also have a plan to repurchase outdated Edition models (for the gold) if a customer buys a replacement. With so many fashion/watch executives on the team, they have figured this out.
$350? LOL!
There are only so many people in the world who can afford $20k watches. If Apple offers an upgradable internal, it will be more than $350. Apple would want to properly and repeatedly monetize that 1% of the population.
$350 is a lot of money, sure.
For a smartwatch that you just paid $1,000+, it’s a bargain.
I wish I could do that for my iPhone without paying for a bloated contract.
I agree, since the only difference between the Apple Watch models will be the case materials, and band options. The Gold spot price for 1 troy ounce of 999 fine is currently 1197.40. Barring the hardening process Apple uses being hideously expensive, you can add 3 full ounces of gold for the case and still get the same, if not more of a, margin as the Sport selling the Edition for $4999
The Edition has the same guts as the Sport. The Sport costs $349. It’s not hard to imagine that you could take your Edition into an Apple Store and have its S1 replaced with an S2 for $349.
The non-Sport Apple Watches are going to be priced like other steel and gold watches. If you LOL, then the Sport is obviously the watch for you. There is no shame in that. High-end steel and gold watches are either your thing or they are not. They are not for everybody.
Apple sure made a big deal about how the first generation Apple Watch will have a new S1 modular chip inside that contains all the electronics. The chip has a very odd shape because it is shaped to fit the inside of the Apple Watch casings. It is not hard to imagine an S2 that has the exact same size and shape but just has more transistors on it, and can be dropped into an Apple Watch Edition to upgrade it. And then an S3, S4, S5, etc.
I do not understand why this modular replacement strategy could not be similarly applied to the MacBook Air. The case is a chunk of hewn metal that need not be wasted when the chips are out of date. Since we have arrived at the ‘essential’ shape (11″ or 12″), Why couldn’t I take (send?) it in and have an updated logic board like the watch… So much waste in the consumer electronics space. So much toxicity, so much wasted use of rare earth metals… Apple’s wealth and conveyed concern for the environment put them in a place where their leadership is required.
Good in theory, but you’re assuming the size/shape/architecture of the Apple Watch technology will remain stagnant for the foreseeable future. I don’t. If Apple adds just ONE new component or piece of technology, the entire layout and architecture of the internals must be changed. The board might change shape, the battery layout will change, the size of the device itself will change and get thinner, Apple will obviously be adding more and more sensors (heart rate monitor is clearly just the beginning).
So I don’t see a simple drop-in upgrade program happening. More likely, I see a much-enhanced trade-in program that will drastically reduce the price of a new Apple Watch. But there’s no way Apple designed the product for modular upgrades. Especially with such a tiny device, it requires integration at an even deeper level than on the iPhone. And if you’ve noticed, the layout/architecture of the iPhone is constantly evolving making modularity difficult to achieve with what Apple wants to do design wise.
I would love to see an upgradable watch, but that’s taking away millimetres in every direction from the internals. Something to aspire to, sure, but something delivered in the first revision? I highly, highly doubt it.
As for throwing it away: It’s too bad that $10,000 gold watch is suddenly worth absolutely nothing when v2 comes out. Wait, it’s worth something because of the gold? Maybe someone, somewhere knows what to do about that. Maybe even Apple.