Is The Gold Apple Watch Band For Celebs Only?
Beyoncé recently wore a gold link Apple Watch at Coachella— but it’s not one of the Apple Watch bracelets available to buy, at least not yet. Elderly Draco Malfoy impersonator Karl Lagerfeld also had his wrist photographed clad in this mysterious gold link Apple Watch.
Two celebrities, one likely upsettingly expensive watch, so many questions: Is Apple making a secret CELEBS ONLY Apple Watch? Or is it using celebrities to hawk an upcoming entry into the super-luxe watch market?
I don’t think Apple’s interested in making one-offs for celebrities, as there seems little profit in that course, even from an advertising perspective. Instead, my guess as to what’s going on here is that Cupertino is essentially field-testing a gold Band prototype that will be made available for the rest of us (well, the rest of them) later on.
Initially, I assumed that Apple Watch Edition was composed of the lightweight, 18-karat-but-not-really “ceramic” gold composite that Apple recently patented. However, published unit weights of the models seem to indicate that Edition’s alloy is actually a more standard affair built with expected quantities of gold in the chassis.
However, a gold link bracelet would be substantially heavier — and more prone to wear — than the gold Apple Watch body itself, so maybe Apple’s looking to introduce its so-called special gold in an upcoming special Band. This would benefit the company in several ways, allowing them to cut material costs while still enjoying 18-karat solid street cred as they charge upwards of an estimated $50,000 or so for the whole shebang. But even if the combo ends up priced at half of that (it won’t), the Band could have the added benefit of keeping Sport prices low as future generations of Apple Watch hit the market in the years to come.
Plus, if fashion moguls and global celebrities approve of Apple’s clever 18-karat gold formulation, Cook and company figure all the other rich people of the world probably will, too. And they’re probably right. While Apple can’t compete with the luxury watch market on craftsmanship, it can compete in the realm of materials science, which — properly advertised (like, say, on the wrists of singers at music festivals) — will undoubtedly be a selling point all its own.