How Cupertino Makes Apple Watch's Superstrong "Apple Gold"

Annalee Newitz and Esther Inglis-Arkell, Gizmodo:

This process is called die-striking, and it’s a common way to increase the hardiness of jewelry. A metal is placed into a mold, and compressed to increase its density and hardness. The process gets its name from the “die,” the heavy, block-like mold used to press the metal into its approximate shape. Note that the shape created probably won’t be its final shape. After the metal is made ready, it’s not unusual for it to be bent into a better shape, or detailed.

From an assembly line standpoint, bending and shaping gold is more difficult and expensive to do than working many other metals, and it most often requires a bit of manual labor to get right. It’s fascinating to see how Apple is using science to its advantage, believing that buyers of Apple Watch will appreciate how the company has gone the extra mile to make its gold harder and more scratch resistant than any other product on the market.

That said, it’s also intriguing exactly how the high luxury target market for Apple Watch Edition — and not just the technologically-oriented Apple faithful — will react to news that Cupertino’s 18K blend may be less dense and offer less actual gold inside than the industry standard. I can see this being a particular issue if that version ends up with a selling price anywhere near the rumored $10,000.

I wonder if Apple’s working on the same sort of advancement (shortcut?) for the platinum Edition…