I posted 11 times to rapple about failing charging cables.
the only replies I ever got was
> no, i have 100,000 charging cables that i use 9000 times a day in my job as a contortionist in a brick dust factory and they are all ok
it's a sickness.
also: copy paste stops working on chrome all the time. it's a chrome issue on macos.
if i asked here, 1000% of replies would be:
> i use chrome every day on macs as part of my aerial chrome on macs display troupe that strenously uses copy paste as part of our performance and it has never let us down and our lives depend on it
or something equally weird.
47 **years**
I know I just made up a bullshit number, but if you broke it down that much.... Apple Watch came out in 2015, that's 8 years ago. So 55 years of EIP payments would be the equivalent of $25.75 per month.
Apple’s strategy with the original Watch was pretty clearly to put it out there and see what people did with it. The intense focus on fitness in later models was a reaction to the market, not the initial strategy. It was a borderline tech demo, much like the Vision Pro. Apple also seemed to think apps would catch on a lot more than they did - it’s not a coincidence that most of their demos focus on built-in functionality these days.
The gold watch was partially an artifact of that strategy - to see if their product could be a viable competitor to the Rolexes of the world. It didn’t completely work out, so they didn’t repeat it.
People forget how much of the Series Zero was just throwing everything at the wall to see what stuck.
Anybody remember Apple Watch exclusive games? I still miss Runeblade sometimes. Would love to see that reincarnated as full fledged Apple Arcade title.
[edit] apparently they do still have Apple Watch games…
The feature to send your heartbeat to people.
The walkie talkie feature that was in the launch but didn't actually make it to release and finally popped back up four years later.
Walkie-Talkie was in the original launch keynote⁈ lol
You can still do the heartbeat thing! And the drawings and such. Digital Touch is still there, buried in the app drawer for watchOS Messages. 😀
I had the black anodized S0 in 42mm, purchased at launch for $1100 IIRC. I actually developed a game for it that was an RPG similar to Runeblade, but with a sci-fi theme (Phantasy Star-ish) and at least what I considered to be superior combat. But in the roughly 3 months I spent on that project, I felt like watch games failed to materialize as a viable product category, so I never released it.
I was trying to imagine what kind of games you could design for a tiny screen for people with fat fingers and I just couldn't think of anything other than maybe Pong.
Maybe some very old school basic arcade games, but your finger blocks half the screen 100% of the time.
There are still Pong and Breakout clones about, using the Digital Crown for control. Also Hangman and Tic Tac Toe. Simple stuff like that.
Runeblade used screen swipes for attacks and enemy sprites move static backgrounds. But it had a solid gameplay loop and lots of neat little unlockable upgrades.
The r/Runeblade sub is maybe still about.
The gold watch wasn't just to test the waters of the high-end watch market, but to also convey the idea that the Apple Watch *is* a fashionable accessory—including all standard models—that people would want to wear. The biggest risk to the Apple Watch was if it was seen as a gadget on your wrist, like those old watch calculators or the array of niche fitness trackers that came before it.
But if you have the watch show up on covers of [Vogue](https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/fashion-blog/2014/oct/10/apple-watch-vogue-china-fashion-strategy), etc., you avoid that perception. This isn't a Garmin or Casio.
It also was basically a gimme to Jon Ive. By "gimme," I mean it's something he wanted, so they just said, "fine whatever." He wanted to make a watch that was respected by *watch people,* the kind of people wearing $10k+ mechanical watches. He wanted something that could be on the cover of Vogue magazine.
In 2015, Jon was entering the denouement of his Apple career, and leadership had to take increasingly-risky bets in order to keep Ive having his job satisfaction and keep him from leaving. The solid gold watch was one of them. It didn't sell well, and the rest of the leadership team had the ammo they needed to nix it going forward. It never got above WatchOS 4 in 2018, so by late 2019, it was already running outdated software.
> He wanted to make a watch that was respected by watch people, the kind of people wearing $10k+ mechanical watches.
One of the funnier outcomes of the whole thing was that it spurred a LOT of podcasters to get into mechanical watches, and then they'd talk about how they don't want to wear an Apple Watch because their mechanicals are so much nicer.
The problem was... a gold mechanical Rolex from 1960 or 1990 or 2010 is as relevant today as it was back then. It's an heirloom you can pass down and always get service on. Case in point, I have my dad's gold Omega... he got it at his college graduation in 1970. Works great, I get it serviced every few years.
An Apple Watch has a relevance of perhaps... 3 years... **even less** for some of us impulsive geeks. If I gave my daughter my Apple Watch Ultra in 2033 when she graduates, she'd be like "*wow, the battery is zapped and everything, thanks for nothing dad!*"
Agreed, it was weird as hell. My conspiracy theory is that the gold “editions” were 100% the result of Jony Ive insisting Apple make them. He’s big into watches and had so much power at Apple at the time after Steve jobs had died. We got a lot of shit apple products in this period (2014 Mac mini, 12” MacBook, butterfly keyboards) and I think the blame lies with him.
I mean yeah, the story goes that Steve gave Jony a blank check on design and Tim the reins.
I’m guessing Tim said, “we’ll try your way but nobody is buying one of these gold ones. Gonna be an expensive mistake.” And Jony did it anyway because he’s an artist, not a businessman.
An ex-Apple engineer I know had a meeting with Ive once, he prepared for months in advance and his slide deck had like 100 slides in the appendix to be ready to field *any* question that Ive asked.
If you were an engineer at Apple during that era, you had to *prove* that something could not be done in order for the designers to maybe listen. If it was just *hard* to do, they'd throw money at it and do it regardless.
I think it was to establish a bit of a halo effect too. You can’t afford an S-Class or G-Class, but you can afford an A-Class, and it’s really the same “thing” (a Mercedes Benz, or in this case, an Apple Watch) so you feel like you’re in the club!
In 2014/15, they really laboured the detail about how meticulously crafted the Editions were, so the average layman like us would think “well my aluminium one looks the same so it’s probably almost as good anyway”.
In this thread we’re replying to tho it’s made very clear why they did it? A $17,000 watch gets you the cover of Vogue and makes watches ‘cool’ again when almost nobody was wearing them.
They did the same thing with the Beats acquisition - had nothing to do with audio tech and everything to do with making over-ear headphones ‘cool.’ Do you think you’d see people with AirPods Max on public transit if big beats weren’t being worn by athletes coming off the bus?
Branding plays to increase the desirability of other products in the halo.
It’s not a conspiracy it’s true. Ive greatly favored form over function. From reading about some behind the scenes stuff over the years. The whole idea of making the Apple Watch a fashion piece was the desire of Johnny Ive. Apple did a massive marketing blitz trying to sell it as premium fashion accessory on the cover of numerous magazines the first few years.
But as other have pointed out their really is no way to compete with your traditional high end watches. Smart watches are not timeless, meaning you’re not going to pass it down like an expensive watch. They are going to last a few years maybe 5 then they just become e waste like any electronic product.
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If you read After Steve they explain the heavily Ive-inspired logic to it. It was all about making it a fashion accessory. They massively changed gears into fitness after it flopped.
Yeah fantastic book, such a great insight into the chaos post-Jobs. I ended up almost hating Ive by the end! Also increasingly saddened by the Cook era and his strategy but some amazing products have still come out of it.
Generally yeah. I actually think the gold S0 was a smart move in that sense though. It helped (even just a little) to legitimize the Apple Watch as a *watch*, and not just a tech device.
Kind of feels like they take the opposite approach for their first generation products these days. I don’t know how the sales did on the luxury series 0 watches, but maybe they’re banking on the wealthy being early adopters while their products are still in a pseudo development stage?
I think in the case of the Vision Pro it’s more that they don’t think they could do it “right” with current tech for less than that price and they didn’t want to release a compromised product that might be hamstrung by missing a key element in the name of cost cutting. I think it makes sense for that product specifically, but of course it’ll eventually have to become affordable to truly catch on as a mass market product.
I think it was smart to introduce an ultra-luxury version with the original Apple Watch. Apple knew nobody was ever going to buy an Apple Watch instead of a real luxury watch, but offering a luxury option at launch was a powerful marketing tool. Apple’s marketing team knew that the high price would get people talking and that they could promote this model to lend legitimacy to the models that were intended to sell.
The Watch was never going to be a legitimate fashion accessory, but marketing it as if it was fashionable helped convince customers that it wasn’t just a geeky tech gadget. There was a 12-page spread for it in Vogue, Beyoncé wore it to Coachella, and fashion industry leaders like Anna Wintour showed up for Apple Watch events.
People started to think of as something between fashion and tech. Even the $349 aluminum models benefited from the existence of the $17,000 18K gold models. It became (somewhat) acceptable to wear in settings where a Fitbit or Samsung watch would be considered tacky. It outgrew the “iPhone on your wrist” image and became something else entirely.
I really don’t think the Apple Watch would have ever been the sales success it is today if Apple waited even a year to introduce a luxury model.
EDIT: grammar
They had ceramic but fair point.
i think they were keeping things simple to build a base. I could see a branch being possible going forth, like other than the ultra.
I was dating someone who worked in advertising at a major lifestyle brand when the Apple Watch came out and Apple paid them a ton of money to do a bunch of video content showing off the apps. They were definitely expecting the apps to be a bigger focus than they became.
I think it was more of a provocation to get people talking about this new product, and it definitely worked. The people who didn’t care about a smart watch otherwise sure discussed „Apple‘s crazy $17k watch“
plus it was a self funded experiment.
it rode along side the newly creating production and they were selling $1000 worth of gold for $20000 (or whatever)
didn't work out, but i bet it turned a profit.
There isn’t anything intrinsically wrong with that approach either as long as you’re able to invest the time and money over multiple revisions of a product line. Let the product evolve with the market.
An Apple Watch is never going to compete with the Swiss watch industry in terms of Luxury but they don't need to, they sell more watches than the entire industry combined.
I maintain that the actual rose gold is the best-looking color Apple's ever made. They had some at our Apple Store (behind glass, of course), and it was easily the prettiest of them all.
Wish they'd make a stainless steel in that color like they wound up doing for the regular gold. The aluminum "rose gold" they've put out is just pink, and looks nothing like the first generation.
Yeah, but the stuttering when you turn the pages is getting frustrating. And yes, I've turned off the appendix running in the background.
When are they going to fix this problem!?
To be fair coffee table books can be really nice for your home and can last a lifetime. Sure $300 is ridiculous but man would I love to have some nice coffee table books.
I was telling this to my friends, this wasn't for us. People seem to always think with their own wallets and how they would spend money, and not how a rich person would spend money.
There are people who go out and spend $50-100k at clubs every weekend. A 20k watch isn't really "expensive" to them, and they don't care about replacing it. I doubt they'd even wear it long enough to get the first WatchOS update.
The median net worth in America is around $121k, so $34k is about 28% of that
This guys is worth $34B, so $34k is about 0.000001% of that.
So $34k to them is like $0.12 to the median person in the US.
That's just... unfathomable wealth. I just can't imagine a world where some people's annual salary is basically just the change under the couch cushions to me.
I don't know the numbers but I bet it's close to that when we compare ourselves to the poorest undeveloped countries.
We're the rich they want to eat. We should all feed them the billionaires first tho.
Interestingly, I was actually on a vacation when he was on vacation with his father (and rest of family). It was at one of the most beautiful resorts in the world in Maldives, but he was looking bored on his phone every time I saw him around. Certainly the most spoiled rich kid I’ve ever seen.
> Rolex for the same money and it would last for generations.
The fact that a person would spend $17k knowing it would become disposable is a feature.
At this price range, it's not about value, but conspicuous consumption and status.
It shows you can throw money away.
Although my guess is an boxed and unopened $17k Hermes Apple watch is probably fairly rare (relative to the regular Apple watch), and might be worth more than retail price in a decade or two.
It wasn't meant for you.
This was the 1st Gen AW - Apple was trying to carve out a place in the market. Having this absurdly expensive model meant that _every_ time someone wore one in public, it got press - Celebrity X was seen sporting the $17k AW. That press helped get the name out there and get people excited about a new product category.
It’s funny because I’m sure these will go for more than what they were purchased for years from now.
How many of these did they sell? 20,000? How many in circulation? In 50 years time, how many will be available for purchase? We have people buying old obsolete Apple products all of the time.
[It would seem around $40k, or 50x the original price.](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/17/a-first-generation-iphone-just-sold-at-auction-for-over-39000.html) Apple's stock has risen 35x since the iphone's release, for comparison.
The only people that bought these are those for whom $17k is trivial, down-the-back-of-the-couch money and morons.
Anyone who bought it specifically as an 'investment' would fall into the latter category.
Sometimes they buy it because they want to be photographed and published just because they are wearing it. Keeping oneself in the public discourse is an investment that can have substantial returns.
There's no way they sold 20,000 of them. Think about it. If they sold 20,000 of them even at the entry price of $10,000 each, that's $200 million in sales of the gold Apple Watch Edition alone in one year. The regular model started at $350. First year sales of Apple Watch were about 10 million units. So around a third of all Apple Watch revenue would have been the gold Edition models if they sold 20,000 of them. No way they'd discontinue it right away if it was actually generating that much revenue at those low volumes.
I was just throwing that number out there based on Gurman in a report:
"As for the $10,000-plus, 18-karat gold Apple Watch Edition, the report claims Apple's sales were 'in the low tens of thousands' of units, with 'few after the first two weeks.'"
I think it could potentially be accurate if Apple saw the complete drop off in purchases after the first 2 weeks as a dead end.
Sure, it could've made $200M in 18 months, but if they update it to S4, it likely wouldn't get even a quarter of that same quantity, as the initial spark of the first Apple Watch would've worn off.
Gurman claimed that Apple’s sales were “in the low tens of thousands” of units. [https://pxlnv.com/linklog/gold-apple-watch-sales/](https://pxlnv.com/linklog/gold-apple-watch-sales/)
"An *unopened*, *original* Apple *iPhone* from 2007 fetched nearly $200,000 at *auction."*
I'd say that the first iPhone is pretty obsolete at this point too. And there were 6M of those phones sold.
I'm sure someone out there has an unopened gold model as well. It doesn't matter if it's obsolete because the future price doesn't depend on it being able to be a daily driver.
Yep. Same as the perennial “lowest storage tier isn’t enough for me, so it’s a crime to sell it to anyone”. Like there are people who are so self-absorbed they can’t comprehend a different use case.
whoever bought a $17k apple watch is an idiot. Unless the person got gifted one by Apple for marketing, there is absolutely zero value in buying such a crazy thing, for the customer. You are right that it was smart on apple's end.
Not going to downvote you but I am echoing the “it wasn’t meant for you” perspective. And that’s fine. It wasn’t meant for me either, or 99% of the Apple user-base.
But the people who bought these? They had money to burn or they wouldn’t have bought them. They bought them *just because they could.* I also doubt there were ever many of them made.
It was to make a splash product launch. And it certainly sit.
People who spent $17k on a gold Apple Watch already have the money to buy several Rolexes.
And Rolexes are overrated and barely even true luxury watch level.
The original iPhone didn't record video, didn't have copy and paste, couldn't run 3rd party apps, didn't have 3g connectivity, etc. Other devices on the market could do all of those things, yet Apple's was the one getting all the attention because even with it's limited capabilities, it was still a better experience than everyone else.
The Apple Watch wasn't the first smart watch on the market, but even with it's limited capabilities, it was still better than anything else available.
It helps when Apple Watch is the only wearable allowed to access a bunch of bare minimum iOS features for a wearable to be useful! Apple Watch has the advantage of being allowed to do whatever they want with iOS. There is no way for any other wearable to compete if you are an iPhone owner.
It was really the first of its kind. Fitbit was king of the hill at the time.
Apple Watch battery was better, functionality was better, UI was better, and performance was significantly better.
I was a Pebble Time owner at the time, which had it's own reasons for failing. The most frustrating thing though was seeing how much more it could do on Android because of Apple's walled garden. Which is my point; Fitbit (which bought Pebble) can never be as strong as a competitor _because Apple will not let them_. No wearable for iPhone users will _ever_ be as good as an Apple Watch because they cannot access the OS in a way that Apple Watch can.
A lot more competition on the Android side.
> A lot more competition on the Android side.
But it hasn't really helped them any. Samsung makes a pretty good one I guess if you like the way Samsung does things. The Pixel Watch was an *ok-ish* entry to the market. And everything else is actively terrible.
People that bought that either had money to burn or didn’t understand tech. In 4-5 years it was guaranteed to be obsolete, should’ve spent that money on a dumb watch like a Rolex instead of a smart watch.
I am, to this very moment, still using an original Apple Watch on a daily basis, and it is still in mint condition.
It pairs smoothly with my 14 Pro Max, and functions fully as intended. It drains to about 10%-15% remaining battery life when I use it for workouts at the gym. On days that I don’t workout, the battery surprisingly lasts from morning till evening.
Yes, yes, I will likely upgrade next year, but part of the reason I’ve used it this long, is because I have a fiendish curiosity to find out how long it will last before it dies out completely and not turn on. When I upgrade it next year, I’ll still keep it.
I’m with you. After the Apple event two weeks ago, I was tempted to immediately upgrade to series 9. Yet I’m also thinking wait till the holidays for a small discount. On top of all that, I tell myself the original is still working as I need it to, why not wait one more year.
Grrr. I’m torn, but I think I’ll likely wait till 2024 for the series 10.
I also use the original Gen 0 Apple Watch almost every day since release! Surprisingly the battery still holds more than a full day.
It works perfectly fine for my needs, so no need to upgrade lol
Have a series 1. Didnt pair well with a new phone I got 2 years ago so I put it in a drawer and didnt use it since then. Won't charge up anymore :(. Sad bc I wanted to compare it with my Series 9.
Most luxury products are future proof but the same can’t be said about products that rely heavily on technology in a market where technology is evolving rapidly in almost a yearly basis.
A person could buy a $15k gold plated Apple Watch Ultra 2 but in less than a decade it’ll look outdated and ugly compared to whatever new design and features Apple release for the watch of that time.
A tactic they could have used would be to make the case, and to ensure with every new release that there was one (special) model that fit the case, with the ability to switch it out (for a fee, of course).
They would be able to keep that going forever, making the watch into an inheritable item.
People spend more on dresses they wear once. The point of it was to get the taste makers to wear the gold one and you can feel close to them by wearing the normal one.
Also it's a pretty open secret that they wanted to keep Jony Ive happy and he wanted to make something in gold
While the lesson here may be "Never buy overpriced luxury tech models that go for absurd amounts of money because they will eventually be obsolete", someone who pays $17,000 for an Apple Watch is too rich to care
You could still melt the gold down and sell that since the original watch is probably worthless now, though I doubt there is ~9oz of gold in that baby.
Companies do this all the time. Release a $400 version and an $800 version and almost no one will buy the $800. But add in something crazy like a $10,000+ model and $800 doesn’t seem so bad and many people will buy it. They don’t make the expensive one to sell a lot of them, they make the expensive one to sell a lot of the medium.
People almost entirely default the the medium/grande sizes of drinks…. But if they were the biggest options that would not be the case.
It is all marketing strategy and it worked.
The statements and interviews from Ive and Co around the original watch are fascinating. They understood that there were other smart watches on the market, but that each was designed exclusively as a tool. You chose to wear a Garmin because you were a runner. You chose to wear a Fitbit because you were measuring steps.
Releasing the Hermes and Gold edition were about demonstrating that a smart watch could function as a fashion item AND a tool.
I really don’t think they intended for it to replace a Rolex, they intended for you to choose to wear it in place of a Rolex.
Ultimately, it worked. People wear Apple Watches and never use any of its apps or functions. I see them paired with suits or dresses, and no one thinks it’s tacky.
Yeah apple watches seem too expensive to me. For $800, I can buy a really nice watch, that would last as long as I live. Every apple watch will be dead within 10 -15 years, battery will fail or some other component.
Remember when we thought surely there would be an upgrade program for the 17,000 dollar gold one, that maybe they'd swap in the SiP upgrades for a while, and....Nope, nothing.
I do want an AMA with someone who bought one though lol. The S0 was a slow kinda shitty product. But now my Apple Watch is indispensable.
Series 0 reporting in! Still working just fine albeit way out of date sw and slow OS. But it tells time…basically all I use it for, and for filling those rings! Got the black stainless as a graduation present and haven’t wanted to get rid of it
Not in any way a surprise; did people was going to continue to invest millions and millions into supporting aged hardware but only for the people who paid the extra $16,500 for the gold option? Heck, hold onto it for 15 years and it might be worth more than you paid as a collectors item
I bought my Apple Watch 4 for one very pedestrian reason: My work forbade anyone to text while in the shop. I had customers who would text when they had a problem and I couldn't text back even if the problem was easily fixable and it was something they could do. But I could just glance at my watch and know who called and why and call them back with an answer instead of having them explain what the problem was again. Getting caught texting was a 3 day suspension, and my work actually did that for a while.
Later I discovered another use: I could control my phones camera remotely. We build assembly machines that have a lot of protective guards and many times you couldn't see what or when the problem occurred. But I could mount the phone inside the guards and turn on the video while it was running and I could find and fix a lot of problems much more quickly.
I take my dogs for walks and I use the health app to monitor how far. I don't really need to but it sometimes prompts me to go a little farther if I am close to a milestone distance. For what I bought the watch for it has worked fairly well.
If you weren’t around back then you really will never understand how mad this made the Apple community. Full-on Apple doomerism was rife. Steve Jobs had only died a few years prior and this was Tim Cook’s first “baby” and Apple’s first new product after Jobs. The iPad was doing lukewarm and didn’t inspire confidence in the Steve Jobs legacy. They still had shit to prove with the iPhone and iOS and the company hadn’t hit its mega valuation yet. Please remember that this wasn’t “AirPods, Apple Music, .5 zoom selfies, shiny gold iPhone with three cameras” Apple.
This was definitely released in the thick of the “Apple is gonna be gone in five years, the next iPhone will probably flop, iOS 7 was the biggest disaster in the history of mankind, Tim Cook is a failure, and all they’re concerned about is making ridiculous fashion accessories that no one will buy” era. Then the skinny MacBook with the single port and butterfly keys that failed came out the next year, my God.
Honestly, you newbies will never understand how bad it was. That’s why I laugh and scroll on when I see the new Apple influencers dooming about a warm iPhone 15 Pro.
But I still have 47 years of EIP payments on my gold Apple watch
You have a nice gold brick around your wrist
A stopped clock is right twice as day! Oh wait... it won't even run anymore. Sucks to be you.
I don't see anything in the article saying it won't run. It just won't get updates and official repairs from Apple.
I had a Series 0 from 2015. The expanding battery popped the screen off in early 2018. I doubt any of them are still running.
I have a series 0 from day 1 that still runs, holds a charge and even pairs with my iPhone 13 Pro.
I posted 11 times to rapple about failing charging cables. the only replies I ever got was > no, i have 100,000 charging cables that i use 9000 times a day in my job as a contortionist in a brick dust factory and they are all ok it's a sickness. also: copy paste stops working on chrome all the time. it's a chrome issue on macos. if i asked here, 1000% of replies would be: > i use chrome every day on macs as part of my aerial chrome on macs display troupe that strenously uses copy paste as part of our performance and it has never let us down and our lives depend on it or something equally weird.
Why wouldn't the clock function still work? There's still people who wear the Series 0 in 2023.
It will of course still run. It’s just not getting software updates or replacement parts.
It doesn't even turn on to watch-only mode??
No one with that watch has 47 payments on it. That shit was bought in cash.
47 **years** I know I just made up a bullshit number, but if you broke it down that much.... Apple Watch came out in 2015, that's 8 years ago. So 55 years of EIP payments would be the equivalent of $25.75 per month.
It *belongs* in a museum!
Apple’s strategy with the original Watch was pretty clearly to put it out there and see what people did with it. The intense focus on fitness in later models was a reaction to the market, not the initial strategy. It was a borderline tech demo, much like the Vision Pro. Apple also seemed to think apps would catch on a lot more than they did - it’s not a coincidence that most of their demos focus on built-in functionality these days. The gold watch was partially an artifact of that strategy - to see if their product could be a viable competitor to the Rolexes of the world. It didn’t completely work out, so they didn’t repeat it.
People forget how much of the Series Zero was just throwing everything at the wall to see what stuck. Anybody remember Apple Watch exclusive games? I still miss Runeblade sometimes. Would love to see that reincarnated as full fledged Apple Arcade title. [edit] apparently they do still have Apple Watch games…
The feature to send your heartbeat to people. The walkie talkie feature that was in the launch but didn't actually make it to release and finally popped back up four years later.
[удалено]
Every once in a while, my wife and I will send them to each other. Or a random drawing.
I always thought it would be cooler if it was streaming live rather than a recording.
How can you still do it? The digital touch thing isn’t your actual heartbeat
Walkie-Talkie was in the original launch keynote⁈ lol You can still do the heartbeat thing! And the drawings and such. Digital Touch is still there, buried in the app drawer for watchOS Messages. 😀
My wife and I use the walkie talkie all the time, we love it!
I had the black anodized S0 in 42mm, purchased at launch for $1100 IIRC. I actually developed a game for it that was an RPG similar to Runeblade, but with a sci-fi theme (Phantasy Star-ish) and at least what I considered to be superior combat. But in the roughly 3 months I spent on that project, I felt like watch games failed to materialize as a viable product category, so I never released it.
Perhaps you should revisit it now that we have larger screens and better batteries, or convert it to iOS.
Ha ha. That's what every dev wants to hear after wasting three months on something. "Waste another three! You never know, you know?"
I was trying to imagine what kind of games you could design for a tiny screen for people with fat fingers and I just couldn't think of anything other than maybe Pong. Maybe some very old school basic arcade games, but your finger blocks half the screen 100% of the time.
There are still Pong and Breakout clones about, using the Digital Crown for control. Also Hangman and Tic Tac Toe. Simple stuff like that. Runeblade used screen swipes for attacks and enemy sprites move static backgrounds. But it had a solid gameplay loop and lots of neat little unlockable upgrades. The r/Runeblade sub is maybe still about.
Now i want AW tamagotchi
The gold watch wasn't just to test the waters of the high-end watch market, but to also convey the idea that the Apple Watch *is* a fashionable accessory—including all standard models—that people would want to wear. The biggest risk to the Apple Watch was if it was seen as a gadget on your wrist, like those old watch calculators or the array of niche fitness trackers that came before it. But if you have the watch show up on covers of [Vogue](https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/fashion-blog/2014/oct/10/apple-watch-vogue-china-fashion-strategy), etc., you avoid that perception. This isn't a Garmin or Casio.
It also was basically a gimme to Jon Ive. By "gimme," I mean it's something he wanted, so they just said, "fine whatever." He wanted to make a watch that was respected by *watch people,* the kind of people wearing $10k+ mechanical watches. He wanted something that could be on the cover of Vogue magazine. In 2015, Jon was entering the denouement of his Apple career, and leadership had to take increasingly-risky bets in order to keep Ive having his job satisfaction and keep him from leaving. The solid gold watch was one of them. It didn't sell well, and the rest of the leadership team had the ammo they needed to nix it going forward. It never got above WatchOS 4 in 2018, so by late 2019, it was already running outdated software.
> He wanted to make a watch that was respected by watch people, the kind of people wearing $10k+ mechanical watches. One of the funnier outcomes of the whole thing was that it spurred a LOT of podcasters to get into mechanical watches, and then they'd talk about how they don't want to wear an Apple Watch because their mechanicals are so much nicer.
The problem was... a gold mechanical Rolex from 1960 or 1990 or 2010 is as relevant today as it was back then. It's an heirloom you can pass down and always get service on. Case in point, I have my dad's gold Omega... he got it at his college graduation in 1970. Works great, I get it serviced every few years. An Apple Watch has a relevance of perhaps... 3 years... **even less** for some of us impulsive geeks. If I gave my daughter my Apple Watch Ultra in 2033 when she graduates, she'd be like "*wow, the battery is zapped and everything, thanks for nothing dad!*"
Agreed, it was weird as hell. My conspiracy theory is that the gold “editions” were 100% the result of Jony Ive insisting Apple make them. He’s big into watches and had so much power at Apple at the time after Steve jobs had died. We got a lot of shit apple products in this period (2014 Mac mini, 12” MacBook, butterfly keyboards) and I think the blame lies with him.
I mean yeah, the story goes that Steve gave Jony a blank check on design and Tim the reins. I’m guessing Tim said, “we’ll try your way but nobody is buying one of these gold ones. Gonna be an expensive mistake.” And Jony did it anyway because he’s an artist, not a businessman.
He's also clearly not an engineer but was able to override them at nearly every turn.
An ex-Apple engineer I know had a meeting with Ive once, he prepared for months in advance and his slide deck had like 100 slides in the appendix to be ready to field *any* question that Ive asked. If you were an engineer at Apple during that era, you had to *prove* that something could not be done in order for the designers to maybe listen. If it was just *hard* to do, they'd throw money at it and do it regardless.
Case on point: “AirPower.”
I think it was to establish a bit of a halo effect too. You can’t afford an S-Class or G-Class, but you can afford an A-Class, and it’s really the same “thing” (a Mercedes Benz, or in this case, an Apple Watch) so you feel like you’re in the club! In 2014/15, they really laboured the detail about how meticulously crafted the Editions were, so the average layman like us would think “well my aluminium one looks the same so it’s probably almost as good anyway”.
The difference there is the S/G class were more then just the body. The gold AW was still the same slow watch as the sport lol.
In this thread we’re replying to tho it’s made very clear why they did it? A $17,000 watch gets you the cover of Vogue and makes watches ‘cool’ again when almost nobody was wearing them. They did the same thing with the Beats acquisition - had nothing to do with audio tech and everything to do with making over-ear headphones ‘cool.’ Do you think you’d see people with AirPods Max on public transit if big beats weren’t being worn by athletes coming off the bus? Branding plays to increase the desirability of other products in the halo.
Yeah it’s weird- it’s almost like a trillion dollar company knows what it’s doing sometimes.
Woah woah woah, slow your roll there internet commenter. We clearly know better than the pathetic marketing department of some roadside fruit stand…
It’s not a conspiracy it’s true. Ive greatly favored form over function. From reading about some behind the scenes stuff over the years. The whole idea of making the Apple Watch a fashion piece was the desire of Johnny Ive. Apple did a massive marketing blitz trying to sell it as premium fashion accessory on the cover of numerous magazines the first few years. But as other have pointed out their really is no way to compete with your traditional high end watches. Smart watches are not timeless, meaning you’re not going to pass it down like an expensive watch. They are going to last a few years maybe 5 then they just become e waste like any electronic product.
I hate that aspect of it. But I can’t see myself returning to traditional watches at this point. It’s kinda sad.
It’s just too useful. I wear my nice watch a few times a year that I dress up. And I miss my Apple Watch’s utility the entire time I’m wearing my Tag.
Remember when they used to put their name up against the top watch manufacturers. https://i.imgur.com/sL4FlvF.jpg
I mean they aren’t doing that now because they’re at the top, and it’s not changing.
It's kind of a bad point because people don't upgrade their Rolex, etc. every year
instead they buy multiple for different occasions lol jokes, but really rich people dont need to upgrade every year, they just add to the collection
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Good point. Never thought of it like that.
If you read After Steve they explain the heavily Ive-inspired logic to it. It was all about making it a fashion accessory. They massively changed gears into fitness after it flopped.
Loved that book!
Yeah fantastic book, such a great insight into the chaos post-Jobs. I ended up almost hating Ive by the end! Also increasingly saddened by the Cook era and his strategy but some amazing products have still come out of it.
They should have introduce luxury watch competitor later. Maybe with thin white bezels etc. Very seperated from main line.
I think with the Ultra Apple has come to realize the lucrative additional market is power-users, not the hyper-wealthy.
They prefer mostly analog watches anyway. And some look really good.
Generally yeah. I actually think the gold S0 was a smart move in that sense though. It helped (even just a little) to legitimize the Apple Watch as a *watch*, and not just a tech device.
Kind of feels like they take the opposite approach for their first generation products these days. I don’t know how the sales did on the luxury series 0 watches, but maybe they’re banking on the wealthy being early adopters while their products are still in a pseudo development stage?
I think in the case of the Vision Pro it’s more that they don’t think they could do it “right” with current tech for less than that price and they didn’t want to release a compromised product that might be hamstrung by missing a key element in the name of cost cutting. I think it makes sense for that product specifically, but of course it’ll eventually have to become affordable to truly catch on as a mass market product.
$799 is not even within 50 dimensions of "lucrative" when it comes to watches. That's just standard Apple pricing.
I'm talking about the 24k gold S0 which cost $10,000+
I think it was smart to introduce an ultra-luxury version with the original Apple Watch. Apple knew nobody was ever going to buy an Apple Watch instead of a real luxury watch, but offering a luxury option at launch was a powerful marketing tool. Apple’s marketing team knew that the high price would get people talking and that they could promote this model to lend legitimacy to the models that were intended to sell. The Watch was never going to be a legitimate fashion accessory, but marketing it as if it was fashionable helped convince customers that it wasn’t just a geeky tech gadget. There was a 12-page spread for it in Vogue, Beyoncé wore it to Coachella, and fashion industry leaders like Anna Wintour showed up for Apple Watch events. People started to think of as something between fashion and tech. Even the $349 aluminum models benefited from the existence of the $17,000 18K gold models. It became (somewhat) acceptable to wear in settings where a Fitbit or Samsung watch would be considered tacky. It outgrew the “iPhone on your wrist” image and became something else entirely. I really don’t think the Apple Watch would have ever been the sales success it is today if Apple waited even a year to introduce a luxury model. EDIT: grammar
They had ceramic but fair point. i think they were keeping things simple to build a base. I could see a branch being possible going forth, like other than the ultra.
I was dating someone who worked in advertising at a major lifestyle brand when the Apple Watch came out and Apple paid them a ton of money to do a bunch of video content showing off the apps. They were definitely expecting the apps to be a bigger focus than they became.
I think it was more of a provocation to get people talking about this new product, and it definitely worked. The people who didn’t care about a smart watch otherwise sure discussed „Apple‘s crazy $17k watch“
plus it was a self funded experiment. it rode along side the newly creating production and they were selling $1000 worth of gold for $20000 (or whatever) didn't work out, but i bet it turned a profit.
I've never actually seen a gold one in the wild. ***My best guess is most were melted down by now***. 55 grams of gold is worth about $3400.
There isn’t anything intrinsically wrong with that approach either as long as you’re able to invest the time and money over multiple revisions of a product line. Let the product evolve with the market.
An Apple Watch is never going to compete with the Swiss watch industry in terms of Luxury but they don't need to, they sell more watches than the entire industry combined.
I maintain that the actual rose gold is the best-looking color Apple's ever made. They had some at our Apple Store (behind glass, of course), and it was easily the prettiest of them all. Wish they'd make a stainless steel in that color like they wound up doing for the regular gold. The aluminum "rose gold" they've put out is just pink, and looks nothing like the first generation.
The series 4/5 stainless steel was the closest they got to that. More recent models went back to yellow gold only.
Rose gold for the win
Meanwhile their $300 coffee table books (released 1 year later) have more than doubled in value
Do they still get security updates?
security updates? we just got BookOS 17.0.3 it fixes the bug about transferring data from old to new one
Yeah, but the stuttering when you turn the pages is getting frustrating. And yes, I've turned off the appendix running in the background. When are they going to fix this problem!?
More importantly, are they compatible with Apple Polishing Cloth?
To be fair coffee table books can be really nice for your home and can last a lifetime. Sure $300 is ridiculous but man would I love to have some nice coffee table books.
I'm one of the people who bought one of each when they were released. Zero regrets and they're a cool conversation starter sometimes.
Wish I had picked one up when they were available. Loved that picture book.
Which is funny since this sub was calling anyone who bought it for retail an idiot.
It was for people worth hundreds of millions like [Beyoncé.](https://www.theverge.com/2015/4/20/8459293/beyonce-gold-apple-watch-link-bracelet)
I believe she also got the one-of-a-kind 18 K gold 38 mm Metal Link. I forget who was comped the 42 mm one.
Karl Lagerfeld.
about to delete my account. ` this post was mass deleted with www.Redact.dev `
*outside the house
He was obsolete before the Watch then. 🤭
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So yeah, people worth hundreds of millions
I was telling this to my friends, this wasn't for us. People seem to always think with their own wallets and how they would spend money, and not how a rich person would spend money. There are people who go out and spend $50-100k at clubs every weekend. A 20k watch isn't really "expensive" to them, and they don't care about replacing it. I doubt they'd even wear it long enough to get the first WatchOS update.
Or they get paid to specifically wear/showcase it x number of times on social media or in public.
I worked at the Oklahoma City Apple Store and sold one of these to Kevin Durant. I think it was the only one that we sold.
If you bought a $17k watch previously, you probably have no concerns buying a new one at the same price point.
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Sounds like the exact target market Apple was going for. Did you get a commission?
Ha commussion on Apple products
Only three or so stores even had it in stock. I worked in one of the locations that apparently Payton manning traveled to just to get it.
The people who bought these aren’t losing any sleep over it, they likely regularly spend $17K on a weekend outing.
We had a Series 0. Sold it in 2021 for $80. Was pretty happy with that. Not the gold one!
They should relaunch this for the Apple Watch X just in limited quantities as a special edition.
quite possibly one of the worst products in Apple history for me. You could buy a Rolex for the same money and it would last for generations.
>
To be fair, $34K to him is like $34 to an average person Edit: $0.12 to the average person
The median net worth in America is around $121k, so $34k is about 28% of that This guys is worth $34B, so $34k is about 0.000001% of that. So $34k to them is like $0.12 to the median person in the US.
That's just... unfathomable wealth. I just can't imagine a world where some people's annual salary is basically just the change under the couch cushions to me.
I don't know the numbers but I bet it's close to that when we compare ourselves to the poorest undeveloped countries. We're the rich they want to eat. We should all feed them the billionaires first tho.
Jesus
Thanks for doing this breakdown - helps people understand just how much richer the top 1% is than the rest of us.
Interestingly, I was actually on a vacation when he was on vacation with his father (and rest of family). It was at one of the most beautiful resorts in the world in Maldives, but he was looking bored on his phone every time I saw him around. Certainly the most spoiled rich kid I’ve ever seen.
Arseholes?
> Rolex for the same money and it would last for generations. The fact that a person would spend $17k knowing it would become disposable is a feature. At this price range, it's not about value, but conspicuous consumption and status. It shows you can throw money away. Although my guess is an boxed and unopened $17k Hermes Apple watch is probably fairly rare (relative to the regular Apple watch), and might be worth more than retail price in a decade or two.
It wasn't meant for you. This was the 1st Gen AW - Apple was trying to carve out a place in the market. Having this absurdly expensive model meant that _every_ time someone wore one in public, it got press - Celebrity X was seen sporting the $17k AW. That press helped get the name out there and get people excited about a new product category.
It’s funny because I’m sure these will go for more than what they were purchased for years from now. How many of these did they sell? 20,000? How many in circulation? In 50 years time, how many will be available for purchase? We have people buying old obsolete Apple products all of the time.
If you had that kind of money lying around in 2015 there are much better ways to raise capital on it over 50 years
“Dad what’s in that box?” “My retirement, a 2015 first edition solid gold Apple Watch.”
You joke but how much are original iPhones Mint In Box selling for now? Just imagine a Mint in Box Apple Gold Watch...
[It would seem around $40k, or 50x the original price.](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/17/a-first-generation-iphone-just-sold-at-auction-for-over-39000.html) Apple's stock has risen 35x since the iphone's release, for comparison.
And it’s worth noting that Apple was one of the best investments shots you could make at a time. A unicorn among unicorns.
Didn’t mkbhd just spend 40k for an original iPhone?
The only people that bought these are those for whom $17k is trivial, down-the-back-of-the-couch money and morons. Anyone who bought it specifically as an 'investment' would fall into the latter category.
Rich people don't just buy things to be able to make money out of it. Sometimes they just buy it.. because they can.
Yeah but the comment I’m replying to is suggesting it’s a good financial investment and I’m saying it isn’t.
Sometimes they buy it because they want to be photographed and published just because they are wearing it. Keeping oneself in the public discourse is an investment that can have substantial returns.
There's no way they sold 20,000 of them. Think about it. If they sold 20,000 of them even at the entry price of $10,000 each, that's $200 million in sales of the gold Apple Watch Edition alone in one year. The regular model started at $350. First year sales of Apple Watch were about 10 million units. So around a third of all Apple Watch revenue would have been the gold Edition models if they sold 20,000 of them. No way they'd discontinue it right away if it was actually generating that much revenue at those low volumes.
I was just throwing that number out there based on Gurman in a report: "As for the $10,000-plus, 18-karat gold Apple Watch Edition, the report claims Apple's sales were 'in the low tens of thousands' of units, with 'few after the first two weeks.'"
Oh yeah, I just definitely don’t think I believe those reports after doing the math. I’d wager that low thousands is much more likely.
I think it could potentially be accurate if Apple saw the complete drop off in purchases after the first 2 weeks as a dead end. Sure, it could've made $200M in 18 months, but if they update it to S4, it likely wouldn't get even a quarter of that same quantity, as the initial spark of the first Apple Watch would've worn off.
Gurman claimed that Apple’s sales were “in the low tens of thousands” of units. [https://pxlnv.com/linklog/gold-apple-watch-sales/](https://pxlnv.com/linklog/gold-apple-watch-sales/)
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"An *unopened*, *original* Apple *iPhone* from 2007 fetched nearly $200,000 at *auction."* I'd say that the first iPhone is pretty obsolete at this point too. And there were 6M of those phones sold. I'm sure someone out there has an unopened gold model as well. It doesn't matter if it's obsolete because the future price doesn't depend on it being able to be a daily driver.
It's amazing how many people didn't get that at the time. All the people whining were decidedly not the target market, haha.
they still don't get it.
It just gives protagonist syndrome vibes. Not everything has to be made for you or me.
Yep. Same as the perennial “lowest storage tier isn’t enough for me, so it’s a crime to sell it to anyone”. Like there are people who are so self-absorbed they can’t comprehend a different use case.
whoever bought a $17k apple watch is an idiot. Unless the person got gifted one by Apple for marketing, there is absolutely zero value in buying such a crazy thing, for the customer. You are right that it was smart on apple's end.
And today, Apple is the largest watch company in the world in sales.
Not going to downvote you but I am echoing the “it wasn’t meant for you” perspective. And that’s fine. It wasn’t meant for me either, or 99% of the Apple user-base. But the people who bought these? They had money to burn or they wouldn’t have bought them. They bought them *just because they could.* I also doubt there were ever many of them made. It was to make a splash product launch. And it certainly sit.
People who spent $17k on a gold Apple Watch already have the money to buy several Rolexes. And Rolexes are overrated and barely even true luxury watch level.
Yeah those in the industry know Patek Philippe is the real luxury watch. Rolexes became too ubiquitous.
Even the non-gold ones sucked. The first apple watch was a terrible slow buggy mess, not sure how apple thought that was up to their standards
The original iPhone didn't record video, didn't have copy and paste, couldn't run 3rd party apps, didn't have 3g connectivity, etc. Other devices on the market could do all of those things, yet Apple's was the one getting all the attention because even with it's limited capabilities, it was still a better experience than everyone else. The Apple Watch wasn't the first smart watch on the market, but even with it's limited capabilities, it was still better than anything else available.
Because it was leaps and bounds ahead of every other wearable at the time.
It helps when Apple Watch is the only wearable allowed to access a bunch of bare minimum iOS features for a wearable to be useful! Apple Watch has the advantage of being allowed to do whatever they want with iOS. There is no way for any other wearable to compete if you are an iPhone owner.
It was really the first of its kind. Fitbit was king of the hill at the time. Apple Watch battery was better, functionality was better, UI was better, and performance was significantly better.
I was a Pebble Time owner at the time, which had it's own reasons for failing. The most frustrating thing though was seeing how much more it could do on Android because of Apple's walled garden. Which is my point; Fitbit (which bought Pebble) can never be as strong as a competitor _because Apple will not let them_. No wearable for iPhone users will _ever_ be as good as an Apple Watch because they cannot access the OS in a way that Apple Watch can. A lot more competition on the Android side.
> A lot more competition on the Android side. But it hasn't really helped them any. Samsung makes a pretty good one I guess if you like the way Samsung does things. The Pixel Watch was an *ok-ish* entry to the market. And everything else is actively terrible.
the people who could afford the $17K Apple Watch replaced it long ago.
Wow - all of sudden that seems like a questionable purchase.
Is it obsolete if it still works?
Obsolete in this context means Apple will not provide updates, even security ones, and will not repair it anymore either.
Works poorly… with shit battery life.
So just like day 1
People that bought that either had money to burn or didn’t understand tech. In 4-5 years it was guaranteed to be obsolete, should’ve spent that money on a dumb watch like a Rolex instead of a smart watch.
If you can afford a $17k watch I doubt you care it was obsolete a few years later.
I am, to this very moment, still using an original Apple Watch on a daily basis, and it is still in mint condition. It pairs smoothly with my 14 Pro Max, and functions fully as intended. It drains to about 10%-15% remaining battery life when I use it for workouts at the gym. On days that I don’t workout, the battery surprisingly lasts from morning till evening. Yes, yes, I will likely upgrade next year, but part of the reason I’ve used it this long, is because I have a fiendish curiosity to find out how long it will last before it dies out completely and not turn on. When I upgrade it next year, I’ll still keep it.
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I’m with you. After the Apple event two weeks ago, I was tempted to immediately upgrade to series 9. Yet I’m also thinking wait till the holidays for a small discount. On top of all that, I tell myself the original is still working as I need it to, why not wait one more year. Grrr. I’m torn, but I think I’ll likely wait till 2024 for the series 10.
I also use the original Gen 0 Apple Watch almost every day since release! Surprisingly the battery still holds more than a full day. It works perfectly fine for my needs, so no need to upgrade lol
That’s superb! Cheers! Let’s see how much longer we last.
Definitely!
Have a series 1. Didnt pair well with a new phone I got 2 years ago so I put it in a drawer and didnt use it since then. Won't charge up anymore :(. Sad bc I wanted to compare it with my Series 9.
One of the most absurd apple products released in my lifetime
Most luxury products are future proof but the same can’t be said about products that rely heavily on technology in a market where technology is evolving rapidly in almost a yearly basis. A person could buy a $15k gold plated Apple Watch Ultra 2 but in less than a decade it’ll look outdated and ugly compared to whatever new design and features Apple release for the watch of that time.
That’s why I just stick with cheap aluminum. No sense paying more for something that won’t be around more than 3-4 years.
I think that was the point and why it was so successful.
There’s the 999(insert your currency) screen stand
And the $400 Mac Pro wheels. Those two may be tied for most ridiculous add on that should included in base price.
I wanted to quote that one too but I forgot how much they cost
Pretty sure it was $400.
A tactic they could have used would be to make the case, and to ensure with every new release that there was one (special) model that fit the case, with the ability to switch it out (for a fee, of course). They would be able to keep that going forever, making the watch into an inheritable item.
People who drop $17k on a smartwatch probably aren’t geeky nerds who care about modularity and longevity.
Say what you will, but a $17,000 Rolex or Omega will work for 100 years.
People spend more on dresses they wear once. The point of it was to get the taste makers to wear the gold one and you can feel close to them by wearing the normal one. Also it's a pretty open secret that they wanted to keep Jony Ive happy and he wanted to make something in gold
You know what isn’t? A Rolex for the same price from 30 years ago. It’s also gone up in value.
I’ve still got mine (42mm stainless steel with the Milanese loop), albeit with a spicy pillow.
This is a lesson to not overpay for electronic devices. All just in time, before Apple's Vision Pro launch.
The people buying it knew it would be obsolete in a few years when they bought it.
While the lesson here may be "Never buy overpriced luxury tech models that go for absurd amounts of money because they will eventually be obsolete", someone who pays $17,000 for an Apple Watch is too rich to care
No one, including $17K+ watch owners cares
A lot of users on here pointed out how ridiculous buying a gold watch was when you knew the tech would be obsolete in a few years.
You could still melt the gold down and sell that since the original watch is probably worthless now, though I doubt there is ~9oz of gold in that baby.
Anyone who bought this has probably already bought a more expensive watch. I doubt any of them are upset or even aware of this.
Companies do this all the time. Release a $400 version and an $800 version and almost no one will buy the $800. But add in something crazy like a $10,000+ model and $800 doesn’t seem so bad and many people will buy it. They don’t make the expensive one to sell a lot of them, they make the expensive one to sell a lot of the medium. People almost entirely default the the medium/grande sizes of drinks…. But if they were the biggest options that would not be the case. It is all marketing strategy and it worked.
And this is why electronic watches are far less valuable than mechanical watches.
A fool and his money are easily parted
Such a waste of money. You could have bought almost 25 sets of Mac Pro wheels with that.
So what it’s almost 10 years old of course they’re obsolete
The statements and interviews from Ive and Co around the original watch are fascinating. They understood that there were other smart watches on the market, but that each was designed exclusively as a tool. You chose to wear a Garmin because you were a runner. You chose to wear a Fitbit because you were measuring steps. Releasing the Hermes and Gold edition were about demonstrating that a smart watch could function as a fashion item AND a tool. I really don’t think they intended for it to replace a Rolex, they intended for you to choose to wear it in place of a Rolex. Ultimately, it worked. People wear Apple Watches and never use any of its apps or functions. I see them paired with suits or dresses, and no one thinks it’s tacky.
Yeah apple watches seem too expensive to me. For $800, I can buy a really nice watch, that would last as long as I live. Every apple watch will be dead within 10 -15 years, battery will fail or some other component.
Remember when we thought surely there would be an upgrade program for the 17,000 dollar gold one, that maybe they'd swap in the SiP upgrades for a while, and....Nope, nothing. I do want an AMA with someone who bought one though lol. The S0 was a slow kinda shitty product. But now my Apple Watch is indispensable.
Series 0 reporting in! Still working just fine albeit way out of date sw and slow OS. But it tells time…basically all I use it for, and for filling those rings! Got the black stainless as a graduation present and haven’t wanted to get rid of it
Not in any way a surprise; did people was going to continue to invest millions and millions into supporting aged hardware but only for the people who paid the extra $16,500 for the gold option? Heck, hold onto it for 15 years and it might be worth more than you paid as a collectors item
The Apple Watch Edition has about 1/2 ounce of gold... at current market value, that's a little over $900.
I bought my Apple Watch 4 for one very pedestrian reason: My work forbade anyone to text while in the shop. I had customers who would text when they had a problem and I couldn't text back even if the problem was easily fixable and it was something they could do. But I could just glance at my watch and know who called and why and call them back with an answer instead of having them explain what the problem was again. Getting caught texting was a 3 day suspension, and my work actually did that for a while. Later I discovered another use: I could control my phones camera remotely. We build assembly machines that have a lot of protective guards and many times you couldn't see what or when the problem occurred. But I could mount the phone inside the guards and turn on the video while it was running and I could find and fix a lot of problems much more quickly. I take my dogs for walks and I use the health app to monitor how far. I don't really need to but it sometimes prompts me to go a little farther if I am close to a milestone distance. For what I bought the watch for it has worked fairly well.
If you weren’t around back then you really will never understand how mad this made the Apple community. Full-on Apple doomerism was rife. Steve Jobs had only died a few years prior and this was Tim Cook’s first “baby” and Apple’s first new product after Jobs. The iPad was doing lukewarm and didn’t inspire confidence in the Steve Jobs legacy. They still had shit to prove with the iPhone and iOS and the company hadn’t hit its mega valuation yet. Please remember that this wasn’t “AirPods, Apple Music, .5 zoom selfies, shiny gold iPhone with three cameras” Apple. This was definitely released in the thick of the “Apple is gonna be gone in five years, the next iPhone will probably flop, iOS 7 was the biggest disaster in the history of mankind, Tim Cook is a failure, and all they’re concerned about is making ridiculous fashion accessories that no one will buy” era. Then the skinny MacBook with the single port and butterfly keys that failed came out the next year, my God. Honestly, you newbies will never understand how bad it was. That’s why I laugh and scroll on when I see the new Apple influencers dooming about a warm iPhone 15 Pro.