Apple has remained mum as to its pricing strategy for the three versions of the Apple Watch to be made available next year, only saying that the price will start at $350 for the entry-level version, likely to be the Apple Watch Sport, which features light aluminum and a sweat-resistant band made from a rubbery material.
But jewelry industry experts believe the Apple Watch Edition, which comes with 18-karat yellow gold or rose gold, a sapphire crystal display and Venetian leather for its bands, will cost around $1,200, with other jewelers estimating that Apple's fanciest smartwatch could be priced as much as $10,000.
Watch expert Chad Rickicki of Pittsburgh, Penn. told TechCrunch that an 18-karat gold case that is the size and shape of the Apple Watch could rack up as much as $600 for the raw material. That does not even include the smartwatch's electronic components and the profit margin Apple plans to tack on to the device. All in all, consumers can expect to pay $1,200 for a gold smartwatch, says Rickicki.
However, other jewelers are not as optimistic, saying that we need to understand the materials Apple used for its smartwatch to be able to peg it at a more accurate price. Ariel Adams, founder and editor of watch blog aBlogtoWatch, says Apple adopted watch industry terminology for the Apple Watch. The term "18-karat gold," he says, likely means the watch is made of solid gold, not gold-plated. Otherwise, Apple would have used the term "gold-plated."
The current market price for gold is $1,200 per ounce. If, for example, the Apple Watch weighs two ounces, that is already $2,400 just for the gold. That is not even considering the special process Apple's own metallurgists invented to create gold that is "twice as hard as standard gold." Adams says Apple has cheaper manufacturing centers in China than the facilities used by Swiss-based watchmakers, but gold is gold and it is expensive wherever it is crafted.
Adams also points out that there is also the cost of sapphire glass to contend with, estimating that Apple has to pay around $30 to $40 for the sapphire crystal case of the Edition smart watch. Sapphire manufacturing, Adams says, is a long and expensive process where the crystals are synthetically grown in large chambers and then cut into rectangles that are then laminated. Adams thinks the high-end Apple Watch will not cost anything less than $5,000 and could go up as much as $10,000.
"The Edition is going to be far, far less mass-produced than the steel version," he says. "I think it's going to have a much different type of distribution. It'll be a much more exclusive product."
