The Apple Watch, pricing and repairability

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 I understand the justification of replacing an iPhone or a Mac when they’ve become too slow or outdated for their task — at most, I’ve spent $2000-$3000 on such a device, and its cost-per-year averages out to something where I don’t feel wasteful in replacing the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. Every watch enthusiast loves dive watches. 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.