Is selling Apple gold watch edition a good strategy

Apart from telling the time, like all traditional watches do, the Apple Watch can pick up phone calls, send texts, play games, record health data, and remind about all kinds of things. You can also use it pay for supermarkets or malls, and open hotel doors. For women, you can use it to keep track of your dietary habit to keep your weight. For sports enthusiasts, you can use it to track of exercise habits and build a dashboard to measure your exercise effects.

The Apple Watch has many similarities with other Apple devices such as apps, ISO system, and functions. But there is one thing quite different. Apple unveiled gold watch for more than $10,000. Unlike other Apple devices, which can be accepted by masses, Apple gold watch is a kind of luxury product for rich people and loyal Apple fans. But will it work for these two groups of people? I quite doubt it.

For those rich people in the world, let’s think about what they value most when they buy watches. Resale vaule? Legacy? Appearance? Or all of them.

Compared to Rolex and Omega, it is more difficult for Apple watch to hold on its value after 10 years or longer because it is more frequent for smart-watch to upgrade. Give your children a Rolex watch today, and it may has more value 20 years later because of its classic design or vintage. But if you leave your children an Apple watch today, it will become an out of date electronic trash. Watch valuations are not just about technology, but also about how watches are constructed, how prestigious the brand is, and how good and classic they look. It’s hard for Apple Watch to reach to all these valuations that rich people treat most important.

Although Apple is the most respected and successful company today, its legacy cannot compete with those legendary Swiss watchmaking companies. You may say that Apple Watch is a smart-watch and does not have too much overlap with these Swiss watches. But its gold watch edition push it into the industry to compete with luxury watch brands. Though Apple is trying to leverage its reputation as a high-end technology company to sell the luxury watch, it is not enough to persuade people to buy a $10,000 smart watch.

Apple is the most popular smart phone, tablet and laptop seller in the world because people dig the exclusive design, or because people are too lazy to learn a new system, or because people around you all use Apple device, that’s why Apple can sell millions of device all over the world. But this cannot be the motivation for consumers to buy Apple gold watch. People may buy an aluminum edition or a stainless steel edition instead of the gold one with a more reasonable price. It seems that Apple watch becomes the biggest competitor of Apple gold watch.

For rich people, they may consider Apple gold watch is not worth that price. For Apple loyalists, they may buy other two editions with more reasonable prices. Apple has to find the niche market for its gold watch, and convince this group of people that it is not only a high-end technology watch, but also a luxury cachet.