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Apple will no longer fix the $17,000 gold Apple Watch
- spicymaki 3y agoHonestly, I am not rich enough to be upset about this! If you could comfortably afford a $17,000 Apple Watch, this probably would not bother you either.
- jklinger410 3y agoApple is to servicing their hardware products as Google is to maintaining their software products
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- crgwbr 3y agoThis was a one off first-gen product that was sold almost 9 years ago. How long do you expect them to keep maintaining it? At least no one is attempting to build infrastructure on top of an Apple Watch—that can’t be said about google’s services.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- mrtesthah 3y agoApple’s executives committed themselves to the lunacy of selling effectively disposable electronics housed inside an actual gold case. They knew exactly what they were doing and that decision is exemplar of their overall practice of building hardware that is impractical to maintain in the long run.
- expazl 3y agoI get that the luxury watch crowd will look at this as a failure because they count the time a watch works not in years but generations. But the Apple watch isn't that type of watch, it's a wrist computer. And from my perspective having gotten 8 years of support on a smartwatch that was still one of the early generations for the device type itself is pretty decent. How long would you expect them to keep supporting this?
- dfox 3y agoAnother issue with luxury watch crowd is that they have truly skewed definition of what is meant by “works”. The primary function of a watch is to keep time with reasonable precision, not to be an overengineered piece of mechanical complexity.
- MBCook 3y agoWhich is why the gold never made any sense. The rumor has always been they did it entirely because Johnny Ive wanted to make a fancy gold watch. The writing was on the wall the next year when they dropped gold and there was no way to upgrade it. It was clearly someone’s vanity product. We don’t ever know if they ever sold a single one. Sure celebrities got them, but did anyone ever pay? It’s possible the answer is no. We also don’t know how many they made. It was a laughing stock from day one, even among Apple lovers (like me).
- naravara 3y agoThere are very few generations old watchmakers who are both still around and servicing their vintage pieces. Generally, even if they are, they're charging an arm and a leg because they're going to have to custom machine the parts for you. On rare pieces the labor costs alone are eye watering. It’ll probably be cheaper to just a modern Apple Watch SOC into a vintage edition.
- mahmoudhossam 3y agoGoogle's software rarely makes it beyond 5 years though
- jkubicek 3y agoI doubt this ever mattered, especially to folks like Karl Lagerfeld, who never even set his up (or appears to have charged it). https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/karl-lagerfeld-audemars-piguet-royal-oak-black https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/karl-lagerfeld-audemars-pi...
- demondemidi 3y agoIf I was worth what he is I’d be buying expensive gadgets on a whim every 15 minutes. Then just buy a new house when the current one fills up with said gadgets.
- sgu999 3y agoWell, then I guess we should be happy inequalities prevent one more person from wasting a tremendous amount of rare materials and energy.
- bradleyjg 3y ago[flagged]
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- demondemidi 3y agoI was joking but yes, the waste is sickening. You just gotta laugh at some point. Or at least I gotta laugh at some point.
- fsckboy 3y ago> then just buy a new house when the current one fills up I heard about somebody who has actually done that... but their main interest was porn.
- SahAssar 3y agoThat's mentioned in the article.
- nlunbeck 3y agoI'm curious what the convention is for gold consumer electronics at EoL. Do you bring it into a jeweler and get the gold casing pried off and melted down?
- surfingdino 3y agoUltimate planned obsolescence and an ultimate flex.
- SSLy 3y agoPeople have repurposed gen0/1 AW's into mechanical watches with a bit square-ish case.
- Cockbrand 3y agoI kinda expect a YouTube video to exist of a Chinese hardware hacker transplanting the Watch Series 9 innards into an obsolete gold (or better: ceramic) Apple Watch case.
- twoodfin 3y agoI’m not sure it will beat the S&P 500 or Apple stock, but I’d bet that an OG Apple Watch Edition will hold its value better than the gold you’d melt out of it.
- pleb_nz 3y agoI assume these are solid gold and it can be cast into something useful for many more years?
- worik 3y ago[flagged]
- chongli 3y agoEasy enough to do! Just skip over the Apple articles on your HN front page!
- gorjusborg 3y agoIf you haven't already, I would encourage both of you to read the guidelines of posting here: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Specifically: > Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously; don't cross-examine. Edit out swipes. > Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive. If you have already read them, treat my comment as a reminder to be respectful and try to generate stimulating conversation, not wage battles.
- booleandilemma 3y agoI suppose this is a good opportunity to plug my userscript which lets people filter out HN submissions by title, user, or source: https://github.com/booleandilemma/hn-blacklist https://github.com/booleandilemma/hn-blacklist In this case you would use a filter of: "title:apple".
- worik 3y ago> Easy enough to do! Just skip over the Apple articles on your HN front page! I am an Apple developer, so I would like you all to stop buying Apple and I can get an honest job....
- RcouF1uZ4gsC 3y agoThere’s a story about this newly rich woman who is trying to impress her new friends. “I clean my diamonds with milk, and my rubies with dilute vinegar,…” Finally, she turns to an older lady and asks, what she uses. The older lady just smiles and says that when her jewels get dirty, she just throws them away. The gold Apple Watch is a status overpriced, impractical good for signaling and technological obsolescence is not really something that a person who buys it cares about.
- Rapzid 3y agoI wonder how many people actually purchased them vs gifted from Apple. If I'm a celebrity people are paying me to wear their crap.
- MBCook 3y agoI seriously question if they ever sold a single one. That said the GP’s point is also completely true. No one who bought one (assuming they exist) is mad it fell out support 9 years later. It’s chump change, and if they like Apple Watches they upgraded long ago.
- lovemenot 3y agoThe purpose of these watches has long been served. They introduced Apple Watch as a premium digital watch to the masses, getting free media attention. Celebrity owners would have got a brief sparkle from it. Perhaps also some of Apple's marketing budget too. And they continue to own a legacy item which will have notoriety beyond mere function. Collectors of rare historical firearms presumably don't actually fire them.
- _3u10 3y agoThey do, generally at least before selling it to prove it works, as a working firearm has more value than one than doesn't.
- tarxvf 3y agoNo, they don't. Unfired weapons fetch a premium. For true antiques every time you fire it is another opportunity for it to break. These are not weapons that are valued for "working".
- nitwit005 3y agoFiring an antique firearm decreases the value. It is now used.
- madengr 3y ago[dead]
- lostapathy 3y agoReally depends on the gun to some degree. There’s collectibles that are worth more left alone, especially old stuff pre modern ammunition. But lots of old but not that old stuff its more or less expected you’ll fire it to test it works on receipt.
- nitwit005 3y ago"old but not that old" is essentially saying it's not an antique.
- gerdesj 3y agoI bought a Citizen Eco watch in 2003 for around £120. I still wear it and it still performs all functions correctly. One part of the wristband sports a bit of paperclip for a joint - "jury rigged" by me. The back of the watch has four quadrant shaped solar panels and the have charged the cell for 20 years so far. I run quite a few ntp time sources at sub milli-second and generally better accuracy (at work). My watch is quite decent for drift. It is far better than I actually need for a wrist watch. Now, $17,000 for a thing on your wrist for time telling? Apple wankery involved ... please tell me it ain't so! Quality does not always involve a sodding huge price tag and in this particular case Apple's S&M dept took their eye off the ball and went for a trot around noddy land waving their hands and looking a bit silly.
- addicted 3y agoThere are luxury watches which can easily eclipse $17k. But they basically serve as jewelry. The problem with the Apple Watch is it tried to be that, but it has absolutely no premium value at all. Which is unsurprising considering you can get the same brand, same look, etc with a little less gold for 1/200th the price. Also, it doesn’t help that there is no handcrafted precision work involved with the Apple Watch. It flowed out of the same Chinese assembly line the other $200 Apple Watches did.
- LeoPanthera 3y ago> Now, $17,000 for a thing on your wrist for time telling? Apple wankery involved ... please tell me it ain't so! My gosh. Wait until you discover how much you can spend on luxury watches from the "established" watchmakers. You might want to be sitting down.
- dools 3y ago"It was never clear who the $10,000 to $17,000 18-karat gold Apple Watch was for, beyond celebrities and the ultrarich" Ummm I think it was for celebrities and the ultrarich.
- __loam 3y agoIt is a bit wild that Apple refuses to support this further. At that price you can buy things like Rolexes that will last your entire life.
- MBCook 3y agoApple refused to support it 8 years ago when the Series 2 came out and there was no way to upgrade it. It’s not a special watch. It’s a Series 0 with $16k of gold. We don’t even know if anyone ever bought a single one (as opposed to being given one by Apple/an Apple exec).
- gunapologist99 3y ago> It’s not a special watch. It’s a Series 0 with $16k of gold. In 2015, gold was approximately $1250 per oz. Perhaps someone who has a gold Rolex can correct me, but it seems unlikely that there is more than 3/4 lb (362 grams) of gold in it, even counting the band. That would probably be very tiring to wear.
- __loam 3y agoPrecious metal Rolexes can cost north of $30k
- gunapologist99 3y ago55g (1.940068 oz) of gold, worth approximately $2,425 at spot price in 2015: https://support.apple.com/kb/SP737?locale=en_US https://support.apple.com/kb/SP737?locale=en_US
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- geoelectric 3y agoIf the case is worth anything, you could probably gut it and replace with a standard movement somehow.
- bobbygoodlatte 3y agoReminds me of the Swiss brand H Moser that makes a mechanical wristwatch which looks like an Apple watch That said, it's a custom case & their movement wouldn't slot into an actual Apple watch without a lot of machining. But it would be a cool way to immortalize one of these Series 1 watches https://www.h-moser.com/product/swiss-alp-watch-5324-1205/ https://www.h-moser.com/product/swiss-alp-watch-5324-1205/
- tolmasky 3y agoAnd yet Siri on it remains just as useful.
- gtvwill 3y ago[flagged]
- scarface_74 3y agoReally? The iPhone 5s introduced in 2013 just got a security update earlier this year. How long can you get updates from Android devices?
- bratgpttamer 3y agoI think the 5s (SE?) is an exception to the rule
- scarface_74 3y agoThe iPhone 6 (2014) also got iOS 12.5.7 January of this year. The iPhone 6s (2015) and iPhone 7 (2016) and iPhone 8 and 10 (2017) got its last update September of this year. All of the iPhones released after that runs the latest operating system. The iPads of the same generation get the same upgrades. The 5s was the first 64 bit iPhone.
- quags 3y agoThat’s rough but who’s crying any tears here. Melt it down for the gold or hopefully it was kept in the box unopened to sell in the next 20 years
- mcphage 3y agoHow much are they worth nowadays? Like if I wanted to buy one (second hand, obviously) where would I get it, and how much would it cost?
- nailer 3y agoOnly one entry on Chrono24 for the 18 karat gold model, GBP 6600, so around 8K USD. They might creep higher in a decade or so, like a first gen iPhone has.
- sakex 3y agoWhenever I show my mechanical watches to my colleagues, they ask what's the point. Well, my Rolex and my Hublot are NEVER going to be Obsolete.
- SketchySeaBeast 3y agoDifferent tools with different uses. Sure, your Rolex won't ever be obsolete in what it does but given that no one needs a watch to tell time anymore it's really a symbol of your preferences and where you like to spend your money. It's wrist art.
- gregoriol 3y agoDo you have statistics of usage for Apple or Android watches? do people really use more than time on them? 10% ? 50% more? It would be interesting to have some data because even if people have plenty of other ways to get the time, I believe we still haven't invented a more efficient way that a watch with physical handles.
- SketchySeaBeast 3y agoYou're right, I have no idea. But there are also far more cost effective ways to check the time than a rolex. That was the point I was trying to get across - the rolex won't become obsolete because it's not there to be a watch, it's there to make a statement as a rolex.
- EricE 3y agoI have one that was completely unexpected. My mother loves her apple watch - for apple pay! She doesn't have to fish anything out of her purse. She just double squeezes the watch, taps and pays. If five years ago you would have told me my 70+ year old mother would be a touch less pay enthusiast I would have said you were crazy - yet here we are.
- tzs 3y agoYes and no. Yes, almost no one needs a watch to tell time. I counted the clocks in my house a few years ago, counting anything that displays the time as a "clock" including things such as my microwave oven, my stove, computers, phones, tablets, DVCR, thermostat, TV, etc, and found something like 20. But no, there are still functional reasons to have a watch. I do not want to deal with keeping all the aforementioned clocks actually set to the correct time. Some aren't a problem, such as computers and phones, because they automatically sync to time servers over the net. With a watch I can reduce my clocks to those on my computer, phone, and tablet, and my watch for when I'm not using those, plus any clocks on things that actually need the correct time.
- mronetwo 3y agoso... what did people expect? Also, people who buy 17,000$ Apple Watch have probably moved to a different model long time ago. Is any of that OK? No. It's just not surprising.
- KaiserPro 3y agoPrecisely this. There have been specially expensive editions of the iphone before, and they were chucked on the bonfire of e-waste long before.
- lopis 3y agoI remember once, eons ago, there was a gold plated 3.5 inch android phone that costed a few thousand euros. This was probably iPhone 4 era. It was a mediocre phone, specs wise. I struggled to understand who would ever buy this. Maybe as a prank ultra rich teens would pull on their friends?
- dijit 3y agoThere is a trick the fashion industries (jewellers, clothing manufacturers) pull: Convincing new wealth that they need to flex their wealth as much as possible otherwise people will think they're not wealthy. They do this by presenting an aura of exclusivity to certain products, usually gating it by being expensive and hard to acquire. Trying to suggest to people that "if you buy this: it is a signal that you are wealthy! people will like you more!" New wealth tends to fall for it, especially those that become wealthy quickly like lottery winners. This also disproportionately affects hip hop artists who become famous (or used to). "Flexing wealth" is yet another way that people are trying to extort money from the gullible, but it's effective. Because there are some signals of wealth that rich people could use to distinguish each other, but it's never flexing brands or bling.
- boeingUH60 3y ago> Because there are some signals of wealth that rich people could use to distinguish each other, but it's never flexing brands or bling. Like your name on a college building or prominent museum, or building a 400+ ft superyacht.
- offices 3y agoIn hindsight, that's a massive premium on the value of the gold. It might even have been cheaper to commission your own.
- potmat 3y agoNot even that hard, there are many jewellers who will gold plate an Apple Watch for you: https://quickjewelryrepairs.com/articles/what-you-need-know-gold-plating-apple-watch/ https://quickjewelryrepairs.com/articles/what-you-need-know-... Almost certainly much less than 17k.
- Toutouxc 3y agoTo be fair, the gold Apple Watch was not just gold plated, a substantial part [0] of it was actual 18k gold. [0] https://twitter.com/gak_pdx/status/568310194406469632 https://twitter.com/gak_pdx/status/568310194406469632
- rsynnott 3y agoWow, totally forgot about the Apple Watch that cost as much as a car.
- NoMoreNicksLeft 3y agoSeven years? I've kept my $17,000 car for 15.
- friend_and_foe 3y agoImagine, a technology that a company can tell you is obsolete. Is that even a technology? The wheel isn't obsolete. The coal powered steam engine is, but that's not because someone says so, that's because it's just naturally no longer useful, other things have since been invented that are more useful for it's same purpose. Why not buy technology that's no longer useful to you when you decide that?
- madeofpalk 3y agoIt's a harsh word, but it's a specific term of art for Apple: Apple no longer provides any warranty or replacement parts for it. They could call it Category A, B, C, and D for all it actually matters.
- easeout 3y agoHmm. According to Civ 2, the products of The Wheel have been obsolete since we discovered the secret of Polytheism. https://civilization.fandom.com/wiki/Chariot_(Civ2) https://civilization.fandom.com/wiki/Chariot_(Civ2)
- pxc 3y ago> Is that even a technology? Nope. It's a device. Presumably much of the technology in the now 'obsolete' Apple Watch is still in use in more recent models.
- SketchySeaBeast 3y agoThe first wheel was a solid disc of wood. I don't see many of those running around anymore. Wheels, just like smart watches, are bits of technology that aren't obsolete, but specific iterations are.
- friend_and_foe 3y agoYeah, but it's obsolete because people who use wheels can get better ones and upgrade. That's not the same as a company telling you your hardware is now useless. These devices are services.
- fortran77 3y agoMy digital Casio from 1982 still works fine. So it’s not that it’s “electronic” that makes it obsolete. It’s because the vendor doesn’t care.
- swader999 3y agoSo much for passing it down to my grandchildren and them telling gross war stories about smuggling it out of POW camps.
- m3kw9 3y agoIf you can afford or be stupid enough to pay 17000 for a tech gold watch you wouldn’t care if it went obsolete
- tiborsaas 3y agoTime to install a mechanical movement into them: https://hackaday.com/2023/06/08/apple-invent-the-mechanical-watch/ https://hackaday.com/2023/06/08/apple-invent-the-mechanical-...
- ghusto 3y agoKind of off-topic-but-not: A few years ago I got into watches. I don't know how it happened, but I now have four watches! Have to stop myself buying more, because I can always rationalise it ("well, you were different ones depending on your mood, wardrobe, and the event"). My automatic watch is my favourite. The technology in it is amazing, and it's what, over 100 years old? One watch I got rid of immediately was my first generation Apple watch. I felt it was a completely useless piece of crap.