That's assuming there's no upgrade story to be told at the launch event. I agree it would be a little weird coming from the modern Apple, but I just can't see

That's assuming there's no upgrade story to be told at the launch event. I agree it would be a little weird coming from the modern Apple, but I just can't see a marketing pitch that sells even a "merely" $5,000 device that's functionally equivalent to a $350 one and essentially guaranteed to be obsolete within 5 years. Obviously there's a market that can afford to treat such a luxury as disposable, but that doesn't seem like a large enough market to justify creating the Edition line. They're going to sell these things (at least partially) through upgraded Apple Stores, and presumably those stores will have to offer (possibly off-site) jewelry-like fitting and repair services. How much of an engineering obstacle would it be, really, to guarantee that the next N generations of Watch internals will be able to be retrofitted into the Editions? Probably with a nice markup on the labor, too! After all, if there's one thing they're good at, it's continuous miniaturization. I think it would dramatically expand the market for the high end models. If it extended down to the stainless tier, I'd certainly buy a much more expensive Gen 1 version.