4 ms·

Take it with a grain of salt, but Jony Ive was quite adamant about why they created a gold watch - They (presumably he, marc newsom, and the rest of the design

Take it with a grain of salt, but Jony Ive was quite adamant about why they created a gold watch - They (presumably he, marc newsom, and the rest of the design team) - love the material. We know they are among the world's greatest experts in building personal electronics out of aluminium, (check), stainless steel is a classic watch material (check) - so why aren't they allowed to build a gold watch just because building things out of gold is awesome? I'm guessing the fact that gold is popular in China (Apple's soon to be largest market), and probably will yield a high gross margin, probably made it straightforward to get Tim to sign off on it - but I really do believe that the initial driver was the desire to work with the material. But, put it in a different perspective - pretend that you are in charge of the Apple Design team for their next generation product, which is meant to be worn, and you want it to be attractive to everyone in the world - what materials would you chose to make a watch out of? I don't know about you, but gold is pretty high up on my list.

hedgew 12y ago
One simple reason for not building gold watches is that we have much cheaper materials that are also superior in every way - except sex appeal. A treatment for schistosomiasis (a common tropical parasitic worm) costs $0.50 per year. So for each gold watch, which costs something like $10000 extra, you could have gotten 20,000 years of parasite-free life for humans. But rather than make this some annoying moralistic lecture, just ask the question: which is more awesome? Spending ten grand on a gold watch? Giving people 20,000 years of medical treatment?
- madeofpalk 12y ago
  So how much medical treatment have you bought for others?
  - coldtea 12y ago
    Also, 20,000 years of medical treatment with 10 grand? Do you meant "free aspirins" when you said "medical treatment"? There's tooth surgery that costs more than 10 grand, for a single person...
    - hedgew 12y ago
      I used schistosomiasis as an example because its effects and treatments have been widely studied. "Research by J-PAL affiliates Michael Kremer and Edward Miguel has shown that school-based deworming is one of the most cost-effective methods of improving school participation." - http://www.povertyactionlab.org/scale-ups/school-based-deworming http://www.povertyactionlab.org/scale-ups/school-based-dewor... "50 cents per child per year for treatment which includes the costs for advocacy, transport, per diems M and E etc etc." - http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/schisto/donate/faq http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/schisto/donate/faq
      - coldtea 12y ago
        Still, that's not 20,000 years of medical treatment. It's doses of a specific drug. And the people buying a 10 grand gold watch also buy tons of similar things: 2K shoes, 5K suits, 20K "modern art" paintings, 5K earings, 10K poker nights, etc...
  - hedgew 12y ago
    Who I am as a person has nothing to do with the argument.
jwilliams 12y ago
The gold-edition watch is made out of gold, but the other products (Macbook, iPhone, iPad) are simply gold-colored. Those offerings are purely for the market rather than love of the material.
lotsofmangos 12y ago
I find gold to be tacky. If we are being silly, I'd much prefer palladium for a watch.
- seanmcdirmid 12y ago
  I've seen a gold stickered Ferrari in Beijing before, that is silly. A gold watch is mellow in comparison.
higherpurpose 12y ago
I think jewelry shows some signs of snobbery ("look at me, I'm wearing precious materials on my body! - Aren't I awesome?"). Looking at my mother's generation, they are still putting a high emphasis on wearing gold and such. But the kids my generations are a lot more interested in "technology". What I mean by that is they'd much rather get an expensive phone than a gold necklace, and brag about that instead. So why isn't an "expensive" $600 phone snobbery? Because it's actually worth the cost in terms of functionality. A $6,000, or $60,000 "gold smartphone" would insinuate just as much snobbery to me, just like a $17,000 Apple Watch does, which is 100% identical in terms of functionality with a $350 one. This is going to become even more laughable when we start mining billions of tons of precious materials from asteroids in a couple of decades and bring them to Earth. I also find it extremely disappointing that Apple wants to turn from a "premium brand" into a "fashion brand". The two worlds couldn't be anymore different. Premium brands implies high quality for a certain premium price. Fashion just means paying $7000 more for a different watch band. I really hate to see Apple going down this trend, because it only means it will eventually start focusing less on the "technical quality" side of its products, and more on the "fashion side" of its products (kind of how Beats uses poor quality headphones and wraps them up in expensive "fashion" packages - which by the way, Apple acquired).
- biokoda 12y ago
  > But the kids my generations are a lot more interested in "technology". What I mean by that is they'd much rather get an expensive phone than a gold necklace, and brag about that instead. You are assuming everyone worldwide from your generation thinks this way. This is a giant unfounded assumption.
raverbashing 12y ago
I'm not sure Gold is the greatest material. It's actually very ductile but not at all resistant "Because of the softness of pure (24k) gold, it is usually alloyed with base metals for use in jewelry, altering its hardness and ductility, melting point, color and other properties." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold#Modern_applications http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold#Modern_applications

hedgew 12y ago

One simple reason for not building gold watches is that we have much cheaper materials that are also superior in every way - except sex appeal. A treatment for schistosomiasis (a common tropical parasitic worm) costs $0.50 per year. So for each gold watch, which costs something like $10000 extra, you could have gotten 20,000 years of parasite-free life for humans. But rather than make this some annoying moralistic lecture, just ask the question: which is more awesome? Spending ten grand on a gold watch? Giving people 20,000 years of medical treatment?

madeofpalk 12y ago
So how much medical treatment have you bought for others?
- coldtea 12y ago
  Also, 20,000 years of medical treatment with 10 grand? Do you meant "free aspirins" when you said "medical treatment"? There's tooth surgery that costs more than 10 grand, for a single person...
  - hedgew 12y ago
    I used schistosomiasis as an example because its effects and treatments have been widely studied. "Research by J-PAL affiliates Michael Kremer and Edward Miguel has shown that school-based deworming is one of the most cost-effective methods of improving school participation." - http://www.povertyactionlab.org/scale-ups/school-based-deworming http://www.povertyactionlab.org/scale-ups/school-based-dewor... "50 cents per child per year for treatment which includes the costs for advocacy, transport, per diems M and E etc etc." - http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/schisto/donate/faq http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/schisto/donate/faq
    - coldtea 12y ago
      Still, that's not 20,000 years of medical treatment. It's doses of a specific drug. And the people buying a 10 grand gold watch also buy tons of similar things: 2K shoes, 5K suits, 20K "modern art" paintings, 5K earings, 10K poker nights, etc...
- hedgew 12y ago
  Who I am as a person has nothing to do with the argument.

jwilliams 12y ago

The gold-edition watch is made out of gold, but the other products (Macbook, iPhone, iPad) are simply gold-colored. Those offerings are purely for the market rather than love of the material.

lotsofmangos 12y ago

I find gold to be tacky. If we are being silly, I'd much prefer palladium for a watch.

seanmcdirmid 12y ago
I've seen a gold stickered Ferrari in Beijing before, that is silly. A gold watch is mellow in comparison.

higherpurpose 12y ago

I think jewelry shows some signs of snobbery ("look at me, I'm wearing precious materials on my body! - Aren't I awesome?"). Looking at my mother's generation, they are still putting a high emphasis on wearing gold and such. But the kids my generations are a lot more interested in "technology". What I mean by that is they'd much rather get an expensive phone than a gold necklace, and brag about that instead. So why isn't an "expensive" $600 phone snobbery? Because it's actually worth the cost in terms of functionality. A $6,000, or $60,000 "gold smartphone" would insinuate just as much snobbery to me, just like a $17,000 Apple Watch does, which is 100% identical in terms of functionality with a $350 one. This is going to become even more laughable when we start mining billions of tons of precious materials from asteroids in a couple of decades and bring them to Earth. I also find it extremely disappointing that Apple wants to turn from a "premium brand" into a "fashion brand". The two worlds couldn't be anymore different. Premium brands implies high quality for a certain premium price. Fashion just means paying $7000 more for a different watch band. I really hate to see Apple going down this trend, because it only means it will eventually start focusing less on the "technical quality" side of its products, and more on the "fashion side" of its products (kind of how Beats uses poor quality headphones and wraps them up in expensive "fashion" packages - which by the way, Apple acquired).

biokoda 12y ago
> But the kids my generations are a lot more interested in "technology". What I mean by that is they'd much rather get an expensive phone than a gold necklace, and brag about that instead. You are assuming everyone worldwide from your generation thinks this way. This is a giant unfounded assumption.

raverbashing 12y ago

I'm not sure Gold is the greatest material. It's actually very ductile but not at all resistant "Because of the softness of pure (24k) gold, it is usually alloyed with base metals for use in jewelry, altering its hardness and ductility, melting point, color and other properties." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold#Modern_applications http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold#Modern_applications