this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2023
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Apple will no longer fix the $17,000 gold Apple Watch::The original Apple Watch models, including the $10,000-plus 18-karat gold Edition that Beyoncé wore, are now officially obsolete and won’t get parts, repair, or replacement services.

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[–] VelociCatTurd@lemmy.world 124 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Even before they were unsupported, how have they not been “obsolete” for some time. Cannot imagine how slow a gen 1 watch would be. I can see the appeal of a timeless heirloom watch, but this is such a brain dead purchase.

[–] M500@lemmy.ml 109 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Well, it’s not a brain dead purchase when $20k doesn’t even register for you.

Got $500,000,000 in the bank? Who cares?

You family has billions and you just have an unlimited alllowance. Who cares.

That’s who this is for.

With that being said, Apple did it for one year and I think it was just a marketing stunt. Everyone talked about it and now people know what an Apple Watch is.

[–] DJDarren@thelemmy.club 25 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Apple did it for one year and I think it was just a marketing stunt

That's exactly what it was. They never expected to sell many, just get the headlines for making a "luxury" watch that could "compete" with the likes of Rolex. That some ultra-wealthy people went out and bought one was just a bonus.

[–] MeanEYE@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

And now its built-in obsolescence is being paraded around pointing out why no one should buy such a thing ever again.

[–] M500@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago

They didn’t even carry them at all of their stores.

I did get to wear one once, and only did so I could say I wore a watch that cost more than my car.

[–] VelociCatTurd@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It is for those with more money than sense, 100%. No matter how much money you have, it’s not going to solve the problem of it being incompatible with a newer iPhone. And that makes anyone who bought this a clown.

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[–] MossyFeathers@pawb.social 12 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Is there really a reason to need faster smart watches? I can understand shrinking the internals to pack in a larger battery, but I'm kinda confused about what newer smart watches do that requires a more powerful processor (I don't own a smart watch).

It seems like you could support backward compatibility pretty easily by having basic software running on the watch with a program-agnostic API to send and receive info from the watch (kinda like midi or osc). I doubt the processor necessary to send, receive, decode and display information in this format would require that much power. If smart watches honestly get slower over time, the only thing I can think is that the software itself is getting less efficient at doing the same tasks it previously did.

[–] sbv@sh.itjust.works 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Software is a gas: it expands to fill the processor and memory you give it. That's a goofy way of saying that, as manufacturers cram faster processors and more memory into devices, software developers will use the extra facilities.

If you're on an old device with limited CPU/RAM, you'll be forced to upgrade to a newer OS that was built with newer devices in mind.

[–] kobra@lemm.ee 9 points 1 year ago

Mostly new sensors rather than larger battery I think. For instance, newer Apple Watches can monitor temp and oxygen (at least in some capacity).

[–] DJDarren@thelemmy.club 3 points 1 year ago

I have a S3 Apple Watch, and while it's stuck on an older version of watchOS, it serves my purposes perfectly. Sends me notifications, lets me control my music and tracks my exercise. That's pretty much all I need from a smart watch at this point. The battery isn't amazing, but if I charge in the evening when I'm watching TV, it'll last me through the night. I give it a little bump while I'm drinking coffee and reading in the morning and it'll still be on 40/50% when I get home from work.

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[–] korewa@reddthat.com 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I wonder how much of that price is just the value of gold.

I’m seeing a 24k bracelet no watch and similar shape is $5k to $10k

[–] ArghZombies@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Very little of the price is the gold.

An actual gold watch case (excluding the bracelet and the movement inside it) weighs about 20g.

At about £50 a gram that's £1000.

And I doubt the amount of gold in the case of the Apple watch is anywhere near the same amount as in a traditional gold watch case.

[–] korewa@reddthat.com 3 points 1 year ago

I was talking about the bracelet, the watch itself is essentially e waste I think it’s only 18k gold anyway seems like the price of just branding/exclusivity

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[–] weeeeum@lemmy.world 122 points 1 year ago (13 children)

The irony of building something so expensive, opulent and heirloom worthy around one of the most rapidly depreciating assets you can buy (technology)

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[–] Tatters@feddit.uk 60 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The big luxury watch brands will service their watches for many decades; a Rolex will last a lifetime, if not longer.

[–] SomethingBurger@jlai.lu 23 points 1 year ago

Rolex buyers are smart enough to not buy another if theirs breaks after a few years. Apple's, not so much.

[–] paddirn@lemmy.world 59 points 1 year ago (1 children)

For +$17,000, that shit better have a lifetime guarantee on it, though I guess anyone with $17,000 to throw away on a watch probably doesn't care anyways, they've probably forgotten that they own the thing anyways.

[–] madcaesar@lemmy.world 22 points 1 year ago

Anyone who has 19,000$ to blow on a watch needs to be taxed a additional 18,000$

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 35 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Honestly, good. Fuck the people who have this sort of money to throw away. They deserve it.

[–] wewbull@feddit.uk 15 points 1 year ago

Unfortunately they funded the richest company in the world.

[–] heird@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago

They've probably stopped using it years ago and got a new one

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[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 34 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Listen, anyone who had one could probably afford a brand new gold watch instead of repairing it anyway and doesn't care about anything except as a status symbol.

[–] electrogamerman@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

This. Anyone with a 17k watch stopped using it 2 days after they bought it.

[–] conc@lemmy.ml 25 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I thought her fingers were her lips & chin

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[–] Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 16 points 1 year ago

Oh boy, it sure sucks to suck.

[–] illah@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I still use the original sport band from 2015 on a 7th gen watch, and it fit the 4/5 gen before that. Unless the gold band was non removable from the watch I don’t see the issue.

Also the fact that this was never publicly available means these were gifts to celebs for PR, ain’t nobody losing any money on this.

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I had to look up that Apple Watch came out in 2015. I feel old...yet again.

[–] sigmaklimgrindset@sopuli.xyz 13 points 1 year ago

The Covid years really did fuck with my perception of time. I feel like I should be three years younger

[–] peyotecosmico@programming.dev 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

You know what? Good.

If you want to buy something fancy you could buy an expensive "dumb" one that won't lose its value in a year or so. It's the buyers fault.

Unless you want it for working out I find smartwatches stupid. Are you so busy that you can't pull your phone out of your pocket?

Edit: I take it back, yeah seems that there are some specific reasons like those below for wearing a smartwatch.

I still find spending 17k in a luxury watch dumb, a Rolex (I have no idea how much they are worth) still seems better because it won't lose it's value like when the smartwatch OS becomes obsolete.

[–] dditty@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

In addition to using it for tracking my workouts and bluetoothing to my earbuds, I also found my smartwatch super useful while working as a teacher for surreptitiously checking texts and also for setting timers

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't doubt that your smartwatch is useful, but why can't you just pair to your phone? I can be like 30 yards away from my phone with my earbuds.

[–] dditty@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oh i don't like taking my phone when I go running so it's a game changer

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[–] kamasutures@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Mine are pretty specific but:

  1. I'm a bartender. I can get messages if the door person/security is having a problem customer while I am elbow deep in an ice well (plus phones are dirty so I'm not touching gross phone and then your lime wedge even if I am super religious about washing my hands with everything I touch behind bar.) I don't wear it all the time but it is a useful tool.

  2. I monitor my heart rate cos I'm having health issues

Butttt.. I don't feel bad for these folks, mine came with my phone.

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[–] populustree@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

but why though? why would you do that?

[–] sebinspace@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

If you’re smart enough to ask the question, you are not the target of this product

[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 6 points 1 year ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


That ship has sailed; the original Apple Watches (widely referred to as Series 0) never updated beyond watchOS 4.3.2 in 2018.

It means the end of hardware support: the company will no longer provide parts, repairs, or replacement services.

When it launched, it was seen on the wrists of influential celebrities, including German fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld, who, like Beyoncé, wore it with a gold link bracelet that was never available to the public.

Even folks who do drop five figures on watches tend to want something that’ll still tell time (and hold its value) in a couple of decades.

You could spend $10,000 to $30,000 on a Cartier Tank, still get a square watch, and not worry about whether you could get it serviced eight (or 80) years later.

As long as luxury watch manufacturers like Cartier exist (or Patek Philippe, Rolex, etc.


The original article contains 327 words, the summary contains 144 words. Saved 56%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] droidpenguin@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I wonder if Cash4Gold would take them. Lol I remember seeing this commercial as a kid.

[–] MeanEYE@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

It's not really pure gold. So you'd get surprisingly small amount of money for "gold" watch.

[–] Zummy@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So Apple will no longer fix the watch that came out 8 years ago? I mean, how long should they have fix products for? You buy a $17,000 dollar watch don’t be surprised if the company that no longer sells the watch and hasn’t sold it in 8 years, won’t fix it. There are legitimate things to criticize Apple for. This isn’t one of them.

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[–] BilboBargains@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Apple is a brand perfectly positioned at the intersection of clueless but snobby.

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