Is the gold Apple Watch worth it?

So, Apple has released a $10,000 (Rs 6.2 lakh approx) watch. It's one of the most expensive products Apple has ever produced and the brand's first attempt at creating a real luxury good.

Apple didn't divulge too many details about the watch and where it will be sold, but the big rub with the Apple Watch Edition is that the watch is technically identical to its lower priced siblings.

Unlike with a traditional mechanical watch, where an increase in price is also typically accompanied by more complex mechanisms and more hand-craft, the Apple Watch Edition is simply shrouded in gold. If you set that case aside, it has the same sapphire glass display, sensors, and electronics as the $549(Rs 35,000 approx) Apple Watch. That's a mark-up of 18 times.

Heavy on the wrist

Some people will think the gold is beautiful; there's also rose gold, but both make the watch much heavier and less practical for daily wear. Compared with the aluminium Apple Watch Sport, it feels like a brick.

Sure, you're not running a marathon with the thing, but you don't want your wrist to tire before the battery. Apple is careful to point out that the 18K gold used is a proprietary alloy that's between two and four times harder than typical gold. According to a patent filed, this special gold is created by impregnating a gold matrix with ceramic particles for toughness.

A hardened gold alloy isn't an innovation unique to Apple. Since 2012, Swiss watchmaker Hublot has been using a proprietary alloy called Magic Gold that is also a mixture of ceramic and gold certified as 18K. However, Magic Gold scores close to 1000 on the Vickers scale, making it more than twice as hard as Apple's gold.

No long-term value?
There has been no mention yet at all of the biggest elephant in the room: what do you do with a solid gold watch when it becomes obsolete? One would hope for some kind of trade-in or recycling programme that prevents all that gold from sitting unused in a drawer, but it will likely be a while before we know of anything real. (Many $10,000 mechanical watches actually rise in value as the years go by.)

The Apple Watch Edition will see limited production, though there's no word yet on what exactly counts as limited. Distribution will be restricted to select retail locations, though Tim Cook was careful not to limit this to Apple Store locations.

There has been speculation that the Apple Watch Edition could be sold alongside traditional luxury watches in jewellery and watch boutiques, though this is yet another detail that will not be revealed until closer to the launch next month.

Ultimately, this signals a small shift in Apple's identity. Apple's mobile devices have always been the attainable luxury products for the everyman, but these are true luxury goods much closer to a Gucci clutch than an iPad.