To further complicate matters that metal matrix, posisble red herring mentioned could describe reinforced material, with a bit of 18 carot gold reinforced by the surrounding material thus never making a new alloy of say 9 carot gold.
http://leancrew.com/all-this/2015/03/apple-gold/

Here it suggests 28% gold, or about 7 carot gold if you counted it as an alloy and not a reinforced composite.

They are 2 completely different units and that statement makes no sense.

No its not.
By having a layered composite then some of the actual material inside can be a layer of 18 carot .

If its a proper alloy then for it to be 18 carot, the whole alloy has to be 75% pure gold.

All irrelevant if it is alloy and not some vague Apple patent media resurrected for us to talk about.

http://www.theguardian.com/technolog...spring-forward

"“Apple has customised the stainless steel to make it harder, removing impurities and making sure its lattice forms uniformly making the metal up to 80% harder and less susceptible to scratches,” said Ive. The stainless steel Apple Watch will start at $549 rising to $1,049 "

Sound to me like he is describing near enough exactly what cold forged steel is.
Heck, I'd even expect 7 carot gold at that silly price. But do the pics look any prettier ?

Gerald Ratner, eat your heart out, Johhny Ives has you for breakfast, lunch and evening meal. But why not? If the fish refuse to bite, there looks 80%+ profit margin of room to manoeuvre .

You've shown many times that you are very price sensitive, I don't think the Apple Watch is for you.

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/newre...ply&p=77246862
No other sarcasm laden reply needed about buying one?

In fairness to Apple, top brand marketing is much the same. I just wish they would pay their fair share of UK tax to make some sort of proper economic contribution.

I'm getting a Space Gray Sport 42mm with black band for my birthday in April it looks great. Some of the watch prices are insane for the Apple Watch and particularly the edition versions.

I never expected anything else for you Greg.

I genuinely hope you like it.

Those pricey watches are for celebrities and loaded tech guys who don't know what to do with their money. Personally I don't think a $6k smart watch will be perceived as 'timeless' as say an equivalently priced Rolex and the like.

And that is the problem. Although I can appreciate the high quality engineering and materials, the tech will age quite quickly.

Although I don't think you need to be a 'loaded tech guy' to spend £350 on a watch.

Is there some parallel universe of tech guys then ?

Thanks Alan I'm sure I will. I wonder if there really will be an ios android wear app I don't believe Apple will allow it.

So, who's buying one?

Well, at the moment I don't have an iPhone so that counts me out. I would also like to see it in action (both the quality of the watch and the UI).

I would consider a high end model to add to my collection, but I expect they will be very difficult to get hold of. I'm in the US in June, so may have a look then.

"High End" ones could go either way. They could become collectable if they are only produced in very small numbers or they may simply plummet in value as those who "can afford" would only ever dream of buying a new one.

Assuming the battery isnt interchangeable (at all) then as a working unit it may have a limited shelf life.

A purchase as an investment may be a considerable risk. Too many people are now savvy to the concept of collecting and keeping unopened so it may take a very long time to see any collectable "profit". Personally I would expect them to drop in value over time as (almost all) cars do. It may be a wise purchase to buy one after a year of deprectaion but at that point you are spending a lot of money to "rock last years model".

We all know that the base models will sell in bucketloads. It wont take much of a percentage of the Apple fanbase to be convinced to turn this into a multi-million selling range.

I do think that its a disappointing product though. They havent "shaken the industry up" as has always been claimed about the iphone and ipad. Personally i think the product design is lazy (take a first gen Samsung watch and cover it in bling) and its still been rushed to market. 18 hours battery life for a watch that doesnt even have an "always on" screen is very poor, its not waterproof, and when a major selling point seems to be that "you can open your garage door with it" I'm not sure they have any killer apps yet either.

I'll expect to see the gold ones on celebs pretty soon and the cheaper ones on the burberry brigade soon after

Don't see why they won't allow it. They allow various other fitness trackers/smartwatches to have companion apps on iOS, can't see a companion Android Wear to be any different.

Although with this device, Apple have disappeared so far up their own posteriors that it beggars belief. It really is quite amazingly ugly, has no unique features (does less than any of the competition) .... but of course its apple, so therefore according to some it is brilliant regardless.

It looks ugly IMO, gold or not. From existing wearables I only like Moto 360, it looks elegant, I would not mind wearing that. Or Microsoft Band, because it does not masquerade as a traditional watch and for what it is I think it looks nice. As for the Apple Watch, it's on the heavier side if you compare it with other watches, which is surprising given Apple's obsession with anything anorectic.

Yup. Personally I agree. I have a Pebble (which I will admit isnt pretty in its first guise) and an LG Watch R (which I, personally, prefer over the 360). The newer watches coming out seem to be improving with each release. Round seems to be getting more popular, but even square watches like the ZenWatch are getting more elegant.

The Apple Watch seems very first gen - which, for Apple, it is. Compared to some of the mock-ups and concepts we saw it looks pretty much like a nona-on-a-strap, which you could already get. Maybe with Gen 2 they will fix the battery issue and gain ground in the looks department.

Apple Watch Sport is 25g or 30g. Apple Watch is 40g or 50g.

According to wikipedia:
Moto 2 is 49g.
Pebble is 38g or 56g.
LG Watch R is 62g.
Zenwatch is 50g.

Which watches are lighter than the Apple Watch?


The mock ups and concepts were never Apples they are always done by other people. So it's not fair really to judge them against fantasy mock ups of watches that have never had to be produced or pass through the many design decisions that go into producing a useable product. Also it looks "pretty much like a nano-on-a-strap". Really? You seriously think the Apple Watch looks like an iPod Nano? The only similarity I can possibly see is they're both the same shape.. a square.. and they both have a touch screen. That's where the comparison ends.

Regarding look/style etc that's always going to be personal preference so I'm not going to try and preach. Personally I think it looks stunning and when you examine the build quality and the overall design IMHO it will be seen as the best built smart watch on the market. But that's no surprise because it's where Apple is always on top.. again IMHO.

I look at the watch itself: http://cdn2.knowyourmobile.com/sites...?itok=R09nD42k and I think that's a product that was designed to be a smart watch. It's not a watch that's had a smart phone forced into it. It looks like it was designed and built specifically for it's purpose.

Regarding the circle/square debate.. I'm surprised there is so much debate here because surely a circle screen results in less screen real estate. Which isn't a problem if all you're doing is telling yourself the time or doing some other basic smart watch tasks but what if you want to read an email or look at a picture.. or use any of the other apps that display data? Suddenly you're compromised. I think it's bonkers to have to design apps for a circle screen.. makes no real sense to me. You want to fit the most screen space possible onto the watch surely. It's like wanting a circle phone screen.

Some videos of it in action here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bRrGzG-paw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjiZv0WBR0o

I'll be accused of being a fan boy but I've honestly no idea how it will do. It's a big risk. It could be really successful or it could struggle. But I think like with other Apple tech.. people need to give it a go in the store before judging it because usually it's only when you get your hands on their products that you realise that Jony Ive actually means what he says in those videos.

I used this comparison

http://i1.cdnds.net/15/11/smartwatchtableupdated.jpg
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tech/fea...-and-more.html

Yes, it's simpler to make rectangular screens, yes it's easier to use a rectangular screen. But this is for people who are used to certain aesthetics when it comes to watches. I certainly dislike any rectangular watch, be it smart or stupid, to me they look too geeky and ugly. So Apple or Samsung could call me stupid for not liking their offerings, I am not buying one. As for a circle phone screen. I haven't seen one, I have seen quite a few watches with circle watch faces.

I don't think you could call a Cartier or Jaeger-Lecoultre watch ugly

I had a look, sorry, I do not like the rectangular ones either. But that's me and most people may like it or won't care.

You're entitled to that point of view. To some people the idea of having a square on their wrist will be off putting. To others it won't make much of a difference.

I think what needs to be factored in is this isn't just about aesthetics it's about user experience. These watches aren't just something you glance at a few times a day to tell the time.. it's a fully functional device with a UI and a touch screen. So little things like screen real estate suddenly become important to the user experience. So after a while of use some people may form the opinion that whilst they didn't fancy a square watch at first.. they're now thankful they have one because they would struggle to do the things they do with a circle screen. It's all about the overall user experience really. It will either sell itself when they try it on or it won't. Only time will tell. (no pun intended)

I agree with much of the above. The concepts were never likely to happen but its a shame that the best they could come up with was an oblong block on a strap (that still to me looks like a nano on a strap) whilst most other companies explored that with "Gen 1" and are now looking to other designs (such as round screens, or curved screens etc). As for the comment about "build quality" thats about as fanboy as you can get when you havent even touched or seen the product yourself ??

It might be well built, it might not be. Some Apple products have few faults, others have many - just like most other manufacturers.

I'd have loved to have seen something a little more ground-breaking. I just dont understand the big love-in with Johnny Ives He has created some nice stuff but also some rubbish. With the Apple Watch i dont think he has really designed anything "new" - its just the same as stuff thats already out there.

Im sure many will disagree, but I think this release is a little "Emperors New Clothes".

Luckily Samsung (and others) didnt patent the shape of a smartwatch, eh ....