Today's Apple Event was always going to be focused on the company's smart watch line, one of the few things we knew for sure heading in. We did get the device and pricing details we wanted, as well as some surprises.
Read Our Overall Apple Event Recap Here
The Apple Watch will come in three models: Watch Sport, Watch, and Watch Edition. Those are in order of ascending cost, and there are various configurations within each model at various price points.
As we knew the base Watch Sport starts at $349 for a 38mm Silver Aluminum Case model with a white rubber band. The options increase up to $399 for the 42mm Space Grey Aluminum Case model with black rubber band.
The mid-range device--simply, Watch--begins at $549.99 with the 38mm Stainless Steel Case with white band. There are quite a few options in between that and the most expensive $1,099.99 42mm Space Black with stainless steel model.
Finally, there's the incredibly high-end Watch Edition, which starts at a cool $10,000. It includes real 18-karat gold, and is quite obviously out of the price range of all but an extremely wealthy minority of buyers--this is probably the celebrity watch we'll be seeing. There are a number of configurations after that price, adding higher quality bands for up to $17,000. The fact that it comes with a rubber band at $10,000 is incredibly silly, and you have to go all the way up to the $15,000 version to escape the sport band. Yes, those spending $10,000 on a watch aren't exactly searching for top value, but a cheap rubber band shouldn't be anywhere near the luxury model.
Apple Watch is available for pre-order on April 10, and will ship on April 24.
