What spending £13,500 on an Apple Watch Edition will get you
Apple details the VIP treatment that will be offered to Watch Edition customers
Details have leaked of the special treatment that will be afforded to customers purchasing one of the deluxe Apple Watch Edition devices. The 18-carat gold Watch Edition is the high-end version of Apple’s smartwatch, with prices ranging from £8,000 to £13,500 in the UK, depending on which of the eight styles are selected.
The functionality of the device itself will be identical, whether you’re spending £300 on the Watch Sport or £13,500 on the top notch Watch Edition. However, Watch Edition customers can expect a far superior level of service from Apple, if leaked reports are accurate.
Potential Apple Watch Edition customers will be given “no-wait access to a dedicated expert” when they visit Apple Stores, according to details sent to 9to5 Mac. Those customers will be given hour-long appointments, instead of the 15 minutes afforded to general Watch customers, and will be taken to a dedicated “try-on area” for the premium smartwatch.
The Watch Edition will be presented on a try-on mat, like those used in high-end jewellery stores, although customers will only be allowed to try two different Watch Edition devices at a time for security reasons. Once the customer has made their choice, they can either set up the device with an Apple staff member in store, or take it home and go through a Virtual Personal Setup, where an Apple employee will show customers how to use the watch via a videoconferencing session.
Watch Edition customers will have an exclusive support phone line offering 24/7 technical support for two years, which is upgraded to three years if the customer takes out AppleCare+ support. Yes, even when you’re spending £13,500 on a watch, Apple’s offering upgrades.
Apple clearly wants to be seen as laying out the red carpet for Watch Edition customers. The company is briefing employees that the Watch Edition is “the ultimate expression of extraordinary craftsmanship, incredible innovation, and design driven by functionality and end use… technology becoming seductive, with desirability not necessarily defined simply by a price tag or elitism, but rather meticulous focus on usefulness and utility rooted in beauty.”
Apple adds that it believes customers will be interested in the watch because of the “intrinsic value that a gold watch offers”, although this will likely be the first gold watch that risks becoming obsolete within a matter of a few years.