Apple has a talent for creating buzz around it’s products. The company also has a preference for premium pricing and this tendency was on full display when Apple announced that the most expensive variant of it’s new Smartwatch will cost an astonishing $10,000 as a starting price. This price tag has been described as audacious by some and absurd by most. The popular Technology website TECH-CRUNCH expressed it’s dismay over the Watch’s pricetag with an article titled: THE GOLD APPLE WATCH IS FOR DOUCHEBAGS. We however think that this price makes perfect sense.

Apple’s pricing schemes have always been polarizing, segmenting the world of technology into those who long for affordability and the uncompromising -who crave superior design, lux finishes and flawless performance (which they associate with higher price points). Despite the divisions between the two camps, there seems to be unanimous confusion at the $10,000-$17,000 asking price for the Gold Apple Watch. Estimates from Tech-Crunch suggest that the watch will contain, at most $1,800 in gold and Fox Business estimates at most $2,320 for the watch’s 2 oz of gold.  So Why is the Gold Apple Watch worth $10,000?

The answer is simple. The Apple Watch is the ONLY Watch in the world that everyone will recognize on-sight. The watch itself offers the wealthy the kind of prestige, adulation and jealousy that they have longed for. The wealthy spend outrageous sums on cars, clothes and watches because they want the recognition of everyone else. They want people to know how much they spent on that Rolex , handbag or Bentley. The value of these purchases isn’t in the material they are constructed from, its in the recognition of the brand and the awareness surrounding their cost. When You See a Handbag with MK, you know it is a Michael Kors. When you see a huge H on and purse you know its an Hermes. And yet, no one really knows you are wearing a Rolex unless you tell them or they get close enough to read the name on the watch face. Even more expensive watches are even less recognizable which means that Apple can offer these consumers something no other brand in the world can: Instant Recognition! Even at a distance, everyone will know what the Gold Apple Watch looks like -and they can recognize the incredibly wealthy person that purchased it.

Overnight, Apple became the most famous Watch Maker in the world and arguably the best buy. They can’t offer you an heirloom to pass down or even more Gold in your watch then the other luxury makers but they can offer you more recognition, more jealousy, and more fawning eyes from random strangers than any other watch maker in the world!