Although the Apple Watch is not yet officially on sale, some third-parties are taking pre-orders on their own “upgraded” versions.
It has long been speculated that there would be a gold version of the Apple Watch, with an estimated price tag of $5,000, but now it seems one company wants to take things further into the realm of the ridiculous, offering a diamond-encrusted Apple Watch for $30,000.
Apple Watch: A taste for diamonds
Mervis Diamond Importers is awaiting your order for its customized device, which features 8 rows of diamonds set in an 18-carat rose gold band. The company has a long record of adding diamonds to Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) devices. In 2007 it released a $20,000 iPod Shuffle, followed by a similarly adorned iPad a few years later. It could even be argued that the company is taking a step towards normality; adding diamonds to a wearable device is less strange than plastering them onto a tiny iPod.
Such upmarket add-ons obviously do not sell in huge quantities, but they are a big earner for the small number of companies that specialize in them.
Production timeline
If you don’t have a spare $30,000, or even $5,000, then the standard Apple Watch will retail for $349. The latest reports claim that production will begin in early January, with a release date set for the end of Q1 2015. Apple hopes to have 5 million devices ready for the launch date, and annual sales are predicted to be in excess of 30 million units.
For those of you who reached this page looking for information on where to buy a diamond-encrusted Apple Watch, here is a selection of other high-end gifts that you might consider. The sportsman of the family would surely appreciate $400,000 gold-plated bicycle, or why not buy a $48.5 million iPhone 6 with a massive pink diamond for the woman in your life who has everything.
Third-parties such as Mervis must be ruing the 2015 release date of the Apple Watch, which means they miss out on the inevitable Christmas rush on diamond-encrusted wearable technology.
