You might think that when you’d laid out between $10,000 and $17,000 for your Apple Watch Edition (low-key box included), and a further $1500 for AppleCare+ to protect it, you could safely extinguish the flames on your credit card and put it away. But nope: according to a company document we’ve seen, if you actually need to claim on AppleCare+, the ‘service fee’ is a cool $1000.
Perhaps that buys you some time with someone in Apple’s executive suite or a celeb or something.
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Watch for the rest of us, huh?
You’re damn right about that! All those of us not served by either the other Apple Watches or Android Wear watches or Pebbles or what have you. ;)
On the bright side of things, those $10-17k do get you complimentary tech support and limited warranty for two years even without AppleCare.
And those $1000 seem to be only if you manage to destroy it yourself, so, yeah, but still pricey :D
That’s still only 5-10 % of the purchase price, perceptually speaking less than the service fee for the other models! I’d say it’s a bargain! :)
You’re basically paying $2500 for insurance on what may be a $10k item …
Including the excess.
It’s very expensive, but I guess it’s in line with the percentages apple is charging for its other product lines. My iPhone Apple care was about 10% of the purchase price, and if I was to smash the display or something I’d be out another 10% to get it replaced.
There’s always options to cover the devices under a home contents insurance policy which could well end up being a lot cheaper, even if you account for the premiums mobile devices + jewellery will probably attract over regular household gods.
Yeah, home contents with all-risks cover is going to be the far more sensible option. But perhaps ‘sensible’ doesn’t come into it when laying out that kind of cash on a first-gen product with a short useful life …
My deductible for home insurance is $1000 and it doesn’t cover dropping a watch in the toilet or mangling in the mixer while making a cake.
It also doesn’t pay me back in dividends nor increase the value of my stock portfolio.
Mine is £50 (c.$75) and covers everything. Including the time I managed to wash and tumble-dry an expensive gadget by leaving it in my trouser pocket …
That’s 18.000€ + 2.000€ Apple Care + – in Germany. VAT and all.
Is it really worth that much? A watch that will be obsolete and old in 2 years max? with electronics that will be superseded and likely not replaceable in 1 year or so? where you can read the time for no longer than 2-3 days?
If they are selling it, Apple has surely has done its market research – I am quite curious to see the face of whomever has 18-20.000€ to, litereally, throw away. This device is not timeless. It is not a Ferraril, it will loose its functional value within a couple of years. Like most mobile phones, or electronic devices.
Nothing like a car, a yacth, a Rolex, a mechanical Swiss hand made watch, a diamond, a piece of jewellery.
This for me is most nonsense I have ever seen.
3-400€ is already quite enough to read FB and Whatsapp notifications.
I’m hopeful that people buying the most expensive Edition models will upgrade at least once per year, hopefully twice per year.
The ROI on this product will outstrip any Rolex or Yacht, which makes me extremely happy.