The price range for the Apple Watch Editions in the United States may range from $10,000 to $17,000, but if you’re willing to wait until Friday and make the trek over to Taiwan, you can own the most luxurious version of the Apple Watch for just $16,163, or NT $500,000, saving you nearly a cool thousand on a device you probably don’t need. Market observers in the Taiwanese market announced Wednesday that the highly anticipated release of the gadget is set to cost this amount, but a final price has yet to be made public.
So exclusive is the accessory that it will only be sold in one location in all of Taiwan — eager consumers will have to brave the lines at Studio A branch at Taipei 101 Mall, where they’ll be able to try the watch on, and if the price is right, perhaps even take an 18 karat rose or yellow gold version home. While the Apple Watch Edition may be the star of the show, the store will also have the rest of the Apple Watch fleet available for purchase — that’s right, all 54 models in the Apple Watch Sport, the Apple Watch, and the Apple Watch Edition will be on full display come Friday.
The Asian markets are expected to be key players in Apple’s performance this year, with experts noting growing interest and demand for the iPhone particularly in China. By the end of the second quarter, it is expected that the tech giant will have sold 53 million units of the device, with the vast majority of interest coming from the eastern hemisphere.
Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty noted that the same may hold true in the future for the Apple Watch, saying, “Watch interest in the week of launch was about half that for the first iPhone, but the Watch has seen a much smaller deceleration since the initial spike. Both products had limited distribution at the beginning — iPhone at AT&T and Watch on the Apple online store — but the Watch has seen more supply constraints due to some component issues and we believe likely conservative demand forecasts by Apple.”
So no matter how large the price tag, it seems that consumers worldwide just can’t get enough of their iGadgets.
