It is arguably one of the most anticipated Apple products in the history of Apple products, and everybody has an opinion about it.
Some self-proclaimed experts predict tens of millions of Apple Watches sold, per quarter, and others dismiss it as a fad and a dud that doesn’t solve any problem so won’t sell at all. Here’s a collection of interesting quotes from Swiss watch executives, Apple employees and industry watchers. Enjoy.
“We’ve never sold anything as a company that people could try on before.”
– Tim Cook, to sales staff at a London Apple Store, reported by The Telegraph.
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“Apple sets prices not based on what people want to pay, but what people are willing to pay.”
– John Gruber on pricing for the Apple Watch
“I think Apple’s contribution has always been at its most significant when it’s trying to make personal products. And this watch is clearly the most personal product we’ve made.”
– Jony Ive in the Financial Times
“Fashion customers are more skeptical than anyone, so Apple has picked a tough crowd.”
– Eric Wilson, fashion news director of InStyle, reported by Reuters
“Obviously Apple is coming into the space and they seem like they’re interested… It says iPhone, Mac, Watch [at the top of Apple’s website] so it’s going to be pretty exciting, but it’s a pretty different product. In some ways, it’s definitely lacking, in quite a few ways, but they’re going after a pretty different market segment.”
– Pebble’s CEO Eric Migicovsky to The Next Web
“It was different with the phone – all of us working on the first iPhone were driven by an absolute disdain for the cellphones we were using at the time. That’s not the case here. We’re a group of people who love our watches. So we’re working on something, yet have a high regard for what currently exists.”
– Jony Ive, in a conversation with the Financial Times
“This watch has no sex appeal. It’s too feminine and looks too much like the smartwatches already on the market. To be totally honest, it looks like it was designed by a student in their first trimester.”
– Jean-Claude Biver, head of brands like Tag Heuer, Zenith and Hublot. Via the Telegraph
Richard Howarth: “The materials in this thing are insane. It’s not glass, it’s sapphire crystal—completely different structure. And then the stainless steel is super-hardened. And the zirconia ceramic on the back is co-finished with sapphire as well. This would cost so much money if a different company was making it—Rolex or something. It would be a hundred grand or something.”
Julian Hönig (jokingly): “We sell it for just fifty thousand”
– Apple designers quoted in ‘Jonathan Ive and the Future of Apple‘ at the New Yorker
“Personally, I don’t believe it’s the next revolution. Replacing an iPhone with an interactive terminal on your wrist is difficult. You can’t have an immense display.”
– Swatch CEO Nick Hayek, via Bloomberg
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