There’s been a lot of head scratching about Apple’s decision to release an 18-karat gold Apple Watch whose price starts at $10,000, but no criticism has been quite so damning as that leveled by Digg cofounder and self-described “Apple fanboy” Kevin Rose. Writing over at TechCrunch, Rose says that the high-end wearable computer seems to have no real purpose other than being “perfect for douchebags.”
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Essentially, Rose believes that the Apple Watch Edition isn’t as well crafted as a high-end watch that watch collectors would actually spend $10,000 or more to buy. He also thinks that from a technical perspective, the Apple Watch Edition doesn’t offer anything different from standard models of the device. If Apple were to offer, for instance, “an extra sensor or higher resolution display that has yet to hit high enough production volumes to make it throughout the rest of the line,” it could go a ways toward justifying the higher price.
So if the Apple Watch Edition isn’t a timeless collectible and if it doesn’t have enough extra bells and whistles to appeal to techies, than who is its target market? Rose speculates that the gold Apple Watch’s primary value is “broadcasting wealth,” which is definitely one of the hallmarks of being a douchebag. At the end of his post, Rose approvingly cites a tweet from actress Anna Kendrick, who dubbed the Apple Watch Edition “the gold standard in douchebag detection.”
Read Rose’s whole take by clicking here.
