Comment by _red | Hacker News Reader

Comment by _red | Hacker News Reader

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>I honestly don't think Apple are too concerned about not selling a watch to that man. The watch is targeted at the hundreds of millions of teens and 20 year olds that are already attached to their iPhone, and want another gadget to connect to it and play with.

You are exactly right, which is why this is so worrying from an investment perspective.

No matter if you like it or not, the wealthy drive fashion and taste. The reason why we think of BMW, Porsche, Ferrari's as "luxury" is primarily because the rich buy them.

No stock trader is going to trade his Philippe Patek for a $350 watch that his pool-boy wears.

This is something that is not getting talked about. No one buys watches to tell time. They are almost exclusively used as status symbols.

This is the miscalculation in Apple's plan. No one needs a watch anymore. Trying to make one relevant for a purpose other than status symbol is going to be tough.

They should've made a "smart band" that connects to any watch face. That would've been a clever strategy.

> No one buys watches to tell time.

I do. I don't go anywhere without my watch (I have two, in fact). I purchased a $300 watch (after numerous Timex watches dying in a year) in high school that I've worn daily for 5+ years; I don't see that changing anytime soon. I hate pulling out my phone just to check the date / time—I always get distracted by something. If I need the time or date quickly, I look at my wrist.

And if that was the only reason you had a watch, you'd have a $5 casio.

> No stock trader is going to trade his Philippe Patek for a $350 watch that his pool-boy wears.

And yet, the stock trader has the same phone that his pool boy does...

They could get the much much more expensive "edition" watch which their pool-boy couldn't even dream of affording. The watch could act as the controller for a digitally connected house (HomeKit) which is something else the pool-boy probably wouldn't be able to afford.

I don't see it as that different from the iPhone today. BMW drivers and pool-boys both employ them as status symbols and neither lets the other drag that image down.

I don't know what country you live in, but basically none of what you describe applies to the US. Young finance workers, for example, are among the least culturally influential groups in urban America. Your notion of class dynamics (as illustrated by the "pool-boy" comment) is similarly inapplicable and sounds like something from a developing country.

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