Apple Watch Edition Unboxing and First Impressions By iFixit

Well I am very excited. My Apple Watch edition has finally come, and I wanted to unbox it with a friend of mine here, so I have Ollie from designer watch. Repair uh-huh of San Luis Obispo Ollie has been fixing, watches longer than I've been alive yeah only 60 years. He is an expert, watchmaker and I. You know for a high-end product like this I thought that would be very interesting to get an outside perspective. In addition to my thought on the watch.

So when we got it, Apple had been saying: well, we have to send a special courier out. They actually delayed the delivery of the sentient, normal UPS. It would have come last week, but it didn't come until today because they wanted a special courier to come. I was saying: what's the courier going to look like? Is he one of the Apple geniuses that you pulled off the line? They said? No, it's going to be a special courier that wouldn't tell me any more information, except that he would be dressed in business, casual clothes. He absolutely was not dressed business casual.

He was wearing a t-shirt and shorts, and he took a very fast cursory look at my driver's license and then handed me. This $10,800 Apple Watch and I thought that the packaging would be a little more impressive. This is I think it's got more labels on it than a typical UPS package. Okay, so that's the Box. Let's get inside, we have a pull tab.

Okay, put the cardboard work there. We go, Apple Watch edition, 18, 38, millimeter, 18, karat, yellow gold. We have some kind of fancy. Wrapped plastic thing: I have no desire to wear this watch, so this is purely for the edification of the audience, and then we are sending this back to Apple leave a cube of plastic. Okay for the reveal.

It's got some heft to it. I like the whiteness of the packaging. We have an okay, so we have our charge charger. The charger is not made of gold. Okay, so you've got the charger in the manuals and everything in there I mean it's a nice cube.

So what's fancy about this box is that it has a charger built into the box. And ah, this is the evidence that you open the package. Okay. Here we go I am moment of truth. Okay, it is gold, it is golden color I, don't read French it's only in French, very French and Italian.

This is a service says anti-tarnish shipping filter discard after unboxing, so, is it? Gold has a gold tarnishes, so they want to shoot. Not gold should not tarnish 18-karat gold no way, so they got that both on the watch, band and I know something about jewelry as well. I'm a certified master jeweler. There's not that many of us in this country, so I know about gold. That's not tarnish about.

Oh, there you go, so it's interesting that they would push put an anti-tarnish I mean, maybe they just don't want scuffs on the packaging? Well, it's I mean the gold looks pristine finish, as you would expect. Just no pits, no promises, no dings, now I feel it actually feels. Okay, I'm surprised. Try that it's definitely God I have to do it. Yeah, ergonomically speaking, it's its comfortable, so fine I mean my wrist is substantially heavier with us on.

You can feel it I can't stop thinking, but that it's just a temporary item, because it kind of the battery is not every everything about it. Are you know the technology I'm I'm, thinking that in two three years to be outdated right, so I wonder if they're going to have a program of upgrading, they haven't said anything, you would think you buy an $11,000 watch, and it doesn't make sense financially. That's just Mike Lee. So do you think it makes sense to buy a $10,000 Rolex yeah, because you can pass it on to your grandkids great-grandkids? It's something that sticks around. How long is just going to stick around right? What do you think I mean so looking at the finish, and how does this compare it to the finish on other gold watches that you actually I'm impressed? It did I had a lot of high expend watches and the finish is great.

I can't, I can't question it. So let's turn it on here and so these sensors here it has a built-in pulse sensor, and we believe it has a pulse oximeter. So I can actually tell your blood oxygen level, but the FDA is not letting them broadcast that capability Oh interesting. So it's made for sports minded people actively. That's the ideas.

It has a fitness tracker on okay, good right, and I'll for a high end, Rolex to be designed for use in sports. No, no, only water resistance, durability, so I, don't know but durability of this I. Don't know how much impact it can. This is supposed to be IP 77 rated scratch resist, so this sapphire got saffron the font. So this is our touch screen so long push.

So what do you think of the feel of the crown um I'm actually impressed it feels nice I, think they machined it well, and it's so smooth. You know your kind of have to look to see if it's turning and so when you're picking up a new watch like yeah. What are the things that you look for if someone brings in watching for repair- maybe they want to? They want to get it appraised whatever I'd look to see how I can service it, how I can open it and then, after that, I look to see what is, if anything serviceable in it. I'm used to watches that I can service this one I, don't think there is anything serviceable in. Did you see our teardown? There are, as you showed you yeah yeah, it's just so you cut in around the edge I.

Have part of the concern with a watch like this is we're pretty confident we can open the aluminum watch, Ryan, get it back together, but we're a little more concerned about using that process on a watch this expensive, the gold will definitely show March, no matter how compact the metal is. It's still gonna flare from the sharp tools that you used to try to open it. So with the normal repair your you have to get inside and leave no trace leave the watch pristine just the way you found it. So, what's the normal process that you used to get into a gold watch, there are tools that are similar to a sharper knife wedged so that you can actually pop the case open without leaving any marks if done properly and there's no place I, don't think this was designed with service in mind. Yeah, I would think without the doubt, you're going to damage the crystal in opening it.

So I think when they're charging two thousand dollars for service on them, they're just going to replace the top because or they break they'll break it, and they just put another one on there and that's just something that boggles my mind how this okay, so every watchmaker or every watch manufacturer, likes to say that they have a special goal, that's better than every other goal on the market. Have you seen these claims come and go apple claims that this is some new? You know super durable, more scratch resistant, 18, karat gold. Ah, yet metallurgists are coming out with different alloys constantly, and they make the claims. But still gold is gold.18 parts of 24 parts is pure gold and that soft stuff there's no way you can make it hard enough or scratch resist. So your customers that are collectors, do you think this is the sort of thing that would do well on a watch collection.

Hmm, now collectors are always looking for durability and longevity blonde Jeff. It is. It is a key. They don't throw money, and we're collectors one unless I don't know 100 and I, don't know what any collector would see in this now you're accustomed to swapping out batteries and quartz watches right. So this is like that and that it's a battery, but what why do you think I mean we're looking at this, and they lose it around the outside to get into it.

I mean every watch has to as a way to get in saying this is a more challenging way to get into this watch than any watch you've ever seen. I, don't think you can get into this without leaving a mark, and that's always my concern. How can I get into this watch without leaving the footprint and from what I see you would have to pop the glass off the sapphire interface? You have to pop that off. I, don't see any other an of getting into this, possibly the back, but I don't know. What's behind this, you can what would tear out well, and so we can.

We can compare it to I have so. This is the packaging on an apple sport watch. You can see the difference in the packaging, and then I have here. This is a there and then this is the other we disassembled, and so you can see you have to get the entire thing out before you can get to the sensors on the bottom. Oh yeah, the back is a head of question totally, and generally you know in my business we joke about parts that are glued together.

Hey it's not, so they're, not they're, not normally glued together. Yeah, you don't see, watches that are glued together. So that's not that's like. Never it's its a joke, because no one would be crazy enough to do that. No you! You have the machine parts that snap into each other and there is rubber gaskets in between.

Sometimes you have hard plastic gaskets that actually parts snap into but to have things glued together. I'd in my business, that's unprofessional! So do you think the design process on this? Are they mean they just decided? They don't care about serviceability or I? Think non watchmakers designed this watch non jeweler's non watchmakers! You know a bunch of its great. You know a bunch of Engineers fresh mind. Furthermore, you know they went to work, and they created something. It's just that they did.

Parts of it is unprofessional. Well, so you have this incredibly sophisticated, complex device right? This is the apex of modern technology right and yet it's its temporal. It's designed to last eighteen months to the three years right technology will definitely make outdated in no time, and I've seen. Examples of it. Pulsar, for example, was invented by Texas Instrument original the first digital watch ever there's hardly any memory of it.

Well, they were expensive. They even made gold right. I had one, and I ended up melting the gold that finally about four years ago, I couldn't get that second parts for it. You know they disappeared off the market and so that one night I was like that's. This is I mean this reminds me of the poster, the first digital watch.

Now we got a really complicated high-tech watch yeah ten years people are going to forget about these ever coming around well, this is either the future of your industry or a momentary blip in the road I think it's a momentary blip in the road, because I've seen them come and go. You know generally yeah, there's no longevity in it. So one thing: we've seen with apples, designs, time and time again, they'll come out with the product, and it's a version one, and we pick it the flaws, and we say wow it does this, but the battery life isn't quite there and next year, they'll be out with a better one, and they keep incrementally working at it and give them five years, and they'll have something phenomenal. I mean this is this could be something that's so amazing, and I'm, so optimistic for Apple to create useful products that stand Alyssa at time. It's definitely interesting.

You know. If I, you had everything else in the world. This would be on this. If you have one of everything, why not have one of these right? But there are maybe a lot of other things on the list before this off. For me, you know I'm a sailor.

You know the bigger the boat yeah. You bet, I am okay. So how about this? How big a boat can I get for $11,000 I got a 25-footer I'll sell you for that I can't use. Do another new I think I would take a boat over a watch any day of the week. Okay, all right, we got ourselves a deal, I'll trade, you are the watch.

How about that I'll trade? You, the watch for your boat, yeah I'll, take it okay,.

Source : iFixit