Starting on Friday, January 22, both Apple and Hermès will begin offering the special edition Apple Watch Hermès via their online storefronts, reports Fashionista. Since its October debut, the Apple Watch Hermès collection has only been available for purchase in select boutique and Apple retail locations in major cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Toronto, Milan, Paris, London, Tokyo, and Beijing.
First introduced at Apple's September iPhone-centric event, the Hermès collection was made possible through a partnership between Apple and luxury brand Hermès. The collection consists of three strap options -- the Single Tour, Double Tour, and Cuff -- along with a stainless steel Apple Watch casing and a unique Hermès watch face.
There are ten Hermès models in total, split between the three bands. Priced at $1,250, the leather Double Tour, which wraps twice around the wrist, includes a 38mm stainless steel watch case. It's available in four colors: Fauve, Etain, Capucine, and Bleu Jean.
The Single Tour is a more classic design that includes a 38 or 42mm stainless steel Apple Watch at prices that start at $1,100. It too comes in several colors, including Fauve, Noir, and Capucine (38mm only). The Cuff, a thicker cuff-style band, is priced at $1,500 and ships with a 42mm stainless steel Apple watch. It's available only in Fauve.
Both Apple.com and Hermes.com will be offering the full Hermès Apple Watch collection on their respective sites starting on January 22. The bands will continue to be sold as a set with a stainless steel Apple Watch and not on a standalone basis.
Top Rated Comments
Of course the product is for the rich. I can't afford the strap (I don't even own an Apple watch and I'd only buy timeless Hermès goods) but in the press conference when they announced the straps, I knew it was Hermès even before they revealed the brand by the stitching of the bracelets.
There will be knockoffs, and I've seen decent ones online if you want the "double tour" or cuff strap style and it will look very similar from afar (or even up close) but someone who appreciates design will see the difference (and appreciate the design and craftsmanship including the testing that went into making the double tour design work with Apple watch).
I'll just say, fashion is a multi-billion dollar industry. The first tech company that can successfully bridge that gap will be amazing. I'm not saying the Apple Watch necessarily does that, but it's the next logical step for Apple to expirement with.
I'm sure it pisses off all the people wanting Apple to make a mid-range Mac Pro mini tower, but the Apple Watch only makes sense in Apple's progression.
Here's the thing. EVERYBODY here, no doubt, has bought something that someone else may feel they were a sucker for wasting their money on it. All that matters is if the buyer is happy and nobody has a right to pass judgement on the way people spend their money.
There's so many fascinating things Apple could be investing their money in (artificial intelligence, quantum computing enabled cloud services, carbon nanotube computing, neural network sensor integration), but instead they're wasting it on gaudy watches and online radio, and skimming pennies by keeping the base model iPhone gimped with 2010 era storage. Some time soon, Apple is gonna realize that it has squandered every advantage it had after Steve Jobs passed.