Shipping dates on the Apple Watch may have already slipped back as far as August in some cases, but there’s one surefire way to get your hands on Apple’s hotly-anticipated wearable: be a big name celebrity.
As users around the world counted down the seconds until they could preorder an Apple Watch, both Katy Perry and Drake posted pictures to their Instagram accounts, showing themselves posing with their brand new Edition devices.
Is it too late for me to start a career in pop music?
“Oh Mickey you’re so fine, you’re so fine you blow my mind, hey Mickey!” wrote Perry, sporting a $17k yellow gold Apple Watch Edition with Mickey Mouse watch face. Drake, meanwhile, didn’t comment on his photo, although it pretty much speaks for itself: showing the popular rap artist at the Coachella Valley Arts and Music Festival, wearing the same $17k Edition model.
Earlier this week, artist Pharrell Williams was spotted on TV singing competition The Voice, wearing an Apple Watch of his own. Afterwards, he posted a short video to Instagram, adding only the all-too-appropriate comment: “Woah!”
While giving away its most expensive Apple Watches to celebrities might seem a tad on the generous side by Apple, the publicity is more than worth it for the company. At time of writing, Pharrell’s status had been liked 117,000 times, Katy Perry’s status 187,000 times, and Drake’s a whopping 322,000 times. If even a fraction of the combined 626,000 users who liked those statuses (provided different people like each photo) go out and buy an Apple Watch for themselves, Apple’s investment will have more than paid off.
Given that the company is also heavily targeting the fashionista crowd with the Apple Watch, the move is also a great way of continuing to spread the word beyond the usual tech publications.
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
10 responses to “What shipping delays? Pop stars already have their Apple Watch Editions”
Maybe they limited the 42mm version quantities on purpose, so you will see relatively more women wearing the Apple Watch. I guess most women prefer the smaller 38mm version.
Katy Perry has just confirmed she is a dork.
And you are a Faux News fanboy ( AKA 50+ YO white males).
Sorry but I watch CNN 95% of the time.
I would like to see a source on that stat.
It occurs to me that Apple included the Edition line AND priced it so high for precisely this purpose: to give them to celebrities for publicity. Yeah, they could have made the top of the line much less … say $1000 or even $5000 and given those to celebrities or even given $800 versions to celebrities in advance and have gotten some notice and publicity but the fact that these versions cost $17,000 and everyone knows they cost that much, when the celebrity starts showing it off, it gets much more notice … like this article. If these photos had the celebrities wearing the $750 models, would this article even exist? Sure, Apple will sell some Edition line to wealthy non-celebrities and make a profit on them but it will be a teeny tiny fraction of the profits they’ll make from watches normal people can buy. The primary purpose of the Edition line IS publicity though.
This is why the Apple Watch Edition exists.
That’s just annoying. I have to wait 2 months but celebs get to flaunt their latest freebie. Not happy Apple. Really not happy.
You need an Apple iWatch to grab your crotch in public … of course … classssssy!
I used to have a watch to tell the time. Then my phone had the time on it so I stopped wearing a watch. If the watch replaced the phone I would think about it but I see no reason to fork out a grand to have exactly the same on my wrist as in my pocket. Celeb or no celeb indorsment it’s not worth it.