Sean your approach to this all wrong. This is not jewelry. This is technology that you wear on your wrist. It may come in different levels of trim to satisfy the customers need for fashion, or individuality, but it's functionality is why you purchase it, not because it will hold or increase in value over time. Think of it much like buying a car, the purpose is for transportation, the different levels accessorization depends on how good you want to look while driving it. Not to mention the majority of cars depreciate the second you drive them off the lot, they're not a investment ...
I don't feel my approach to this is wrong at all...while I do agree that it's a piece of consumer technology, the same as an iPad or Macbook, etc...but it's ALSO a piece of jewelry in that it is defined as a WATCH...and offers options which price it reflective of a piece of jewelry (gold model and rose gold models being the upper tier of this range).
Why doesn't Apple sell a real gold iPhone or Macbook? For starters, it wouldn't be feasible for the kind of usage those devices are made to do...and they wouldn't sell them because they'd cost far too much and people do not associate either device with something wearable.
The Apple Watch though is sold as both technology and fashion...and my initial point was that if you are going to sell it as a piece of fashionable jewelry (even if that is only a portion of its appeal), are consumers going to have an object they can still use 5-10 years down the road in some legitimate way? Because a person EXPECTS that kind of longevity out of a normal watch, especially if it comes with a steep cost (even watches that only cost hundreds of dollars).
What I question though is say you bought a $1,500 gold Apple Watch...and 5 years from now the device (apart from the gold exterior) is completely useless (much like smart phones are after 5 years or so after release). Will they be worth anything aside from the weight of gold included in the watch itself? Will it retain watch value like a normal watch would? Can the market overlook an outdated OS/UI on the watch in the event the owner wants to sell it?
Or would the $1,500 watch become a $100 watch after just a few years?
The car analogy doesn't really work because, while they are truly not investments, cars do hold value respective of what they are...if I buy a BMW M3 today for $65,000, in 10 years, it will still be worth a relevant amount of money reflective of the kind of luxury item it is. Will the Apple Watch reflect the same kind of market relevance given the nature of it being a luxury item in the segment?
My concern, ultimately, rests in the idea that a gold, upper tier Apple Watch would follow value trends of a piece of consumer technology, and not follow watch/jewelry value in any way at all...which kind of negates the realistic idea of purchasing the expensive gold Apple Watch over just the entry level models.