Jewelers Start Gold Plating Apple Watch To Undercut Apple’s Pricey Edition Models

VIA: It’s no secret that the price of the Apple Watch rapidly increases if you want a gold model. The Apple Watch Edition with an 18 karat rose gold case starts at $10,000 and ranges to $17,000 for yellow gold models with a gold-plated band. Jewelers, however, looking to take some of Apple’s high-end Watch market, have now started offering their own take on the gold Apple Watch…

First, Watch Plate offers to gold plate your own Apple Watch for $399. The process is relatively simple. You simply FedEx them your stainless steel Apple Watch and they will gold plate the device and ship it back to you, all within 3 business days. Watch Plate will even email you a FedEx label to make the shipment process as simple as possible. The company says it is using 24 karat rose gold or 24 karat yellow gold during its process.

Golden Dreams takes a different approach to offering gold Apple Watch units. For $3,550, the company will soon offer gold-plated Apple Watch models in 24 karat yellow gold, 18 karat rose gold, and 18 karat white gold models. These watches are all custom-made in Geneva and ship worldwide. The company also touts that their gold-plated Apple Watch ships in a high-end luxury box. Alongside the Watch itself, Golden Dreams will also offer over 160 different colored Alligator leather straps. Hand engraving will also be available, according to the company.

The difference between the two is that with Watch Plate’s offering, you must supply your own Apple Watch unit, while Golden Dreams handles the entire acquisition process and ships gold-plated Apple Watch units directly to consumers. The latter makes for a more seamless, albeit more expensive, process. Golden Dreams also touts that its straps are of the same quality of a Rolex and other high-end watch manufacturers.

Last month, we also showed how you could easily turn an Apple Watch Sport into an Apple Watch Edition with a can of spray paint. Of course with that method, you’re only coating the device in paint, not actually plating it in gold like the offerings from Gold Dreams and Watch Plate. It’s the appearance that matters, though, right?