Apple Watch Makes Gold Cool Again?

 

 

If there is one company that could make jewelry cool again in the Western world, it would be Apple (AAPL). Demand for jewelry made from gold has gone down in the US, the UK, and Italy by 50% in the last 10 years according to data from Bloomberg and the World Gold Council.

Consumers have grown more fond of precious metals that are more lightly colored, like silver and platinum. Apple coming out with a golden Apple Watch with a price tag of $10,000, golden iPhones, and now also golden MacBooks, could change the sentiment among consumers. Neil Meader, precious metals consultant at Metallis Consulting, feels that this could change the trend and that consumers could start buying golden jewelry once again.

 

Apple, which depicts the luxurious golden edition of its Apple Watch in its advertisements, has a track record of making and breaking trends with consumers; just think of the impact of the iPod and the iPhone. Although the golden watch will not do anything for the gold price, the publicity will definitely not harm gold, which is still trying to shed its old-fashioned reputation in the US and Europe according to Meader.

Apple Watch

A golden Ferrari would not sell, but a gold edition of a popular technology product changes everything in the eyes of Scott Thomson, managing director of Astley Clarke, a company that sells jewelry in Harrods and Selfridges. This relates more to the younger public and it is a positive development, underlines Thomson.

Not everyone is convinced of the positive effect of Apple’s golden watch. Carole Ferguson, analyst at SP Angel Corporate Finance, says that people will not buy more gold because of Apple and that sales of the expensive edition of the Apple Watch will be limited. She believes that people who will buy the golden version of the watch were already planning to buy a golden watch and there will definitely be no positive effect on the demand for gold in general in her opinion.