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Video shows first hands-on with $400 gold-plated Apple Watch

Earlier this week, a few aftermarket services emerged that claimed to gold-plate an Apple Watch for as little as $399. Now, the first users who have taken advantage of the Watch Plate service have started receiving their gold-plated Apple Watch devices back. Among them is YouTuber Keaton Keller of TechSmartt.

The video above shows Keller’s gold-plated stainless steel Apple Watch and it looks remarkably nice. As mentioned before, the process runs $399 and is relatively simple. You just have to ship the company your own stainless steel Apple Watch and they will gold plate it and send it back to you within 3 business days. The company says it is using 24 karat rose gold or 24 karat yellow gold during its process. For his Apple Watch, Keller chose the yellow gold option.

In the video, TechSmartt shows the unboxing process of the gold-plated stainless steel Apple Watch. The video also shows how the service will gold plate the clasp of the classic leather band, as well.

Aftermarket gold plating is looking like an increasingly valid option for those who want the high-end look of the $10-$17k Apple Watch at a lower price. Spray paint, of course, is also still an option. And you can use our DIY guide to make your own Edition style charging case to go with it for less than $10.

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Comments

  1. lincolnsills - 9 years ago

    Christ he’s bad.

  2. shaman1981 - 9 years ago

    Yeah, you try to get a discount from Apple dude. Why don’t you get a comment from a Apple spokes person while you’re at it…

  3. taojones2013 - 9 years ago

    stainless steel is really hard to get plating to stick to it they probably had to copper plate first then possibly nickel then gold either way the durability of the surface is questonable and the price is outrageous (I’m an ex jeweler 45 years experience) at least 3x what it should be

  4. CJ Sheets - 9 years ago

    There’s just something about this that makes me feel uneasy. You can do whatever you want with your Apple Watch. But is he serious about trying to pass it off as a Watch Edition? Makes me think of the guys who wear a knock-off Rolex and tells others it’s real. He says in the video he’s going to have to get used to calling it Edition. But it’s not, it’s a gold plated Apple Watch.

    • houstonche - 9 years ago

      He was trying to be funny.

      But does it really matter? He wants the look of a gold watch without paying the price of a gold watch. Looks like it turned out pretty nice, but for me personally I find gold to look rather tacky. I’ll pass.

  5. monty72 - 9 years ago

    What an utter cock end!

  6. silas681- - 9 years ago

    I guess he won’t be quite so smug when the first good scratch reveals steel underneath. Good luck metal polishing THAT out! Oh to be young and dumb again!

  7. Joe Ross (@llamaphunk) - 9 years ago

    My fear with doing this would be having it malfunction later and get having to get it replaced by Apple. Something like this may void the warranty, and even if it didn’t, you would be getting back a regular stainless steel watch.

  8. taojones2013 - 9 years ago

    silas is spot on in no time the plating will be off the corners and edges and even wiping the watch will remove plating (and toilet paper is the worst thing to use as it contains grit that paper towels don’t have) which is only .3 mills thick at best . if apple wanted an affordable gold watch they could make the case gold filled; that is where a layer of gold 1/20th the thickness of the entire sheet is mechanically applied , then the case is formed as usual stamping and forming your U.S. quarter is basically silver filled, (silver layers with a copper core) as you can see if you look at the edge. you don’t see silver wearing off the face of the quarter and it can be polished) not the same as the real thing ( mostly in the thermal qualities gold heats up to skin temperature almost immediately no other metal feels warm to the touch gold filled included )

  9. Paul Atkinson - 9 years ago

    How thick is the gold plating? Seems a simple scratch and you’ll be sing silver!

    • Paul Atkinson - 9 years ago

      You’ll be seeing silver. F..king spell check.

      • Dan (@danmdan) - 9 years ago

        Rude fellow – spell checkers can not distinguish one correct word “sing” from another “seeing” unless endowed with grammar checks as well, which they rarely are.

  10. danzaph - 9 years ago

    Most of the gold watches out there are gold plated and it holds up, mine is just fine after several years but is not as obtrusive as the Apple watch because it is a very thin watch by comparison. I find the look of the gold plated watch OK and like the gold plated Milanese Loop band, it is just not me.

    Multi-plating of different metals is common, in the case of getting chrome to “stick” one first coper plates, then nickel and finally chrome, this is all well understood.

    • Don Horne (@DonHorne) - 9 years ago

      Finally a sensible comment. I’m not a fan of the look of gold either but the company seems to do very nice work. There’s quite a few people who prefer the look of gold with their wardrobe that otherwise would never be able to afford or justify spending that kind of money on a solid gold piece that serves no other purpose than being a status symbol.

  11. Mosha - 9 years ago

    Liking the color is one thing, getting excited over plated gold is another….

  12. RP - 9 years ago

    He is going to get the five knuckle discount on his head when he gets mugged flashing it around .

  13. Darius Darius - 9 years ago

    There is no need to copper plate first as someone said. We gold-plate the stainless steel Apple Watches and it looks exactly as the original ones. All our customers are happy. You can check yourself on our website AppleWatchGoldplated.co.uk

Author

Avatar for Chance Miller Chance Miller

Chance is an editor for the entire 9to5 network and covers the latest Apple news for 9to5Mac.

Tips, questions, typos to chance@9to5mac.com