The $10,000 Apple Watch will stop getting major software updates from Apple starting this fall
- Apple on Monday announced WatchOS 5, the next version of its operating system for the Apple Watch.
- When it arrives this fall, the update will be compatible with Apple Watch Series 1 or later.
- That means it won’t work with the gold Apple Watch Edition, which started at $10,000 and could cost as much as $17,000.
- Apple discontinued the watch in 2016.
When Apple’s new Apple Watch software arrives this fall, one group of users will be left out of the update: those who shelled out for the $10,000 Apple Watch Edition.
Wirecutter’s Andrew Cunningham first noticed the change.
Apple announced the new WatchOS5 software at the 2018 Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday. The update includes several exciting new features, like a smarter version of Siri, interactive notifications, and a new Walkie-Talkie style of communicating.
But Apple says the update will be compatible with Apple Watch Series 1 or later. That means Apple is no longer giving major software updates to its first generation Apple Watch — nicknamed the Apple Watch Series 0 — and the original Apple Watch Edition, an 18-karat gold version that started at $10,000 and cost as much as $17,000.
Apple stopped selling the gold Apple Watch Edition a year after its 2015 debut. When Apple unveiled the Apple Watch Series 1 and Apple Watch Series 2 in 2016, the gold watch disappeared from Apple’s online store entirely. These days, you may be able to find it on a secondary market like eBay.
Apple never disclosed how many gold Apple Watch Editions it sold, but sharp-eyed fans have spotted the watch on celebrities like Beyonce, Kanye West, Pharrell, Katy Perry, Drake, and Karl Lagerfeld.
Apple replaced the gold version with a ceramic Apple Watch Edition, which retails for the much more reasonable price of $1,299. That watch, along with Apple’s array of other watches, will be compatible with WatchOS 5.
The 18-karat gold Apple Watch Edition.
Edgar Su/Reuters
