A new partnership finds Apple looking to connect its watch with the high-fashion set.
As Fashionista reported this week, today (Jan. 22) marks the online launch of the Apple Watch Hermès. The entire collection, which the outlet shares comes in varieties of three strap designs — Single Tour, Double Tour and Cuff and their respective, brand-exclusive, customizable watch faces — is available on both Apple’s and Hermès’ websites. The base prices for the watch varieties range from $1,000 to $1,500.
The Fashionista story points out that when the Apple Watch first hit the market last year, there was some resistance — despite the item’s otherwise impressive number of pre-orders (which reached 1 million in the first 24 hours) — among fashion-focused consumers that the gadget wouldn’t suit their personal standards of aesthetics. The Hermès partnership, announced in September, was, the outlet attests, a strategic move on Apple’s part towards the goal of putting those types of concerns regarding the Apple Watch to rest.
While the Apple Watch Hermès has been available in stores since October of last year, its consumer reach has been inherently limited in that regard. Although, as The Verge notes, Apple has not released sales numbers for the Apple Watch, the move to now release the more design-focused version in the online space indicates an even stronger effort on the part of the tech giant to expand its consumer appeal.
