Ondrej Holzman Regarding the Apple Watch Edition, i.e. the gold series of the upcoming watches, the main topic of discussion is the price. Many are predicting an amount exceeding ten thousand dollars, but the gold itself, which Apple improved with its own help, is no less interesting for the gold Watch.
Jony Ive and his team's obsession with all the materials that appear in Apple products has gone so far as to create harder-than-usual gold in Apple's laboratories. Thanks to the new process, the molecules in 18-karat gold for watches are closer together.
"The molecules in Apple's gold are closer together, making it twice as hard as regular gold." he said Jony Ive in an interview for Financial Times. Thanks to this, the gold Apple Watch will be more durable, and thanks to this, Apple could use significantly less gold in its production.
Apple has patented a technology that can reduce 18-karat gold to half its weight. It is not an ordinary alloy, but a metal matrix composite, where instead of silver, copper or other metals, Apple mixes gold with light and bulky ceramic particles (in the classic ratio for 18-carat gold: 75% gold, 25% impurities). As a result, this means that this specially treated gold has half the weight of a regular 18-carat alloy.
Ceramic additives then make the resulting gold harder and much more scratch resistant. Using less gold than would be needed under normal conditions is important for two reasons: thanks to this, Apple can relatively reduce the price of the Watch Edition, and at the same time, it will not need such a huge amount of gold for their production.
Tim Cook already mentioned the new process that makes the gold in the watch harder during the September keynote, but was not more specific. Jony Ive has now confirmed that this makes Apple's gold twice as hard, and the company's mentioned patent even talks about four times the hardness.
Even the new technology, which looks inconspicuous, but could end up being one of the biggest innovations in the Apple Watch ever, will have an effect on the final price of the gold models. They are talking about a price from 4 to 500 dollars. We'll find out everything tonight.
Only a physico-linguistic imbecile could have produced this. Gold is gold, a chemical element, and under normal ambient conditions no one can force its atoms to behave abnormally :-)
Well, mainly the statement "gold atoms are closer to each other and therefore it is 2x lighter" is a pearl fact. :-) I don't understand that someone mindlessly parrots it.
"Apple has patented a technology that can reduce the amount of gold in 18-karat gold by half, while still remaining 18-karat."
This sentence would really like to explain if the article is to have any informational value.
For those who don't want to google it: 18 carat gold must contain 75% gold by weight. Apple has managed to make an alloy that meets this, but the 25% impurities are extra light and bulky, so a product of the same shape will have half the weight of a "standard" 18-carat alloy, and therefore contain only half the gold.
So it is no longer 18 carat gold but a gold alloy of something with something, they reduce the cost of gold where they mix half of it with another half but sell it as if it were 100% 18 carat gold and sell it for 10 times more margin, it's not that it can't be scratched, it's that it's a trick on the customer because if I present something as 18 carat, it should be like that and it doesn't matter if it gets scratched or not, it's supposed to be gold, so let it be gold and not some alloy of something with something. When I go to a goldsmith's shop and buy an 18-karat gold ring and I find out that it is only an alloy of gold with something, I wouldn't like it either, so for me, I wouldn't buy it on that principle alone
If you go to a goldsmith and buy an 18 carat piece of jewelry, you will always get a gold alloy. Pure gold = 24 carats
So. In addition, gold alloys are somehow clearly agreed upon, with what and in what proportion. So certainly no one will buy the ceramic alloy; in addition, apparently it can no longer be recast or reworked as an alloy. So I take it as an interesting material, a composite :)
And above all, Apple cannot claim that they created a new type of gold, they only made an alloy of gold, it is no longer gold but an alloy, gold is natural, if you brought that alloy to a goldsmith, the goldsmith would beat you over the head, so it is not a new type of gold, but an alloy of gold with something, so I would recommend the author to change the title of the article because the new type of gold is quite misleading, the gold is purely natural and not because it will be an alloy and in that case it cannot be 18 carat
Write another marketing move with that "hard gold". But it didn't convince me to buy them. To conservative customers, I evoke a bit of a toy for children. Gold Tag Heuer :)
they are already on apple.com
http://www.apple.com/watch/films/#film-design
Sometimes it would be better to remain silent than to write such atrocities Mr. Editor! And whoever gives them 10k Dolars for this kitsch is probably really crazy - I'm really looking forward to the sales statistics - if there are any.
I don't care, I'll buy a Watch. Hello