This morning, everybody is wildly speculating about the Apple Watch, and amid all of that, a rumor has sprung up that Apple is so rich, it’s literally made a new type of gold for the Apple Watch. So, what’s going on? Has Apple rewritten the rules of chemistry?
Why would Apple even want a new form of gold?
Human beings want golden objects on their wrist. But gold kind of sucks to use as a case for your electronics. It’s heavy, it scratches relatively easily, and it conducts heat and electricity extremely well. You want something that is none of those things, especially on your wrist, but the demand for gold Apple stuff is ridiculously high, leaving the company with a conundrum they need to solve.
So, Apple created a new type of gold in the lab?
Not exactly, contrary to what some of the… less-informed articles about “Apple Gold” may be telling you. The most common insistence is that somehow Apple has crammed the molecules of gold closer together, which is something Apple designer Jonathan Ive has actually said, proving that his talents do not lie in chemistry or physics.
So what kind of “gold” does the Apple Watch have?
An advanced composite of gold and ceramics. Essentially, anything gold on the Apple Watch starts as a ceramic matrix, which they fill with gold and then subject to extreme heat and pressure until it becomes one solid piece.
If that sounds familiar, you’re probably a jeweler: Die-striking uses the same technique to build jewelry. Apple has a similar patent that does the same thing with diamonds, by the way, just in case the gold Apple Watch wasn’t quite fancy enough.
…This thing is going to cost more than a new car, isn’t it?
Well, the base model will cost $350, but Apple is holding a press conference today to tell us exactly when the watch is hitting and what to expect. Including, possibly, ingots of Apple Gold.