Some days I wake up thinking the world has gone mad. Case in point: there’s now a $899 Apple Watch case.
While I don’t have UK or Australian pricing to hand, I think you can translate that dollar price to something equally hefty in other currencies. The case comes in two equally expensive variants: the Crown Sport and the Crown Classic. The Sport comes on a rubber strap and the Classic features a metal bracelet. And there are silver and rose gold options.
These pricey cases are the brainchild of Golden Concept – the kind of name I’d expect graphics cards of the early 2000s to sport – and are designed to blend modern technology with classic watchmaking.
Yeah, so it’s a no from me.
An unholy mix
The case seems to draw inspiration from the Patek Philippe Nautilus, with a form of wing on the left side, and the Rolex Daytona, via its chronograph-style pushers on the right-hand side. For people who don’t know, those are two so-called ‘hype watches’ that are hard to get hold of and have rocketed in price. There’s what appears to be a deployant-style clasp for the strap, but it’s hard to tell from the photos.
Look, I applaud the gumption in trying to add something to the Apple Watch, which I feel is a brilliant but utterly soulless smartwatch that’s kinda ubiquitous on the wrists of commuters I pass by. But I feel that trying to add a mechanical watch vibe to the Apple Watch, or any smartwatch, is a swing and a miss.
One of the reasons why the Apple Watch models consistently top our best smartwatches list is that they have a design that’s hard to beat – they're compact but still with a usable display and buttons, and feel nice to the touch. Plus there are plenty of strap options, and with a choice between aluminum and titanium materials, you can get an aesthetically pleasing Apple Watch without needing to go down the third-party case route.
Now I’ve worn a good few smartwatches, and I appreciate how useful they can be with all the data they suck up and spit out. But recently I’ve developed a taste for mechanical watches. And I simply don’t think a smartwatch, no matter how bougie the case, can replicate the feeling of wearing an automatic or hand-wound watch.
There’s just a more tactile, purposeful, and stylish feeling that you get with a ‘real’ compared to what’s basically a wrist-worn computer. You develop a form of human-and-machine relationship with such a watch, especially given that it’s powered by you, via either your movement or winding.
As such, I think both traditional and smartwatches have a place in today’s world; I just don’t think the streams should be crossed. And I certainly don’t think that paying more than the cost of an Apple Watch 10 to get a case to give it the pseudo look of two watches that could almost be seen as distasteful due to the hype around them is a smart approach.
For around $900 you can get an Apple Watch and have some spare money for a great automatic watch – my recommendation would be something from Seiko or the excellent Baltic HMS 003.
Equally, if you already have an Apple Watch and want some nice extra wrist wear, then I’d suggest getting something like the Christopher Ward 63 Dune – I have one in to test in bronze, and it’s excellent, offering a lot for around a grand in British bullion.
And for people on a tighter budget, Christopher Ward has the C63 Sealander, a watch that comes in at £685 in the UK and has the design, specs, waterproofing and strap options to see you from the boardroom to the beach.
In fact, for around the combined price of an Apple Watch and the Golden Concept Crown Sport, you could get a new Apple Watch and a C63 Sealander.
Maybe I’m just stuck in my ways, and there’s an audience there for such bling-y Apple Watch cases. But my advice, both professional and personal, is to go for a smartwatch and a mechanical watch, rather than try and combine the two.
