Are you sitting down? NZ Apple Watch pricing revealed

UPDATE: The Warehouse Group's Noel Leeming chain is the first retailer off the block with an Apple Watch announcement. It will have the Watch in three bricks-and-mortar stores (here) from July 31.

EARLIER: Apple has confirmed its Watch will be available from July 31, and revealed New Zealand pricing (here).

The cheapest model, the Apple Watch Sport, will sell from $599, the standard version from $949, and the Edition range, which includes frills such as gold plating, from $17,500 to $30,000.

Anticipating unfavourable comparisons with US pricing (which excludes sales tax), Apple has taken the unusual step (for it) of including the amount of GST in each Watch's price. 

The $30,000 model includes a GST component of $3914 – reminding NBR of the 1990s when some Macs cost a bomb and keen buyers found it cheaper to fly to the US to buy one (many states let tourists claim back sales tax and of course there's also duty-free shopping).

Even if you're happy dropping $30,000 on a timepiece, consider that Apple typically releases upgrades to its major products once a year. And when Apple Watch 2.0 comes along — probably slimmer and with better battery life — the first models could lose a lot of their value.

Apple is due to release its quarterly result tomorrow New Zealand time but the company has already flagged that it will not include Watch sales. The US business press has piled into the void, with one report claiming Apple Watch sales have tailed off 90% since launch and are now as "few" as 10,000 a day. Apple has made no comment but it's unusual for the company not to have released some kind of brag statement about early sales by the three-month mark.

Check out NBR's quick summary of the first wave of Watch reviews here. It was compiled back in April to coincide with the US release.

Since that time there have been a wave of "my first month with Apple watch style pieces." A number say good but not good enough. One of the most thoughtful is by veteran reviewer Walter Mossberg, who finds plenty of Version 1.0 issues, but ultimately decides he'll probably buy one.

I've only played with an Apple's timepiece once, briefly, as Serko (the travel software people, not the prison operator) showed off its Watch app. While Serko's app seemed nifty, in general the Watch didn't wow. It seems thicker in person than in photos, and it was sometimes slow or finicky to get back to its main screen. Doing the thing where you can control an iPhone camera by remote just wouldn't work at all. 

My main issues remain the battery life (less than a day), and whether a gadget rather than jewellery on your wrist is a fashion step too far, notwithstanding Apple's cool in other areas.

I still can't wait to get my hands on a review unit but I suspect I won't spend my own money until Version 2.0 arrives.