In a long anticipated move to narrow the gap between itself and other tech companies, Apple last week announced the official details and release of its very own smartwatch named “Apple Watch” under standard Apple simplicity conventions. 

A smartwatch is technically a wrist watch, but also has built into it the capability for voice commands, music, slimmed down versions of apps, GPS, and syncing of content to your phone, including texts, emails, and even phone calls. 

The Apple Watch comes complete with silver, rounded edges, and according to Apple’s website, “Brilliantly scratch-resistant sapphire crystal” harvested with “a very thin diamond-cutting wire…precision-machined into its final form and polished for many hours.”  However, Apple neglects to say what exactly the final form is, what it looks like, or where exactly this sapphire is on the watch, but I will take their word for it.

The Apple Watch steel 38mm case edition is expected to retail for an easy, one-time payment of about $549. The 42mm case edition will start at $599.  Customizations on the type of watch band can bring the price on the 38mm up to $1,050.

Also offered will be a more wallet-friendly edition called Apple Watch Sport, which will have a lighter weight aluminum case, and a color-customizable plastic band. And what a budget it is, at $349 for the 38mm case and $399 for 42mm. Apple also neglected to specify to whose wallet this edition is friendly.

There will also be the Apple Watch Edition, which features 18-karat gold crafted by Apple metallurgists “to be up to twice as hard as standard gold.” Standard gold is actually quite soft, not ideal for building thin casings. This watch will retail for an estimated $10,000 and up to $17,000 depending on band choice, providing a much-needed supply to the heavy demand coming from Apple executives themselves. 

The question on everyone’s minds now must be how this watch from Apple, a company that has relied almost entirely on branding, marketing, and prestige pricing to achieve its current level of success, will stack up against existing smartwatch competitors.

Companies such as Samsung, LG, Motorola, Sony, and some guy on Kickstarter have already been producing similar watches in both look and function for years. The Pebble watch is the largest player in the smartwatch market, compatible with both iOS and Android devices, and was announced to the public by a one-person startup led by Eric Migicovsky via a Kickstarter campaign worth over $10 million in 2012. It has sold more than a million units since 2013. 

The plastic, budget-friendly, yet full-featured edition of the Pebble watch sells for $99.  Compare this to Apple Watch Sport starting at $349.

The stainless steel edition of the Pebble watch sells for $199. Compare this to the Apple Watch starting at $549. 

In February, the Pebble Technology Corporation announced its newest generation of the Pebble watches. It comes with an e-paper display allowing it to promise between 7 and 10 days of battery life. The Apple Watch promises up to 18 hours, and most other smartwatches promise on average anywhere from 15-48 hours of battery life. It will also use a standardized 22mm watch band, allowing customers to also purchase any third-party watch band, whose prices start on the low end at a couple of dollars, and use it on their watch. Compare this with the Apple Watch which uses a proprietary Apple band, so you must purchase extra or replacement bands from Apple, with prices starting at $49, following the standard Apple business model.

You may be asking yourself how a guy who started and continues to run his business (now at 130 employees) primarily off a crowdfunding website was able to bring a concept watch to reality with all the desired functionality, three years before the release of Apple Watch. You may be asking yourself why people care about Apple’s late entry to the smartwatch market that provides less than existing watches do for anywhere from two to five times the cost. Good questions.