Apple Watch could influence gold prices

The new Apple Watch could be a key factor in stimulating gold prices.

Apple's latest device comes in three different versions – Watch, Sport and Edition. The latter will have a case of 18-carat gold and carry a price tag of between £8,000 and £13,500 when it is launched in the UK on April 10th. This has prompted predictions that it could potentially stimulate gold prices depending on consumer demand.

The Wall Street Journal estimates that Apple is planning to produce as many as one million units of the Edition every month. If these predictions come to fruition it will make the Californian tech giant responsible for nearly a third of the world's gold production. This is expected to trigger a huge surge in demand and be the biggest catalyst for an increase in gold price for years.

MoneyMorning, which also covered the story, stated: "If some of the sales and gold content projections are correct, the gold Apple Watch could soon gobble up nearly a third of the world's gold production.

"That would constitute 746 tons of the precious metal, making it the third-largest gold consumer in the world, after the whole of China and India."

The price of gold stood at $1,157.64 (£782.77) as of 10:23 GMT on Monday (March 16th) after a brief fall during early morning trading.

Return to product innovation

The launch of the Apple Watch is the company's first innovation since the death of co-founder and chief executive officer Steve Jobs. The firm will be hoping that the Watch has similar success to its previous products such as the iPod, iPhone and iPad. The latter two products helped Apple record the biggest profit ever for a public company over a quarter.

Apple announced a net profit of $18 billion for the first fiscal quarter, smashing the previous record of $15.9 billion set by ExxonMobil in 2012.

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