I dunno - they convinced me. By arguing that Apple has become the most recognizable luxury brand in China, they can pretty much rewrite what luxury watches are "supposed" to do. After all, they've done a pretty good job of convincing their customers to buy a new phone every eighteen months or so. If they can convince the 300m people in China's middle class that luxury items need charging and are to be replaced every 18 months, they can create an entire category of luxury items. The fact that there are no Android Wear rip-offs available on the black market but there are already a half-dozen fake Apple Watches was pretty compelling evidence of the soundness of the strategy as far as I'm concerned. But only time will tell.
>After all, they've done a pretty good job of convincing their customers to buy a new phone every eighteen months or so. I think that has more to do with carrier contracts than anything else. new products in all categories come out all the time, and most people don't upgrade until theirs breaks. my cable company won't give me a new TV free with a 2 year contract, but the cell phone company will.
Small sample size, but I was at lunch with my nouveau riche Chinese brother-in-law yesterday, and I asked him what he thought about the watch. He said it would have to be very useful before he considered it because you need to charge it so often. Yesterday night, my wife was browsing WeChat, and started laughing. I asked her why, and she said that it was a thread making fun of the Apple Watch. Doesn't seem a slam dunk from my limited Chinese market research.