Karl Lagerfeld, creative director of Chanel and Fendi and enterprising cat owner, has received a custom-made, gold-banded Apple watch. Lagerfeld’s bodyguard and right-hand man, Sébastien Jondeau, thanked Apple for the gift via Instagram. Apple has actively courted the fashion community, wherein an acknowledgment from ”Kaiser Karl” is no small gesture.
The watch has a gold link band, which has not been made available to plebeians. Commoners who purchase a $10,000 gold Apple watch with the public on April 24 will be forced to settle for a gold-buckled band made of leather.
While a solid gold link band is no doubt costly—some Apple experts estimate upwards of $25,000—Quartz has reported that Apple’s proprietary gold, which likely contains ceramic powder, is less fancy than more traditional gold alloys, which include precious metals such as platinum and silver.
The functions of the Apple watch include phone calls, text messaging, email management, heartbeat tracking, activity sensors, and GPS, among others. When Jondeau shared the photo of Lagerfeld’s Apple watch, which he paired with a gold-zippered mesh glove, the device appeared not to have been activated.
No matter. Lagerfeld had already identified its primary function: as a status symbol.