It's a familiar dilemma: You possess a $10,000 watch. But you're also fond of the new Apple Watch, with its shiny screen and gentle buzzes. And wearing two gadgets on separate wrists just seems so gauche. What to do?
Nico Gerard has you covered. Starting today, the company is taking pre-orders for a timepiece that sports a classic-looking luxury watch on one side of the band — and, on the underside, is a 38mm Apple Watch.
This is not a joke.
"Before Nico Gerard, people were forced to choose," Adam Pluemer, president of the Sunnyvale, California, company, told BuzzFeed News in an interview. "You had to pick whether you were going to put on your luxury timepiece or your Apple Watch or smart device. Our oracle is to make sure our clientele is uncompromised and has the ability to do both. "
The uber-watch, known as the Pinnacle, is made in stainless steel and 18-karat gold. Prices range from $9,300 to $112,000, not including the $200 cost of joining the waiting list and the unquantifiable agony of waiting up to a year for the device to ship.
Pluemer is confident there is an underserved market for a device such as the Pinnacle given that he'd buy one himself.
"The core of the idea was the luxury watches that I did own, I didn't want to give them up for the Apple Watches," said Pluemer, whose collection includes a Breitling Navitimer, a Blancpain, and a TAG Heuer.
Wearing the Apple Watch on the inside of the wrist preserves privacy, Pluemer says, "so someone's not reading a text message across the conference-room table." Checking notifications is easier, too. "You can look really quickly at your Apple Watch and see this is an email from someone I can respond to later," Pluemer said.
But is it comfortable? Yes, Pluemer said. "The inside of the band is actually shorter than the outside of the band so it sits comfortably on the wrist."
Nico Gerard's consumers will ideally wear their two-in-one timepieces in situations like this: "The tranquil morning dew is cool and the fresh air is still. The dawn of a new day glows red with promise. You feel the warmth of the sun's rays wrap around you as the sun crests the horizon. The morning beauty fills your heart with joy. The red face of the Nico Gerard Sunrise PINNACLE lets you experience the excitement of a sunrise as this unique work of art graces your wrist."
Last fall, Pluemer was piloting a food-centered social networking platform when Apple announced the Apple Watch. The watch's sensors intrigued Pluemer, a biomedical engineer by training and a lifelong timepiece lover. So he started the watch company in November along with four other people, including his cousin, Nicolas Gerard, for whom the company is named. The Pinnacle is its first product.
Apple does not play a role in Nico Gerard's operations, Pluemer says, but has a $17,000 watch of its own.
"There's a class of user that wants a luxury timepiece, a fashion timepiece, but they also are a fan of technology," Pluemer said. "This was the solution we came up with for exactly that."
