The ongoing memory chip crisis has continued to affect even more of Apple’s product categories. Those price hikes went into effect starting in June with the Mac, iPad, Apple TV, HomePod, and Vision Pro. When Apple introduced the iPhone 18 Pro models and iPhone Duo this week, Apple also raised the starting prices for the iPhone 17e, iPhone 16, iPhone 17, and iPhone Air by $100. On the other hand, if we take a look at the Apple Watch Series 12, it still starts at $399, so the prices for that smartwatch haven’t changed, right? Well, not quite.
In the past, starting with the Apple Watch Series 1 (introduced in September 2016), the price delta between the smaller and the larger case sizes for the aluminum models, which was the only case option for the Series 1, was $30. The Series 2, which was also introduced in September 2016, also offers more premium materials (stainless steel/ceramic) in addition to the aluminum models, but the pricing difference between the two case sizes for the stainless steel and ceramic options has always been $50.
However, this is no longer the case. If you look really closely at its pre-order page and select the aluminum case option, you’ll see that the larger 46mm case size option now starts at $449, which is $50 more than the starting price of the smaller 42mm case size option. This is now in line with Apple’s more premium material options for the Apple Watch.
The reason for the larger price gap remains unclear, but it’s likely that the Apple Watch Series 12 is now equipped with 4GB of RAM on the S11 chip, which is a nice improvement over the 2GB of RAM on its predecessor, which could be related to the ongoing memory chip shortages. Interestingly, the larger case sizes for the Apple Watch SE 3 continue to be a $30 premium over the smaller case sizes, but keep in mind that it features the S10 chip with 2GB of RAM. Still, despite several price hikes across Apple’s major product categories, it’s quite a sigh of relief that the Apple Watch Series 12 and the Apple Watch Ultra 4 continue to start at $399 and $799, respectively. On another happier note, the ceramic Series 12 models now start at $899 (42mm) and $949 (46mm), which is a significant price drop when Apple previously offered ceramic Series 5 models starting at $1,299.
