Here’s how long you have to work to afford the Apple Watch Edition

Starting at $10,000, the luxury Apple Watch Edition is the Bay Area real estate of smartwatches.

And tomorrow, regular people in select countries will be able to walk into an Apple store and see one of these dandies firsthand. But before you go putting your filthy proletariat paws all over Sir Jony Ive’s latest creation, let’s take a moment to contemplate just what that price tag means.

Because money is all relative, and is in fact a proxy for your time and labor. Spending $10,000 on a bauble would be inconceivable to mere middle-class stiffs or factory workers in Asia, because this sum represents weeks or months of work. Which is probably the point. Apple chief executive Tim Cook, on the other hand, wouldn’t have to hesitate for a second.

That’s because, according to an analysis by the Guardian, Cook would only have to work 2.1 days based on his annual Apple salary to buy the Apple Watch Edition. The average Foxconn factory worker, though would have to work 910 days to earn enough.

And, of course, that assumes they don’t spend money on stuff they need to live, like, you know, food, medicine. Stuff like that.

From this line of thought, the folks at data visualization firm Silk wondered how much the average person would have to work in each of the countries where the Apple Watch Edition ($10,000 version) will go on sale later this month.

Worth noting is that the watch costs more in countries outside the U.S., anywhere from $156 to $2,029 more.

The Guardian also wondered: What percentage of the per capita GDP does the smartwatch represent for each country?

But then, this is the point of true luxury items: to remain far out of reach of the average person, to ensure that the owners can use it to signal that they are in an exclusive economic domain. In that respect, the Apple Watch Edition will look brilliant as you slide behind the wheel of your Tesla and pull out of the driveway of your Pacific Heights condo with its Golden Gate Bridge view.