Apple unveils the long-awaited Apple Watch, starting at $349

Apple CEO Tim Cook unveiled all the details about the long awaited Apple Watch today, the first completely new device the company has released since the death of Steve Jobs.

Touted as "the most advanced timepiece" ever created, the watch face is customizable with the date, your upcoming meetings, or even something silly, like a dancing Mickey Mouse. The watch also includes a speaker and microphone, so you can answer calls directly from your watch. And in addition to sending and receiving text messages, the watch offers digital touch features, including watch-to-watch doodle and heartbeat sharing. Tired of taking out your wallet to make purchases? Apple Watch is also integrated with Apple Pay, which is now supported by 2,500 banks and nearly 700,000 retailers. And of course, the Apple Watch can display notifications from your favorite news sources and sports games, and provides voice interaction with Siri.

In terms of health tracking, the watch features a pedometer and a heart monitor, in what is clearly a bid to make fitness wearables like FitBit obsolete.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The Apple Watch will be available on April 24, and pre-orders will being on April 10. Price points for the Apple Watch Sport start at $349, while the mid-tier Apple Watch starts at $549. The high-end Apple Watch Edition, which features 18-carat solid gold, will be priced from a whopping $10,000.

Apple also used the event to announce its new MacBook, which is its thinnest ever and features an energy-efficient display.