Tech

This Italian collector got his hands on rare prototypes of the original Apple Watch

“This stuff doesn’t have an estimated value.”

Apple collector, Giulio Zompetti

Rare prototypes of the OG Apple Watch have surfaced, thanks to a dedicated Italian collector. Giulio Zompetti, a 27-year-old from Milan, collects prototypes of the iPhone and recently obtained 12 of the never-before-seen devices. He decided to share his Apple Watch collection, as well as a fraction of his story, with Motherboard.

The original Apple Watch prototypes have slight differences that never made it to production, including the Death Star-esque logo that's also been seen on iPhone prototypes and a different arrangement of sensors. All of the markings, QR codes, and logos are consistent with prototypes Motherboard has seen in the past.

Cracked gold? — Zompetti said each of the watches he's obtained are broken and that he sourced them from e-waste facilities. Because the key components are still intact, he hopes to be able to fix them before turning around and selling them. How much they'd fetch, exactly, is unclear. "This stuff doesn’t have an estimated value," he said.

Zompetti is a good Twitter follow, too — If you're looking to obtain one of these rare prototypes for yourself, his Twitter account could be the key once he's ready to sell. And if you're not ready to shell out dough, his feed is also full of fun, nerdy details from his wider collection of Apple prototypes.