How To Buy A Cheap Apple Watch (Tips For Savvy Shoppers)

Looking for a cheap Apple Watch? In this guide, we’ll show you the best places to buy a cheap Apple Watch from – including refurbished options!

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Best Cheap Apple Watch Deals

If you’re in the UK and you’re looking to buy a cheap Apple Watch, mResell has some of the best deals on the market right now for the Apple Watch Series 5.

The Apple Watch devices are refurbished but they look and function as good as new. They’ve also been through an extensive testing and inspection process that ensures they look and function as good as new.

You can pick up the Apple Watch Series 5 from around £339 – and that comes with a 12 months warranty too.

Alternatively, you could use Amazon’s Renewed program to pick up cheap Apple Watch units. I’ve included a selection of some of the best deals right now in the table below:

Prices and images pulled from the Amazon Product Advertising API on:

If you’re looking for the best possible deal for a cheap Apple Watch, Amazon is one of the best places to shop. You can buy a refurbished Apple Watch for as little as $194 for an Apple Watch 2 and $219 for an Apple Watch 3. And because it’s Amazon, you get excellent delivery times.

Best Cheap Apple Watch Deals (Refurbished)

• Apple Watch 2 – $194 (Amazon)
• Apple Watch 3 – $219 (Amazon)
• Apple Watch 1 – $159 (Amazon)

Does it matter that’s it’s refurbished? Not at all; I’ve used multiple refurbished iPhones, iMacs, and MacBooks over the years. They look and function as good as new. The only difference you’ll notice is the price: they’re always about 30-40% cheaper than new models.

In this respect, going the refurbished route is the #1 way to secure yourself a cheap, function Apple Watch. It is the method we recommend most because the quality is always better than simply buying a used one off someone on eBay. You want an Apple Watch that looks and functions as good as new, so for this make sure you take advantage of Amazon’s mega selection of refurbished Apple Watches.

Other Options? 

Another place to look for an Apple Watch is Craigslist or GumTree. As always with any classified sites, you’ll likely be meeting the seller in person. It’s important to do this and not rely on a promise that the seller will post the item to you after you PayPal him the money. I personally wouldn’t recommend this, however, as it is a lot more work than getting one via Amazon’s Renewed Program.

Just remember when you do meet the seller in person to try out the Apple Watch well and make sure it’s not signed in to an iCloud account, suggesting it could be a hot item. While buying Apple Watches on Craigslist or GumTree can seem a bit dodgy, most sellers are honest people and are looking for a quick and easy way to offload their Watch without needing to pay seller fees to the likes of Amazon. This means you can often find Apple Watches for sale for less on classifieds site than you can on only auction sites.

Where would I get mine from? That depends. I’d probably be most likely to go via a major retailer like Walmart or Amazon. However, eBay’s selection of refurbished Apple Watch products is pretty darn extensive, so if you don’t mind bidding on something you could net yourself a very impressive deal.

The Benefits of Buying A Used or Refurbished Apple Watch 

If you’re not prepared to pay full price for something, you have to be willing to make concessions. This goes for when you’re buying a car, a house or, in the context of this article, Apple’s Apple Watch.

And when you’re buying an Apple product, well… that goes doubly. iPhones, iPads, Macs and the Apple Watch all cost a fortune; this is just one of the reasons why Apple will likely become a trillion-dollar company in the next few years.

I mean, if you’re in the market for a smartwatch, something that tracks your fitness and shows you things like notifications, there are a TON of sub-$100 options you can go for right now.

New products come with hefty “margins” attached to them, either by Apple, if you buy direct, or via a retailer like John Lewis or Amazon. They’re all in the business of making money and the only way to do that is to make a profit.

And the way you make a profit, again, in this context, is by selling something – an Apple Watch, for instance – for more than it cost you to acquire it. Apple has MASSIVE profit margins, while retailers operate on pretty slim ones – even more so in the tech space.

Don’t worry, though: John Lewis and Best Buy are still making plenty of coin. Just not as much as Apple, either in this context or in general. Apple makes its products at cost and sells them on at a HUGE markup. Retailers are just along for the ride, picking up the crumbs.

Cheap Apple Watch Units Are Easy To Buy – You Just Gotta Know Where To Look…

But you have quite a few options when it comes to acquiring something like an Apple Watch – or an iPhone, MacBook or iMac, for that matter. You can choose the channel you buy it through, meaning you can opt to pay less for something in certain circumstances. In the technology space – and the car one, too – the best way to do this is to buy “used” or “reconditioned” products, as these are often retailed for upwards of 40% off the RRP of a brand new version.

With devices like the Apple Watch, which are non-essential tech, this is definitely the way to go. Unlike iPhones, they don’t hold their value quite so well. Plus, it’s a watch – so what if it’s second-hand. The main point is you pay WAY below the retail price for a new one. Also, you might not like the Apple Watch after a couple of months, find you don’t really use it. If this happens, you can resell it, happy in the knowledge that you didn’t pay full whack for it in the first place.

How it works is fairly simple: someone gets something they think they want, but in the end, a month or two later, they decide it’s not for them. Rather than let said product sit in a drawer collecting dust, they opt to sell it on, either through a site like eBay or Craigslist, or something slightly more official.

Either way, the net result is the same: it creates a massively depreciated product – as it is now “used” – that can be picked up by a savvy consumer for a lot less money. So long as you make sure the product you’re buying is of decent quality – i.e. it’s not scratched or broken – nine-times-out-of-ten, you’ve got yourself an excellent deal.

Is An Apple Watch Actually Worth It?

For the full retail price, I’d probably say, no – but that’s me, personally. I’m not a huge fan of smartwatches, the Apple Watch included, though I know a lot of people that do quite enjoy them.

I’m just not sold on the concept at present. I’ve been exercising for years without tracking my activities – and I’ve been doing just fine. I hate the constant barrage of notifications I get from my phone and computer as it is, so adding a watch into the mix does nothing for me.

As I said: this is my personal opinion. I know plenty of people who love their Apple Watches, couldn’t go a day without them. They use them and love them and will buy the new one when it comes out.

Also, Apple is constantly adding in more and more features, making Apple Watch easily one of the most useful devices of its type, so if you’re going to get a smartwatch, it might as well be one of these (just make sure you have an iPhone, or else it won’t work properly).

You have to find out whether you like the idea of having things like notifications, heart rate and other applications on your wrist. I get that they’re handy, but after owning a bunch of smartwatches, most of them are now collecting dust in my drawer.

Apple is still chipping away at Apple Watch, adding in new features and, generally speaking, improving the usability of the platform. If you want a smartwatch, the best one around is Apple Watch. And if you want my advice, don’t buy a brand new one – use the table below to access the best deals for renewed models (you’ll save a packet)

Prices and images pulled from the Amazon Product Advertising API on: