If you were hoping to cop a OnePlus Watch 3, you can finally buy one starting today. The problem is it’s no longer the $329.99 price that was originally intended when OnePlus announced the device a few months ago. It’s now $499, a $170 or roughly 52 percent markup.
The price hike was spotted by a number of Android blogs, but what makes this odd is a lack of official communication from OnePlus itself. Normally, companies will alert press and long-time customers as consumers generally don’t react well to unexplained price hikes. However, no such hint came from OnePlus before the smartwatch went on sale. When asked about the price increase, OnePlus spokesperson Spenser Blank told The Verge, “We don’t have any additional comment to share at this time.”
The obvious explanation, though unconfirmed by OnePlus, would be tariffs. Unless you’ve been hibernating under a rock, you’ve probably seen headlines about President Trump’s ever-increasing tariffs against products shipped from China. (As of this writing, they’re currently sitting at 145 percent.) While most wearables and gadget makers I’ve spoken to have acknowledged tariffs will have an impact on pricing, some have opted to take a more wait-and-see approach. This is, however, one of the first examples of a smartwatch actually increasing in price, let alone by such a dramatic amount.
It’s also unusual given that many gadget makers attempted to delay such price hikes by increasing inventory ahead of the tariffs taking effect — keeping consumers from actually feeling the impact of tariffs on their wallet as soon. Others, like Framework, temporarily opted to halt some sales in the U.S.
But OnePlus may not have been able to stockpile units in the US early because of an ironic mistake. The OnePlus Watch 3 was originally set to launch back in February but was delayed because of an unfixable typo engraved in the backplate.
That typo: ‘Meda in China.’
