Sitting in the very last row of the Yerba Buena theater gave me a novel perspective on Monday’s Apple event. For one thing, I got to see that the applause that punctuates these performances like a sitcom laugh track is coming from the first three rows — the seats reserved for Apple employees.
But it was also a good spot to get a sense of the room, to see and hear how the entire audience was reacting. And from where I sat it seemed like there were two moments the room’s collective heart stopped.
The second moment was when Tim Cook announced the starting price for the gold Edition watch: $10,000. For anyone who knows the luxury watch market — or reads Daring Fireball — it was no surprise. But it was a shock to this audience, and it was the only time Monday I heard a collective gasp. (By that night the $10,000 price tag was evoking spit takes on Comedy Central.)
But ten grand is just the starting price. We learned afterward that the 38mm Edition Watch with a red buckle will go for $17,000. What the 42mm Edition with a gold Milanese loop might cost, Apple is not yet saying. There will be gasps — and spit takes — to come.
Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter at @philiped. Read his Apple (AAPL) coverage at fortune.com/ped or subscribe via his RSS feed.
