Terry Casey sports his "Apple Watch"
Terry Casey sports his one-of-a-kind “Apple Watch”

Terry Casey wanted an Apple Watch ever since the trendy wristwatch arrived on the scene a few months ago. But the retired pharmaceutical salesman balked at the price, which at $349 was just outside of his budget.

applewatch-terry1So when Casey’s 73rd birthday came around late last month, he was delighted to unwrap a gift that included a fancy Apple box. He picked it up, and based on the weight and branding, determined that his Apple Watch was inside.

But this was no ordinary Apple Watch.

No apps. No Bluetooth. And it only told the time properly twice per day. Furthermore, the touch interface on this little beauty would leave your fingers slimy.

Yes, when Casey opened the package on June 27th, he found an actual apple attached to a red band.

His “apple watch” had finally arrived.

Casey’s wife, Judy, hand-crafted the odd time piece, playing a joke on her husband of 50+ years.

Friends, family and neighbors in the room said they could feel the disappointment as Casey pulled out the edible watch. Only the pet Chihuahua seemed interested in the Golden Delicious.

“It had the right heft of a real Apple Watch,” Casey said of the box when he first opened the gift. “I said: ‘Dang, that’s nice.’ I opened it up and I could obviously see that it was an apple. An ‘apple watch.’ I thought, dang.”

Now, the story could just end there as a very cruel joke.

But hidden in the bottom of the box was money that Casey could use to purchase an actual Apple Watch.

Seattle resident Terry Case with his old apple watch and his new Apple Watch.
Seattle resident Terry Case with his old apple watch and his new Apple Watch.

The next day he took the money — along with his “apple watch” — and showed up at the Apple Store in Seattle’s University Village.

“You know how they are kind of like hunting dogs when you get up there at the front (of the store),” said Casey, who hid the watch behind his back as he spoke to an employee. “I said: ‘Well, I’ve got an ‘apple watch’ and it has been losing two or three minutes every day. He said: ‘Oh, really, we have not had that problem before.'”

Casey then showed the Apple employee the watch, who laughed at the sight of a large Golden Delicious apple on his wrist.

What does he think of his new Apple Watch?

“I love it,” says Casey, who especially likes the automatic pre-determined email responses and calendar functionality. “I am learning to drive it. It has a lot of features that I don’t know anything about, and I am learning. So, that’s good.”

His daughter, who originally came up with the spoof and owns her own Apple Watch, is now helping her dad use it.

Now, that he’s got his own Apple Watch, Casey said he was happy with his original birthday surprise (which remains in the refrigerator to show guests, though his 1-year-old granddaughter took a bite of 3 o’clock).

“We had a lot of laughs with it all the way around,” he said. “It was really creative.”

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