Apple Filing Points to Expanded Sapphire Production, Possibly for Wearables

Apple is ramping up sapphire crystal production, documents shared with 9to5Mac by PTT Research Analyst Matt Margolis show. The analyst-investor points to several documents he uncovered during his research and highlights a couple of keywords Apple uses in them. These documents talk about an “aggressive expansion” in August, and that the sub-component GT-Advanced needs to supply are “articles of jewelry”, suggesting they may have some connection with the iWatch.

Over the past few weeks we’ve heard contradictory reports about the highly anticipated gizmo, with some experts confident that we will see it this year, though others — like Ming-Chi Kuo— are claiming Apple has pushed back its launch to 2015.

The documents shared by Margolis contain an interesting addition to the iWatch rumours. First there is a July letter from Apple’s Director of Global Trade Compliance James J. Patton to the US Department of Commerce indicating Apple’s “aggressive” expansion plan for August. This must be different from the one reported for February.

Considering that the iPhone 6 is already in production, Mark Gurman speculates that this sub-component that GT-Advanced will supply is for another device. Also, considering that it is categorized as “jewelry”, the first thing that comes into mind is the iWatch, as it was said to be a fashionable device.

Apple’s iWatch is said to feature 512MB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage. The company is rumoured to be holding an iWatch event in October, but the release date of the Apple smartwatch is yet cloaked in mystery.