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You would probably get a better deal selling the watch as a watch itself than melting it down for its raw gold.

Apple has let you bring you old devices in to be recycled in the past however; Maybe they could extend this to buy back old watches? People have envisioned some upgrade program, though I'm doubtful Apple would be too concerned with melting down old watches for their gold.

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If the tech is outdated enough that the OS no longer receives updates, then it's value will be similar to that of a first generation iPad.

I'm sure Apple could buy back, clean, and reuse bands from obsolete watches, but they might be the only buyers if iGold is too difficult for a regular jeweler to work with. It will be interesting to see if one of Apple's first moves on entering the jewelry market is to hamstring the independent secondary market.

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