October 16, 2026, 12:39 pm | Read time: 3 minutes
Just in time for Apple’s 50th anniversary, a fully functional Apple Computer 1 went under the hammer at the U.S. auction house Bonhams. Of the hand-assembled boards from 1976, fewer than 100 examples have survived to this day. This special piece of computer history was auctioned for the record sum of $1.15 million (one million euros).
Apple Computer 1 Fetches Record Sum
At the close of the auction on October 14, two bidders were still in the running, driving the price ever higher. In the end, the rare Apple computer fetched a significantly higher sum than Bonhams had estimated beforehand. The auction house had valued it at $500,000 to $800,000 (approximately 431,000 to 690,000 euros).
With the highest bid of $1.15 million, the historic computer breaks the previous sales record of $671,000–which it set itself in 2016. The Computer 1 is thus the most expensive commercially available Apple product. Only the extremely rare “Celebration” board–a fiberglass prototype of the Apple-1–fetched more, with $2.75 million (2.44 million euros) in early 2026.
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What Makes the Apple Computer 1 So Special?
According to the website “Apple-1 Registry,” 94 confirmed examples of the Apple-1 still exist. According to the auction house Bonhams, there are even fewer than 75, of which even fewer are still functional today. The item Bonhams will auction in October in New York is the famous “Hatfield” Apple-1. The special feature: Apple co-founder and genius tinkerer Steve Wozniak himself signed the board with “Woz.” The package also includes a letter from Steve Jobs himself to the original owner, Fred Hatfield–hence the name.
Fred Hatfield purchased the computer during Apple’s early days. On January 18, 1978, Steve Jobs offered him in writing to exchange the Apple-1 for an Apple-II board with 4 kilobytes of memory. However, Hatfield did not accept the offer and kept the computer.
Technology Original and Functional
The mainboard measures 230 by 395 millimeters and bears the imprint “Apple Computer 1 // Palo Alto. Ca. Copyright 1976.” It features a white MOS Technology processor of type 6502, a full 8 kilobytes of RAM, and three of the distinctive blue, original Sprague capacitors. It also includes connections for a keyboard, expansions, and a cassette drive. The original Apple cassette interface from 1976 is also preserved.
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According to Bonhams specialist Ian Ehling, the Apple Computer 1 is “one of the most important milestones in computer history, and the ‘Hatfield’ specimen is among the most fascinating preserved examples.” It was not only Apple’s first product but also one of the “first commercially available personal computers” worldwide. In 1976, the computer was among the first with a pre-assembled mainboard and built-in video output, which significantly simplified its use.