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Apple Watch Reserve & Pickup system now rolling out, select models available in stores

Apple this evening has launched a new Reserve & Pickup system for Apple Watch customers in the UK, Australia, and other countries as they change to June 17th. Earlier today it was reported that Apple Watch would soon be available in retail stores and this development is a step towards that for customers. Apple’s webpage for Reserve & Pickup says that Apple Watch models are available by reservation in retail stores, although availability will still be sparse and limited to select variants of Apple Watch.

The Reserve & Pickup system allows customers to reserve a desired case and band combination online and then go to their local Apple Store to view the selection in-person before completing the purchase. Customers have only a certain window of time to pick up their selected items before they are returned to stock. Users can also only book one reservation at a time.

It appears likely that the new Reserve & Pickup system, which we initially reported on in March, will go live tomorrow, June 17th in the U.S. The online Apple Store in the United States now says “Buy Now” when referring to Apple Watch, whereas it previously said “Buy Exclusively Online.” An Apple support employee also this evening said that starting tomorrow, customers will be able to reserve and pick up Apple Watch in retail stores.

Since its launch, Apple Watch has been available exclusively online due to inventory shortages.

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Comments

  1. Iven Tenz (@ivenalot) - 9 years ago

    8am PST it should go online.

  2. I wish I didn’t need a jailbreak. Stuck on 8.1.2 for now. Spent a lot of $$ on productivity and business apps that only exist within Cydia that Apple won’t let in the store. Annoying, because I want the watch, but it’s simply not possible.

  3. Tony (@campat01) - 9 years ago

    Thanks for the info. I’m skipping the watch. Kids need computers more.

    http://www.gofundme.com/edutoolsforkids

  4. Nick Castro - 9 years ago

    Apple Watch Owner Gives Message to Apple…Its Hilarious “For the watch” https://youtu.be/jFCVFleiHAo

  5. cvnadagroup2017 - 9 years ago

    like

  6. robinlmp - 9 years ago

    Just had a look at it online. What a ridiculous system. Pick a store, then sign in with Apple ID inc a captcha, then text a long string of characters to a specific number, then… then I don’t know because I gave up.

    The long string of digits isn’t even in actual text – it is an image so you can’t copy and paste into a text message.

    This is all just to find out which models are available at a particular store. Can’t imagine how annoying it would be to check several stores.

    Seriously weird. You’d think they are trying to stop people buying their products.

  7. Well I reserved and bought mine here in the UK this morning. Wasn’t as straightforward as I thought it would be, but not as complicated robinimp experienced either.

    Logged into the Apple Store, selected the watch I wanted (42mm Apple Watch Sport in Blue), it said if it was in stock for pickup. To actually reserve it I needed to input my mobile number, then send an SMS with a code to somewhere, which then gave me another code which I had to enter onto the reservation system. It then reserved it for me and I collected it within the half hour windows eh voila.

    I’ve owned an original Pebble (fab), LG G Watch R (lovely but Android Wear is pretty limited), Microsoft Band (basically a sensor suite with a few notifications tagged on), and now the Apple Watch. Got to say it’s a beautiful thing which surprised me because I have always maintained that round watches are the way to go…. Not had a chance to use it properly yet, but functionality wise it is head and shoulder above everything else.

    Apple though really need to let users create or at least purchase third party watchfaces soon however.

  8. John Evos - 9 years ago

    Watches are available today in Southern California……………check it out for yourself depending on your state in CONUS…………….my check revealed 42 mm Black Watch available for pick up today at 12:00 PST

Author

Avatar for Chance Miller Chance Miller

Chance is an editor for the entire 9to5 network and covers the latest Apple news for 9to5Mac.

Tips, questions, typos to chance@9to5mac.com