Update: All Apple Watch models in the US are now at minimum 4 – 6 week shipping estimates in less than six hours.
Whether due to high demand or low supply, all models of Apple Watch have now almost entirely sold out with many slipping delivery date estimates in mere minutes of preorders opening. In the US, the 38 mm Stainless Steel Case with Black Classic Buckle is the only model still on offer with a ‘April 24th – May 8th’ shipping date.
AppleCare+ pricing is now also visible on store.apple.com. AppleCare+ costs $49 for Apple Watch Sport, $69 for Apple Watch and $1500 for Apple Watch Edition. Interestingly, Apple is also offering a ‘combo purchase’ where you can buy AppleCare+ for both your iPhone and your Watch at a bundled price of $100 more. The bundle prices don’t offer any saving over buying both devices (if you can ignore the negligible $1 difference), so they seem to be offered as a convenience purchase only.
Although availability varies by SKU, many Apple Watch and Apple Watch Editions are now not expected to ship until June, or even later. The Rose Gold Apple Watch Editions do not ship until July, for instance. International availability is even more scarce. In Japan, some models indicate six month shipping times.
Angela Ahrendts warned customers that supply was constrained in a press release yesterday. However, it is not clear whether this is due to relatively high demand or low production. Apple announces fiscal earnings for Q2 at the end of the month, although they are unlikely to mention specific Apple Watch sales numbers.
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I had an interesting experience. I went for a 42mm Sport in silver with a blue band. Managed to get in through the Apple Store app around 08:05am (UK) and added it to the basket straight away. Delivery was 24 April-8 May. Got to payment screen and realised there was no way to use an Apple Store gift card I had been given in the app. Killed the order and thought I must be missing something, so went in and started a new order. Delivery date had changed to “4-6 weeks”. Checked my gift card in the meantime and realised it didn’t mention being able to use it in app, so went online to the web Store – and it was still down, as with iPhone 6. Maybe it was the number of people trying to get on. Pressed refresh a few times and around five minutes later, it let me in – by which time, delivery had already slipped to 12 May-25 May! Ah well, at least I managed to order one. It’s amazing how quickly the dates slipped!
For future reference, you can just go ahead and complete the order. Then call Apple the next day to have them apply the gift card balance to the order. That way you won’t miss out on launch day.
I did the same. Couldn’t believe there was no box for voucher code. Jumped on a mac and sneaked in on a green one luckily.
I’d completed my order by 3:03pm Western Australian time. Two SS, one with SS band (42″) and other with pink (38″). Both delivery dates are 12/5-25/5. Seems likely that times differ depending on the production of the various combinations. Also purchase 42″ black sports band and 38″ white, with 30/4-11/5 and “May” respectively.
Hey Guys, if you have a order confirmation but you can’t track your order, must you be worried?
There won’t be tracking information until it actually ships… which might be a couple days if you’re in the 4/24-5/8 bracket, they have a lot of processing to do first.
I don’t think you’ll be able to track your order until it’s dispatched.
Yeah, just got my order updates. 24/4-8/5 yeaaaaahhhhh!!!
I was able to order a Space Gray Sport model through the Apple Store app and got the 4/24-5/8 delivery estimate. I used Apple Pay, but for some reason it charged the wrong card (I had previously dragged them around in an attempt to swap my favorite/preferred card but apparently that’s not how you do it) – I’m not even sure how it approved the wrong card as there wasn’t enough money on it, though there is now!
They don’t charge you right away. I’ve got a new credit card which sends me push notifications as soon as there is a transaction going on. And interestingly, right after the purchase I received a push notification stating that Apple Online Store has credited 1€! Probably just to check if the credit card is valid. And they will probably charge us when shipping?
(On a side node, I don’t know if other credit cards just omit those informations. I changed my credit card in my iTunes account just yesterday and iTunes charged me 1,98€ – I also believe this is just a test and they will refund that money; I didn’t buy anything. Had that with another online service, too. Changed the credit card, they charged 0,01€ and refunded that a few days later). I’ve not seen many of these micro-transactions on my bills before, that’s why I’m thinking my new one probably just shows them because I get everything pushed in real-time)
I work for Apple and you’re correct, they do push through an “approval” for $1 or 1€ to ensure the card info is correct and valid, but it’s just an approval and will never really be taken from your account or given to Apple…
Was pretty straight forward for me, used the Apple Store App and was done in a few clicks at 8:02 (UK time). Did prepare though and turned on the quick checkout option yesterday. I’ve always found the app quick and easy rather than the website. We had plenty of warning!
I “looked” at 4:45 a.m. US DST – and the Space Grey 42mm with Link Band was showing June Delivery!
Glad I was just looking. :)
What a great way to steal my enthusiasm before I even get my hands on the product. I preordered this morning, and my Apple Watch won’t ship until June. June???!!! Seven months after they announced this product, and they don’t have enough made to fill the initial demand? This is BS!
I agree 100%!!!! Shame on Apple for the way they have handled this!! They set the whole thing up based on their time on the west coast…well I live on the east coast and wasn’t getting up at 3:00am!!! I thought Apple would be considerate enough to take that into consideration, but no they didn’t!!!! I’m completely disgusted!!!
I foolishly trusted Apple that if I pre-ordered today that I would have the watch on April 24 not JUNE!!! They are going to hear about it from me over this!!!
You must have been under a rock for every other launch in the last several years from Apple then…. as far as I remember they’ve always done it based on 12a PDT. Why would they change for this launch?? I hear you it’s a PITA, but it is what it is.
So Apple tells you exactly when you can start to preorder and because it’s inconvenient for you for are “disgusted”? The east coast of the united states isn’t the only place in the world. Early delivery dates on Apple preorders are normally gone extremely quickly, so it’s ridiculous that you assumed they’d have enough to meet the full worldwide demand on day 1 of shipping.
Apple did everything to prepare their customers for the launch. It was your decision to sleep through the beginning of the preorder period, and thus it’s your fault that you don’t have an early delivery date.
And so it begins…
Some people here disagree with us, but they’re idiots. I have preordered almost every iPhone that I’ve owned, and I received them all the day they were available to the public. One of them the day before. Apple had a responsibility to have enough in stock to not sell out within 15 minutes. Waiting until June is BS. So, by the time I get my Apple Watch, they’ll announce a new one within 3-4 months. It pisses me off that I have spent a lot of my hard earned money and I have nothing to show for it for over 2 months. I suggest we all send Tim Cook an email to complain. And one more thing…. I received one of Apple’s marketing emails this morning telling me to preorder now, and that the Apple Watch would be available on April 24th. What that email did not contain was a disclaimer saying that some orders may be delayed. That’s false advertising.
You’re buying an overpriced luxury product that seven months ago you didn’t even know existed, and now you’re *disgusted* because it’ll arrive two months later than expected, and somehow you think Apple owes you something? Jesus Christ, have a little perspective.
The Space Gray version, which I’m buying for each of my sons, was pushed to June shipping within the first 17 minutes of availability. In fact, the only people that got it in May or April seem to be those that bought it via the Apple Store app because the website didn’t come back online until about 12:10am (PST). It’s a little disheartening, but I expected that certain color combinations (black being the most obvious) would be sold out quickly.
Let’s cross our fingers that now Apple has actual firm orders in the system, they can ramp up production quickly and push the devices out sooner than the initial estimates.
Yeah, I’m sure they decided to not make enough. I’m sure Apple doesn’t want to sell their products as quickly as possible and make as much revenue as possible.
They’re obviously making as many as they possibly can. They know that the longer it takes to get one the more likely it’ll be that people will wait for gen 2. The iPhone 6 was extremely supply constrained for a while, as was the iPhone 5. They’ll catch up eventually.
I ordered my Apple watch at 3:03 EST, and now it’s not coming until May 13 to 25. WTF Apple
here is my take on “sold out” apple watches.
i think the strategy people use is to order a 38 and a 42 mm watch. try it on and return the one they do not want.
not that “sold out” i think.
will the returned watches be sold as refurbs?
some show a waiting time of 6 months? wow. wait for another 6 months, and the apple watch 2 would be shipping ;-)
Weird, I completed an order for a 42mm space gray and regular stainless watch at 3:06am EDT… the space grey steel had a delivery date of “June” and the regular stainless had a delivery date of May 12-25. I guess I’ll try to pick them up locally after they launch in stores.
They’re not going to have stock in stores, everything is pre-order. They’re only going to have “try on” units in the stores, which, as of right now, you need to make an appointment to check out. So, don’t just go canceling your order just yet…
I was on the site at 3am EST, however the apple store was up right at 3AM, I noticed that the apple store app was up much sooner than the webiste. So I continued to use the apple store app, but found out at check out that I couldnt use the payment that I wanted to use, so I had to wait until the website was back up. So I can only assume the few minutes I needed to wait for the website to come back up, is what cost me the April 24th ship date, now I currently have 4-6 weeks ship date. (Orderd: 42mm stainless steel, black leather band).
You know Apple is notorious for doing this. Very have very limited supply of inventory at launch and then they create the illusion that it is SOLDOUT!!! Meaning it is selling like hot cakes. Well that may be true with the iPhone but I just knew that at launch very limited availability would happen.
One of the best marketing gimmicks for launches of products!!!
I think what you mean is that the idea that Apple does this is notorious. I don’t believe for a second that that’s what they do
I wonder if the shipment time is a lie. There are several other times where the shipping times said 4-6 weeks but were still there on launch day. But this delivery testament may be accurate because you cannot pick up the watches on launch day in store. Within 10 minutes after the site was back up most were 4-6 weeks with the 42 black sport was June.
I can imagine going to the store on the 24th and looking at the demo units. Then being told “everything is sold out!!” Same thing with the iphone same marketing plan. They had 7 months and it seemed like an eternity since they announced this product.
I ordered my 38mm stainless steel with white band at 3:05 in the App Store with Apple pay and had my confirmation email at 3:14 with delivery date of April 24 – May 8. I wanted the pink leather modern buckle band but it’s not available yet, so I’ll pick it up later.
I stayed up (I’m on EST) and refreshed the store at 3am until it went live then immediately went to my original first choice (38mm stainless steel with modern buckle) I saw the delivery date was late May so I switched to the Milanese loop and got the April24-May 8 delivery and made the order delivering to my sister’s apartment in NYC because I’m actually going there April24-May10 and REALLY wanted the opportunity to “test drive” the watch in the city. But then after I finished the order, it changed the delivery date to late May! I then spent an hour trying to edit the order to have it delivered to me in Miami (because I’ll be back home by then.) The site was then semi-crashed (The “We’re sorry,” page.) so I started looking up articles about the launch. I found one which indicated the Sport versions weren’t selling as well (People probably read the same sapphire crystal info I did.) so I went back to the store and ordered the 38mm Sport version and genuinely got the delivery of April 24-May 8 to my sister’s apt. Then I just cancelled the first order for the stainless steel Watch with the Milanese loop. In retrospect, I’m glad it turned out that way. I’m starting out with the least expensive model. If the crystal scratches too much I’ll just get the one with the sapphire crystal with the 2.0 version (which being totally honest with myself, I’m gonna probably want anyway … I’m that much an Apple fangirl) and I can change the band on the Sport anytime … I’ll probably want a third party band when they start coming out anyway.
Purchased the 42mm stainless steel with white sports band at 3:05 am. Shipping on April 24th – May 8th. Super pumped to be in the first initial wave.
Two minutes later at 3:07 am, the same model i purchased was already pushed back to 4-6 weeks.
FYI: Used the Apple Store App + Apple Pay and completed checkout in under an minute. Never standing in line again.
Where are all those naysayers that said the Apple Watch would flop?!?!?! LOL
Guess I’ll just have to stick with my old wind up pocket watch for a while longer. Still ticking away. I must confess, it doesn’t notify me of incoming calls. But I do have an app that reminds me to get up off my duff every hour. It’s called a coffee pot. Drink enough coffee and I have to go pee every hour. Hey, I’m just jealous of all of you. Maybe by Watch 2.0 I’ll get mine.
AHH. I completed the order for an Apple watch sport white sports band at 3:17, and received a conformation email at 5. Then, the date of deliver shows”June”…… Soooooo disappointed that i still have to wait for another 2 month
Haven’t seen this news posted anywhere. Apple is canceling orders of more than four watches. I was literally adding them to my cart and having them get their ship dates bumped as I ordered so I kept going until I got three that we’re going to ship on the 24th. Now two of those have been cancelled because they were over the limit that no one knew existed.
Several people at my company have had orders cancelled. We literally wanted dozens for our staff, and 6 for our iOS development team.
Here’s a question totally off topic and I know I’m going to catch hell but here it goes. Wouldn’t it make more sense for companies such as apple or Samsung to make their watches compatible with each other’s phones? An apple watch is nice but at $350 is a bit pricey. I’ve seen Galaxy Gear watches going for $129 on discount sites and would like to try one but can’t.
This “reply” is for Scott, Brian and Sam. Brian I have not been living under a rock and am a long time Apple fan and owner of an iPhone 6 and the Air 2. I am well aware of there policy regarding releasing new products, which I think is flawed as it cause great inconvenience to any who don’t share the same time zone as the West coast! And Sam, I have a job to go to each day during the week and I need my rest, so excuse me if I choose to get a decent nights sleep instead of getting up at 3:00am to order a product that if Apple were more considerate could have been made available at around 12:00pm EST which would be 9:00am Pacific time. That would have been fair for everyone!
And Scott, I don’t appreciate your bad language and sarcastic attitude! The simple truth is that Apple dropped the ball on this one and was not adequately prepared with enough stock for the initial orders for the watch!
I even called Apple on Friday about this and they apologized for the inconvenience and told me that I should be able to pick up the watch at the nearest Apple Store on the 24th of April; but when I went to the Apple Store on Friday afternoon for my watch fitting, they told me that the watch would NOT be available for purchase at the store on the 24th and that I still needed to order it online. So even Appke employees are obviously confused over this! It turns out that what I heard from the Apple associate a the store was correct and I had to order it online, which I promptly did and of course I have to wait till June to get it.
Having said that, and even though I’m disappointed in the way Apple has handled this, I am still a huge Apple fan and look forward to purchasing more Apple products in the future. I just hope they learn from this and become more considerat to their customers all over the country and not just the West coast next time they do a major product release!
Your opinion is very understandable, but have you considered the fact of how very inconvenient it would be if they did it as you suggested? At that time of day most people are either in school or at work. That would have been very disruptive to thousands of businesses and schools, and not to mention it would have gotten lots of people in trouble, kids suspended, and people fired, because you would have millions of people putting thee I responsibilities on hold so they could order the watch. Apple had two choices: 1. Release it in the middle of the night and people that wanted it could lose a little bit of sleep or 2. Release it late morning/early afternoon and potentially disrupt the flow of a lot of businesses and schools.
It also discounts the rest of the world — there is a world outside of the US! I’m in Australia and expect that Keynotes etc are most likely going to be in the wee hours Australian time. This launch actually threw me, as it landed at 3:01pm Western Austalian time, so very civilised. You may have been inconvenienced this launch, but for many parts of the world this is the norm. Also it’s only one day ….. you can catch up on sleep for all the nights until the next event. I actually think of it as a novelty, tune into some community that are all waiting, have Apple apps and sites all open and ready, and enjoy the experience. It’s supposed to be Fun!!
So just curious. Do they take the money from your account right away or when the watch is shipped?
Usually when shipped. If you haven’t ordered from them before using the payment method you are planning to use, then they will often ping the card for a dollar or so, I imagine to ensure it’s a valid card. I always have the money in the account when I pre-order because I don’t want anything to stand in the way of the estimated delivery date, but with the many items I’ve purchased/pre-ordered in the past, the money has been deducted from my account as soon as it ships.
Ok thanks! I’ve never pre ordered before. Usually just waited or stood in line.