Update: Confusing the situation further, HDBlog has received news from Italian Apple PR that Milan will not have Apple Watch stock to buy.
Amidst all the craziness, it now transpires that Apple Watch will in fact be available to be buy at some retail locations on Friday. The New York Times reports that select boutique locations will have stock in the brick-and-mortar locations of Apple Watch Sport and Apple Watch.
This includes Dover Street Market in Tokyo and London, Maxfield in Los Angeles, Collette in Paris, the Corner in Berlin and Corso Como in Milan.
Apple had previously announced these locations in a press release but it was unclear whether the plans had changed as Apple had since said that there would be no in-store stock until June at the earliest. although now it appears this only applies to Apple’s own retail stores.
The New York Times spoke to the chief executive of Dover Street Market about stock levels for the retail sales. The representative said that the company will have about 350 Apple Watches available in Ginza and 570 in London. However, the Apple Watch Edition will not be available for sale in any capacity. Only the aluminium Sport and stainless steel Watch models will be offered for purchase.
The Apple Watch was featured at Collete back in September, but now it will actually be available to buy from the boutique store. Online, stock of the Watch remains universally back-ordered and sold out.
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I am still waiting for my watch. I ordered @12:01 So where is my watch?
Just got my confirmation and my card charged so happy right about now. 42 mill space gray. With black sports band it’s going to look real nice
At :01 you should be getting your’s…I am an :04 which should have been an :02 but the information I scrupulously input 2 days before and checked the day before did not populate costing me 2 what now have become precious minutes.
Anybody still want to defend Angela Ahrendts now? She is a horrible mistake. I suggest a seance….Steve…Steve…..come down and fire her….get Ron Johnson back…..Steve…Steve…..come Steve we need your leadership…Steve.
Um, Apple’s press release specifically said these retail outlets would have the watch on the 24th. What is unclear about that?
Apple said alot of stuff that turned out not to be true for example store delivery was the only way you were going to get a watch during launch. Are you getting your’s in a store?
Do you have a link to an Apple statement that said the watch would only be available for in-store pickup? What they initially said was that you could have it sent to your home or pre-order for pick up at a store. Realizing how constrained inventories were, they changed this to require pre-orders for home delivery only, with the exception of a very few boutique stores (NY, Partis, etc) that would have small quantities on hand.
You refuted your own statement brilliant one. With a compensation package of $70+ million I think I can expect no mistakes or as you put it changes
I get what Apple’s trying to do: this is a “fashion” product, so fashionable/high-end people/outlets get the honour of wearing/rolling it out to the public before anyone else. Being exclusive comes with fashion marketing, imaging, and framing. So, I’m sympathetic to Apple’s strategy.
It’s just kind of stupid.
I’ve been on the fence on whether this product launch has been worth the effort, but it’s not unfolding in the thoughtful, precise way anyone at Apple would have liked. It’s goofy shenanigans like this (cutting in on pre-orders) that puts Apple in a silly light, worming its way into fashion marketability. If it’s not goofy, it’s not particularly admirable, so Apple’s plan lies somewhere between the two. Relatively speaking, disorganization has resulted in the unfortunate joke that early-adopters will, after all, be late-adopters.
Will this cost Apple anything? Maybe, but they’ve already pulled massive bank on watch pre-orders. But this is just sloppy: in order to appease the fashion elite, Apple is ready to put their best buyers (read, best advertising) on hold to fulfill a marketing strategy, and that’s just not cool.
In the end, everyone will get their watch. Everyone will be happy. But when we hear the Apple line “it just works”, some of us will have to agree this launch certainly didn’t. No doubt, everyone will learn from this hashtag clusterfuck of a launch, and when V.2 comes out we’ll see just how much.
Reblogged this on Mohit – The caretaker.
Just came back from Maxfield. Went there to make an appointment as I was told on the phone. The lady told me that I have to be a costumer at Maxfield in order to make an appointment for Apple Watch and buy it the first day. Is that even legal?
Looked in the store and really NOTHING for me to buy. Not my style. And Im not talking about the insanely highly priced luxury clothing (I can certainly afford it) but the style.
Anyways, IS IT LEGAL to sell certain product only to your costumers?
That’s stupefying if true. Annnnnnnnd probably not legal.
#clusterfuck :)
This just goes to show how elitist this launch is. Pictures of celebrities with “but you can’t buy it watches”, ill informed staff, misinformation, uneven try on experiences in store, the list goes on. This is a nightmare. I got a text from Apple this morning saying “Apple watch tomorrow Apple Hingham store”. I thought really b—h?
Seriously I’ve posted 3 times and it’s only to vent about this whiner… the complaining wears thin with people especially when it’s about “gadgets and tech” go voice your opinion on a site about issues that need a voice .. Rich people blah blah life sucks blah blah .. Shut up!
So THIS is where the not happening blockbuster launch happens… I hope they are prepared. Good job, Angela!
Angela Ahrendts is like the Jodie Foster character in “Elysium”. She needs the same end