The WSJ has added a sentence to yesterday’s report that the rollout of the Apple Watch has been slowed by the discovery of faulty Taptic Engines supplied by AAC Technologies Holdings. The new sentence, likely in response to a comment by Apple, suggests that none of the faulty units made it as far as shipping.
Apple doesn’t plan a recall, because there’s no indication that Apple shipped any watches with the defective part to customers.
Re/code makes a similar statement, that Apple identified the flaw before any faulty watches were shipped.
John Gruber notes on Daring Fireball that his own review unit had what appears to be the same fault, but this would have been supplied to him by Apple before customer watches started shipping, and it may well be that faults in review watches were how Apple picked up on the issue.
While there are isolated reports of customers receiving watches with faulty taptic engines, there will of course be a certain percentage of faulty models in any shipment, and these may be unrelated to the more systemic issue identified by Apple.
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I keep seeing posts about shipping dates being moved up – and, living in the land of Optimism, I keep checking my orders . . . . but no movement up as of yet. Both watches are still showing their original dates of June and July. I have to wonder if this problem isn’t part of the reason.
I’d rather wait and get the non-flawed watches, so I just have to learn patience. It’s just so difficult when waiting for new Apple Tech. :(
I ordered mine as soon as the website came back up and just got it today. 04/30/15
yeah… maybe a defective taptic engine. but my force touch definitely didn’t work (received on the 24th, sent for repair on the 24th). still waiting on it to come back to me. what a disappointment.
Frustrating.
You do know that Apple is likely going to fulfill all the existing orders before they start issuing replacement units, right? Welcome to the back of the line.
And this assertion is based on what?
That’s just not true. Depot replacements happen within 3-5 days in most instances for the Apple Watch. Apple’s not going to punish customers who happened to get a non-working unit by making them wait 6-8 weeks if not more. Replacement units are a separate “queue” entirely.
My 42mm stainless steel / Milanese loop (>$1000AUS) model was delivered on Friday 24th April – DOA. Apple Australia have not been able to replace it and have not compensated me in any way. Their own online store was unable to perform the return / replacement without coming back with an error. So, I’ve been refunded (well in 3-5 business days) and been told to order it again online – shipping estimate? June…not impressed.
Normally I’d be fuming over the careless criticism in WSJ rag, but Apple has earned any/all flack they get from this launch.
As I impatiently await June shipment for a 42 mm SG BSB, this morning I ordered a 38mm SS Classic buckle on the word that people ordering them are getting them within 24-48 hours.
Apple has been less than forthcoming during this botched launch, including having the same vague shipment time frame posted across all models, in an effort to stop people from canceling their orders and changing to another (faster shipping) model.
Just have patience. That makes no sense to order something you don’t want just to have it in hand? Show some restraint.
The 42mm in any model are more popular than they expected. Simple as that.
Who says I don’t want it? I’ve yet to see one in person or try one on, so I don’t really know which one I want to be honest.
And the strap is probably the least important part, as in a months time you’ll be able to buy any strap you want from Apple and everyone other manufacturer in the world.
Nice my Apple watch ss bsb in enrout to me now… I was starting to loose it too… Only yesterday at 6:50pm did I get updated shipping info… And apple overnights it!!!! You can’t hate them for supplers mistakes… They more than made up for me with the overnighting… That was a very impressive apology to me… They’ll get to all faster than excepted… I was in the 4/24 12:01am batch…. And today’s my day!
When you innovate new hardware technologies, sometimes you have issues on the first run. This is very normal and it’s super hard to control vendors to 100% perfection. And yeah, the “haptic engine” on the Apple Watch is an innovation compared to the run of the mill vibrators inside the competition. One doesn’t know this until they try both, like I did.
I was pleasantly surprised with th shipping time for my Space Gray 42mm Sport. I ordered at 3:07am EST on launch date, however my delivery window was May 13- 27th.
Yesterday, 4/29, I noticed that Apple charged my card for payment. An hour later, I received an email that my watch was shipping out and I would receive it tomorrow!
Sure enough, I received mine on 4/30/15, a full 2+ weeks ahead of Apple’s initial shipping estimate.
That is great. Because my haptic feature stopped working completely today.