Apple Watch Available

Apple Watch available at Apple Stores – at last

Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks about the Apple Watch during an Apple event at the Flint Center in Cupertino, Calif., Sept. 9, 2014

Almost two months after the Apple Watch was released, consumers can finally walk into an Apple Store and buy one.

That’s a big change from the tiny trickle of Apple Watches to a single store in the U.S. (Maxfield in Los Angeles) since April 24 when the first online orders were received by customers.  But that was by design. Until this week, Apple watch purchases were limited to online orders.

But now select stores in select states in the U.S. are stocking the Watch and walk-in reservations can be made to pick up a watch same-day.

A check of the Apple online store Wednesday evening shows, for example, that the $349 (38mm) and larger (42mm) $399 Sport models are available at Apple Stores in the Los Angeles area. As are $699 models (for example, 42mm Stainless Steel Case) of the higher-end Watch. And even versions of the top-of-the-line Watch Edition: select stores are carrying the $12,000 42mm 18-Karat Yellow Gold Case with Black Sport Band, for example.

Here’s how it works: you go to the online Apple Store and select the model you want and then click on “Check reservation availability?” That will take you to a screen where you select the state and store and make a reservation to pick up the Watch at an Apple Store same-day.

So, why did it take two months? The rollout of the watch was atypical for Apple. Usually when Apple releases a product it reserves some inventory for customers to purchase in-store on the first day of availability. That wasn’t the case for the Apple Watch, however.

For the watch, a new product category for the tech giant, Apple opted to preview the device in stores before it started shipping. Though Apple hasn’t been explicit, the new approach likely has something to do with the fact that there are so many Watch options and combinations that it was more efficient initially for Apple to take online orders to gauge where the demand was.

Reuters, citing market researcher Slice Intelligence, reported Thursday that Apple is estimated to have sold 2.79 million watches as of mid-June. And Slice estimates that almost 20 percent of Apple Watch buyers are snapping up a spare band in addition to the Watch, according to the report. 

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