Apple shutters Apple Watch gallery in London's Selfridges department store
Following news that Apple will in January shut down an Apple Watch pop-up shop in Paris, an identical store-within-a-store concept located in London's Selfridges department store has closed its doors.
As noted by MacRumors, the Selfridges Apple Watch store is no longer listed on Apple's retail list for the UK, suggesting the outlet has been shuttered.
AppleInsider confirmed the closure on Tuesday. Phone calls placed directly to the Apple Watch gallery are forwarded to a recorded message saying the location is no longer operating. Customers interested in Apple Watch are urged to visit Apple's website to find their nearest brick-and-mortar Apple store.
The Selfridges Apple Watch gallery closes its doors after serving London for some 20 months. Dubbed a pop-up shop for its small size, location within a larger department store and focus on a single product, the outlet officially opened in April 2015 shortly before Apple Watch went on sale worldwide.
To drum up interest in the smartwatch gallery, Apple commissioned a series of promotional installations for display in the department store's windows. The most recent incorporated Apple Watch into hand-sculpted flowers of all sizes, some of which were created using 3D printing.
As reported in October, Apple is scheduled to close a similar Apple Watch pop-up shop in the Galeries Lafayette department store in Paris later this month. With the Parisian smartwatch boutique seeing a steady decline in business, Apple is slowly winding down operations and has over the past weeks transitioned employees to regional company stores.
Once the Galeries Lafayette location closes, Apple will be left with only one dedicated Apple Watch venue in the Isetan department store in Tokyo, Japan. The future of that outlet is unclear.
As noted by MacRumors, the Selfridges Apple Watch store is no longer listed on Apple's retail list for the UK, suggesting the outlet has been shuttered.
AppleInsider confirmed the closure on Tuesday. Phone calls placed directly to the Apple Watch gallery are forwarded to a recorded message saying the location is no longer operating. Customers interested in Apple Watch are urged to visit Apple's website to find their nearest brick-and-mortar Apple store.
The Selfridges Apple Watch gallery closes its doors after serving London for some 20 months. Dubbed a pop-up shop for its small size, location within a larger department store and focus on a single product, the outlet officially opened in April 2015 shortly before Apple Watch went on sale worldwide.
To drum up interest in the smartwatch gallery, Apple commissioned a series of promotional installations for display in the department store's windows. The most recent incorporated Apple Watch into hand-sculpted flowers of all sizes, some of which were created using 3D printing.
As reported in October, Apple is scheduled to close a similar Apple Watch pop-up shop in the Galeries Lafayette department store in Paris later this month. With the Parisian smartwatch boutique seeing a steady decline in business, Apple is slowly winding down operations and has over the past weeks transitioned employees to regional company stores.
Once the Galeries Lafayette location closes, Apple will be left with only one dedicated Apple Watch venue in the Isetan department store in Tokyo, Japan. The future of that outlet is unclear.
Comments
Siri is slow too. Frequently displaying "I'll tap you when I'm ready", then either never tapping or ending up cancelling the request altogether because I lower my arm, which is downright annoying. It looks ridiculous as I have to walk around holding my arm up until Siri finally processes. This brings me to another point with Siri: why the hell aren't more requests processed directly on the phone/watch?! I had ViaVoice doing recognition on a 200mhz PPC603, I'm sure a 700mhz ARM CPU can handle it.
Third party apps are still slow and often unresponsive too, even though the UI responds to touches.
FitBits auto-detect activities, why do I have to manually start them with the Apple Watch?
It is great for notifications and replying with short responses, and for changing music tracks. The complications are really useful too, as is the Apple Pay capability. But when people ask me what I like about it, or to show me what it can do, sadly I quickly run out of things to say or show.
It is just one underground stop away from Selfridges, five to ten minutes bus ride or even twenty to thirty minutes walk.
The apple watch is so ugly and colorful, it's easy to spot. That causes a bias that leads one to think that everyone has them everywhere when they're still rather rare. I'm in Canada and I know about a dozen people that have one, but I work in tech. I know a couple of people with Huawei watches, I don't draw a conclusion of market penetratoin from that. Normal people have fitbits, at most, and are no sure why they have one.
I live in southern Illinois, got new original Watch this fall. I used Apple Pay at Casey's and got a "Well that's neat!" from teenage clerk; asked about availability at Taco Bell (ugh) and clerk said it sounded really great and she'd use it if she had one, and tried and failed to use at Subway. I said I'm basically pointing it at everything that could possibly take it, and guy said, "I would too if I had one of those!"
Building a a better future, today!
2- i dont live near SF area and i see so many sporting them now a days.. above my expectstion.
3- when you try one yourself for a month.. you will discover what a fantastic multifaceted and useful device it is.
As for Selfridges store closing, I assume this is because the flagship store on Regents Street has reopened and there is also the Covent Garden store nearby. Therefore the Selfridges store isn't required. London retail space is expensive so no need for a third location within the Centre of London.
If we were to apply the same standards to all other bands/watches then absolutely no one would be considered successful.
I visited the Selfridges pop-up when it opened to try on an Apple Watch. It was exactly that though: a temporary pop-up space. I'm surprised it lasted so long as it took up a large proportion of prime window space along Oxford Street.
Because they cater mostly to those interested in fashion accessories and Apple has realized that the Apple Watch is not well suited as a fashion accessory.
Apple would be better off opening up kiosks in sporting goods stores -- like Garmin has been doing.
I am a retired geek who has become a serious runner and strength trainer (although I do not look it!). But, when I go to my running store looking for a running watch they will recommend and sell me everything BUT an Apple Watch. If I wasn't a geek and an Apple fanatic, I would trust their advice.