Apple Watch shops set to open on April 10 in London, Paris and Tokyo
Apple on Thursday announced it will officially open three international Apple Watch store-within-a-store locations on April 10, offering customers shopping at high-end department stores the chance to try on and preorder the device before it goes on sale.
Dubbed simply "Apple Watch," the upcoming retail shops are popping up at locations previously known to be undergoing construction for Apple's wearables effort, including Selfridges in London, Galeries Lafayette in Paris and Isetan in Toyko. All three department stores cater to upper crust clientele.
As with Apple Stores, Apple Watch outlets will be manned by Apple retail staff, who will field questions and help pair customers with their desired model. It appears that Geniuses are not part of the deal, however, as Apple's regional retail webpages direct visitors to nearby Apple Store locations for product support inquiries.
A report on Wednesday said potential buyers can make reservations for a 15-minute demo of Apple Watch Sport and Apple Watch models, while those interested in the $10,000 Apple Watch Edition get 30 minutes of hands-on time. It is unclear how the small pop-up shops plan to handle demos, but they are likely to have all models available -- even the limited gold versions -- given the pedigree of their host stores.
All Apple Watch shops are scheduled to open their doors on Friday, April 10 at 10:30 a.m. local time, the same date Apple intends to roll out Apple Watch previews and preorders in its permanent stores. The device will become available two weeks later in the U.S., U.K., Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, and Japan.
Dubbed simply "Apple Watch," the upcoming retail shops are popping up at locations previously known to be undergoing construction for Apple's wearables effort, including Selfridges in London, Galeries Lafayette in Paris and Isetan in Toyko. All three department stores cater to upper crust clientele.
As with Apple Stores, Apple Watch outlets will be manned by Apple retail staff, who will field questions and help pair customers with their desired model. It appears that Geniuses are not part of the deal, however, as Apple's regional retail webpages direct visitors to nearby Apple Store locations for product support inquiries.
A report on Wednesday said potential buyers can make reservations for a 15-minute demo of Apple Watch Sport and Apple Watch models, while those interested in the $10,000 Apple Watch Edition get 30 minutes of hands-on time. It is unclear how the small pop-up shops plan to handle demos, but they are likely to have all models available -- even the limited gold versions -- given the pedigree of their host stores.
All Apple Watch shops are scheduled to open their doors on Friday, April 10 at 10:30 a.m. local time, the same date Apple intends to roll out Apple Watch previews and preorders in its permanent stores. The device will become available two weeks later in the U.S., U.K., Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, and Japan.
Comments
All stores but only certain stores will carry the Edition watch. So my guess is smaller Apple stores or ones inside malls won't get the Edition watch.
I love that Apple is driving people crazy with this though. While people complain about Apple selling a $10,000 watch, Tim Cook tells Fortune magazine he's going to pay for his nephews college education and then give the rest of his money away to charity.
Products and hardware can be commoditized, brand power cannot. This product is an absolutely genius move, as it will expand Apple's sphere of influence, enhance their brand power, and take them places they could never hope to go by only selling purely technology products. Yes, the Apple Watch is technology, but it also crosses other lines, and overlaps other industries. It will only serve to increase Apple's mindshare and exposure to even more people that do not already own their products.
Selfridges is the safe choice in London. It's not the classiest of department stores but it's in a great location and has plenty of space.
The Apple Watch is fully an iPhone accessory. Not only does it access the Internet through a paired phone, but as noted on AppleInsider earlier today, the way you install apps on it is to install an app on your iPhone that comes with an Apple Watch "extra," that is pushed to the watch next time it is in Bluetooth range.
So I'm not sure it should really be sold at a place that doesn't also sell the phone.
Earlier this week Samsung announced when their new phones (S6, S6 Edge) will go on sale in retail stores. The answer: April 10. The conspiracy theorist in me wonders if they chose that date to try and divert people away from the Apple stores on the day the Watch and new MacBook become available for pre-order.
On a very slightly related note:
Earlier this week Samsung announced when their new phones (S6, S6 Edge) will go on sale in retail stores. The answer: April 10. The conspiracy theorist in me wonders if they chose that date to try and divert people away from the Apple stores on the day the Watch and new MacBook become available for pre-order.
I seriously doubt if any (or many) will care. The few who do will be like squished bugs under the wheels of the Apple delivery trucks.
What a fortuitous position Apple is in to be able to do this sort of promotion and suspense building!
Like Slurpy said, the power of the Apple brand is what this is about.
This is the essence of marketing: create want.
Why on earth would anyone want to endure a hard sell for the Apple Watch? This goes completely against Apple's ethos.
[LIST]
[*] you don't ask someone to try on a $1000-$17,000 watch while it is security locked to a counter, it wouldn't even really fit on the wrist with a meaningful security cable
[*] they will need time to do "market development" not just sales, whereby you educate your market about the product - this is best done on on one with early adopters who might otherwise walk away confused about what it does
[*] each person will have a unique use case that needs to be personally addressed
[*] it is our most personal device ever
[/LIST]
None of the watches in Apple stores are going to be security locked to a counter via cable.
The Apple Watch is fully an iPhone accessory. Not only does it access the Internet through a paired phone, but as noted on AppleInsider earlier today, the way you install apps on it is to install an app on your iPhone that comes with an Apple Watch "extra," that is pushed to the watch next time it is in Bluetooth range.
So I'm not sure it should really be sold at a place that doesn't also sell the phone.
Selfridges sells phones and iPhone accessories. I'm not sure if it's still there but they also used to sell Vertu phones via a store-within-a-store.
Samsung announced the April 10 date a week before Apple did. Someone could think Apple chose the date to dampen any attention Samsung might have gotten. Imagine on April 13th when Apple announces a preorder count and Samsung announces a ship amount. Then for two weeks the news will stay squarely focused on Apple. Pretty much the entire first month of Release of Samsung's phones, any good news Samsung expresses, Apple will be able to counter it its watch.
I'm also a bit surprised Apple hasn't gone for an Apple Watch outlet within Harvey Nichols, maybe that will come later.
Overall though, as you say, Selfridges is a great choice.
Harrods. Shame about the owner, though. The shop is a shadow of what it used to be.
Love how this is your new "bend gate", constantly whining and bitching about these time slots when you don't plan to buy the product anyway. So predictable and pathetic.
Unless the Apple Watch news is bad. Then it could backfire.
Selfridges sells phones and iPhone accessories. I'm not sure if it's still there but they also used to sell Vertu phones via a store-within-a-store.
Not the iPhone though, which is the only phone the Apple Watch works with.
That makes more sense with the rumor that Apple was having custom safes installed in stores, it would be kinda hard to do that in a mall location.