When Apple announced the Apple Watch in October last year, like many other tech enthusiasts, I was overwhelmed with excitement and anticipation. Finally, in January 2015, we got word of an “official” release date; 24th April. Preorders were due to open on 8th April, 8:01 GMT. Excited as ever, I did some research and decided to preorder (online) a “42mm Space Grey Aluminium Case with Black Sport Band”. Like a child on Christmas morning, as soon as preorders went live, I logged onto the Apple website to confirm my (pre)order. To my disappointment, the website was still being updated! I waited until 8:05am like this, finally reading on a macrumors forum that the app was working fine. I made my selection and proceeded to the checkout, receiving a confirmation order email at 8:08am. I was disappointed to see that the estimated delivery date for my order was shown as 18th of May, almost a month after launch! A simple 8 minute delay in preordering resulted in this.

The same day, I went into Brighton to collect my race pack for the Brighton marathon on Sunday (12th April). I decided to visit an Apple store there to take a look at the watches in person. They were all located behind a secure glass cabinet, so potential customers could look, but not touch! I was fortunate enough to be booked into an appointment at the store shortly after, to try on the watches in person.

I took a look at a few models and immediately knew that I had made an error of judgement by ordering the 38mm watch. Having a smaller than average sized wrist, I thought the 42mm watch would be a little too large for me. However, being used to wearing GPS sports watches for a while now, I was (pleasantly) surprised to see that the 42mm watch felt perfectly comfortable on my wrist! Also, the extra 4mm of screen real estate made for a better interactive experience. Now 4mm may seem insignificant, but on a watch, made an obvious difference!

So my Apple Watch preorder story continues, as follows. I cancelled my 38mm watch (pre)order, and immediately completed checkout again for a 42mm model (which I should add cost £40 more, but what the hell!). To my dismay, the shipping for sports model watches had now shipped to June! And so the waiting game begins…

Tom Tom Multisport Cardio and 42mm Apple Watch Sports

42mm Apple Watch Sports

38mm Apple Watch Sports

42mm Apple Watch Stainless Steel with link bracelet

At the time of writing this blog post, Apple have now announced that the Apple Watch will be exclusively available online through the Apple online store. This essentially means that there will be no in-store pick-ups/purchases. Well, at least for the time being. I was hoping to find one sooner in-store, and cancelling my June preorder, but it now seems as though I will have to play the waiting game for a while longer.