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.

Continue reading →