Earlier this month, Apple said that it expected the Apple Watch to be available in stores within two weeks, and it looks like the company is just barely going to squeak into that window.
Apple’s online store will now let you reserve an Apple Watch and pick it up at a local store. The site says that you can reserve any model of your choice starting at 8:00 am local time each day, so some of you may have to wait before you’re able to reserve a Watch. Because we’re still in the early days of the Apple Watch’s launch, it’s likely that inventory of each model is going to be mixed, so it’d probably be wise to reserve a Watch as close to 8:00 am as possible.
When it comes time to reserve your Apple Watch, there are a few steps you’ll have to go through. First you’ll select your unit, then your state, then the store that you’d like to pick up you Apple Watch from. You’ll then need to enter a Captcha, then text a specific code to a phone number and enter the code that you get back into the site. Once you pass all those hurdles, Apple will set aside a Watch for you.
The Apple Watch originally went up for pre-order on April 10 and began shipping on April 24, but today marks the first time that you’re actually able to pick up the iOS wearable from a physical Apple Store. It took a while for some early pre-orderers to begin getting their Watches, but now that Apple is allowing customers to reserve a Watch and pick it up in store, it looks like the Cupertino firm is finally catching up with demand for its smartwatch.