“Apple has shipped out the first Link Bracelet orders for the Apple Watch,” iClarified reports.
“The bracelets are shipping from Shenzhen,” iClarified reports, “China and ours currently has a delivery date estimate of May 12th.”
iClarified notes, “Orders for the just the link bracelet by itself appear to be shipping ahead of orders for the Apple Watch with link bracelet.”
Full article with screenshot here.
MacDailyNews Take: Still waiting for our Black Sport Bands for our Apple Watch Sport models (ordered with White Sport Bands) that arrived on April 24th to move from “Preparing for shipment.” Boy, these White Sport Bands are eye-magnets!
The crappy thing about how Apple forced people to settle for their second, third, fourth, or worse choices instead of the ones they really wanted purely on availability constraints will totally ruin the actual figures of what people really want. So now Apple assumes 20% of people actually prefer the shitty white band when they really hate it and are just suffering while they wait for another band. Or like me, I wanted the black steel but was unwilling to wait two months so cancelled that order and will settle for a bright shiny silver watch for a year until the next one comes out, and now they won’t be able to accurately predict next year’s models either. They’ll think I’ll be wanting to upgrade to another silver one so will make many more of them.
Nobody has to settle as nobody needs the watch right now. If the combination you wanted was constrained then don’t order it now. It’s not like you can’t function without the watch.
You poor baby, Apple so cruel to you: life, get one!
Hey, MDN, I’ve been thinking (while looking at my blue band–which is also an eye magnet!). I believe Apple is purposely holding back on those black sports bands. They are pulling a marketing coup by forcing all of us early adopters to wear a brightly colored band, which generates questions by the metric ton. I own several very nice, expensive watches, and never has anyone made a comment about them (I don’t travel in high class circles apparently!). This watch has generated at least one comment or question per day since I’ve gotten it; at a party Sunday, I spent over an hour demo-ing it to several interested people.
So in my humble opinion, Apple -wants- us to be wearing these crazy colored bands. Just as the white iPod headphones were a banner that we used iPods, these bands are free advertising for them, and I’m sure they don’t want to screw the pooch by releasing all those black bands any time soon.
Well, there was certainly some reason for not offering a stock Silver AWS with Black band from the start of pre-orders. Obviously, this would be a popular, if not the most popular AWS model. Perhaps Apple is having an issue with QC in Black fluoroelastomer, not unlike the issues that had with the first white iPhone? We doubt they’ve gone as far as to intentionally force users to act as walking billboards for a month or so after launch.
You’re probably right. But it sure is a nice conspiracy theory.
My friend got his SS with Black sports band yesterday. He ordered it around 12:10 on 4/10.
I too just received my SS with black sports band yesterday. Nice surprise too, because it wasn’t supposed to ship for another 3 weeks, and I ordered mine at 12:04.
The black band is really nice, and it is super comfortable. It doesn’t look cheap in any way, and looks great with the SS. The commission of this band with the AWS is very curious, because I’m quite positive it would have been the hands down favorite. In my opinion, it is the only color of this sports band that can be worn at any time, for any occasion (with white being a close second) so it has the most overall utility.
Looking forward to my loop bracelet arriving (June?) for dressy wear, although again, the black sport band can be worn for any occasion.
My black sport band is ready for shipping, although my black stainless is still in processing.
My officemate received his 42mm SS with Milanese band today. The AW is more trim than I had expected. I had been considering going for a 38mm, but the 42mm seems fine to me. The Milanese band looks great with the SS watch and is very supple and comfortable. The magnetic latch is extremely secure, and it is easy to achieve a perfectly comfortable and snug fit. Plus, the magnetic latch will not slide out through the fitting, so your watch cannot fall off (even if the magnetic latch releases) unless the band breaks or it slide off over your hand. The design and function of the Milanese band is better than any other watch band that I have ever used, and it does not pull on your arm hair like regular metal bands.
The watch is highly responsive, at least for built-in Apple functions. The clock face pops up very quickly with a wrist raise – it only takes a fraction of a second. If you begin the wrist raise before turning your head to look, then it will already be waiting on you. I don’t know why some people were griping about that – just desperate to find (or manufacture) a “flaw,” I suppose.