Buying an Apple Watch: the whys and hows

Apple’s website to start taking orders Friday at 3:01 a.m. on East Coast.

Thinking about buying an Apple Watch? You can wait until Apple stores begin presale previews and (five- to 15minute) fitting sessions by appointment.

Or you can put off a decision to the launch date, April 24 (or maybe a day or two before), when Apple pundits pile on with reviews — likely to rave about the product’s polish and ease of use, to proclaim it “the first smart watch for smarties” or “the only wearable worth wearing.”

Among its special allures, Apple’s wrist computer is the first “phone-tethered” mod- el you can actually lift to your mouth to make a call, “Dick Tracy” style. The only smartwatch that will scan incoming messages to predictively ready one-touch responses to questions like “Chinese food or Sushi?” (Creepy and cool.) An Apple Watch can blast you with news headlines by the second, function as a charge card, use “geo-fencing” to automatically open your garage door as you near the house. Even without an iPhone (5 or 6) in your pocket, it will track footsteps, show off photos and feed music wirelessly to a Bluetooth headset. And, in case you were worrying, this thing can keep on ticking as a time keeper for three or four days between recharges, though heavier chores require a daily power-up.

Authority figures also will proclaim this the breakthrough to finally “jump-start” the smart watch business. Given the hoopla Apple Inc. has already put out there, their new baby is likely to sell more pieces in three days than all other makers have collectively managed in the past three or four years (about 750,000). The usual “informed sources” say factories have geared up to produce between 5 million and 6 million Apple Watches for worldwide distribution in the next three months.

If you can manage without the blather, there’s a third way to scope out the product — and it’s the best if you want to actually score one on the 24th. That’s to go online yourself this week, before Friday, to view Apple’s video tutorials and virtually “try on” models for size and design.

Then, if all still seems right, you can place an order early for assured delivery and inspection. Not too scary a proposition, really, given Apple’s two-week, money back guarantee if “dissatisfied.”

The window of buying opportunity at Apple’s website actually opens at 12:01 a.m. Friday West Coast time. That’s 3:01 Friday morning on the East. Appleholics will set an alarm, knowing from past experience that if they wait until, say, 8 a.m. Friday morning to place an order, the “guaranteed delivery date” might be pushed back three days, five days, maybe even a week or

Watch

two after the opening gun. Apple is saying that due to “initial supply constraints,” no watches will be available for impulse purchases in stores on April 24. Playing hard to get, are we?

Clearly, there will not be a long waiting list for gold-cased $10,000 to $17,000 Watch Edition models — a bit of marketing genius that makes the $349 to $1,099 versions seem such a fabulous “deal.”

Even bling-lovin’ Kardashians ought to know all Apple watches are the same inside. Same 8 GB memory. Same subtle haptic feedback (turn left at the next “buzz”). Same snazzy Digital Crown control (think “mouse on a wheel.”) Kim K. may even suspect that the firstgen will likely be supplanted by a better-endowed second iteration in as little as six months or a year. Thinner, with more health sensors, better battery life, or even direct 3G/4G connectivity.

So it makes sense to early-adopt one of the least expensive Apple Sport Watches — priced $349 in a 38mm (1 ½ inch) tall case or $399 in a 42mm (1 ⅝ inch) version. And the Space Gray Aluminum Case version with Black Sport (“fluoroelastomer”) Band is by far the coolest looking and most likely to hold resale value.

PHOTO COURTESY APPLE / TNS Sources say factories have geared up to produce between 5 and 6 million Apple Watches for worldwide distribution over the next three months.