Apple Watches went on sale at 3am Eastern Time today, for arrival on April 24. (No link; you know how to get one.) By all reports, the first quantities sold out as fast as a Taylor Swift secret club date; delivery intervals are now stretching into May and June, even for the $10,000 gold Edition.
It’s highly unlikely that anyone who wanted to wait and actually try one on will be in the first wave of purchasers; 3am in New York is 8am in central Europe, so the only Apple stores that would have been open at that hour are in Asia. These buyers are driven by hype and marketing and disposable income.
The reaction on social media to this crescendoing hype has been interesting. There’s a lot of haters out there, complaining loudly about how Apple is pulling everyone’s strings about the Watch and how it’s ugly and useless — but complaining even more loudly that they can’t get one right away.