Apple Watch preorder tonight, release date, price: Apple Store down

By Phil Moore | April 10, 2015

The Apple Watch goes on sale tonight, and the Apple Store is down already. The company is starting preorders online tonight, allowing early adopters to stake out their place in the virtual line ahead of the smartwatch product’s actual release date. Those who want to get first dibs are already in front of their computers eyeing the online store, waiting for it to come back online so they can place their order before preorder inventory is spoken for. So just what does that entail?

The Apple Watch won’t go on sale at retail stores until an April 24th release date, and even then, customers will be required to make an appointment in order to select their specific model and make their purchase. This means that for the first time there won’t be any lines queued up outside Apple Stores around the world with the usual super-fans camping out in anticipation. Part of this is due to Apple’s belief that the Watch is more of a personalized item than its more standard-issue iPhone or iPad devices, and wants to ensure a good match with each customer. Still, that won’t prevent eager beavers from ordering theirs tonight, sight unseen.

Apple says the Store will come back online around midnight pacific time tonight, meaning those on the east coast will have to stay up particularly late until 3am in order to stake their claim. It’s not immediately clear whether preorder inventory will still be available by tomorrow or when the cutoff will come, at which point everyone else will have to wait for the release date to roll around.