Apple today officially announced April 10 grand openings for its three dedicated Apple Watch shops located in high-end department stores in London, Paris, and Tokyo. As previously outlined, the store-within-a-store locations are at Selfridges in London, Galeries Lafayette in Paris, and Isetan in Tokyo.
The new locations appear set to handle only Apple Watch viewing and sales, with customers being directed to other Apple retail stores for their support needs.
The Selfridges Apple Watch shop will be located near the entrance to the iconic Wonder Room, a massive shopping hall that houses a wide selection of luxury jewelry and watch brands alongside a concept store and mezzanine wine bar. Apple has reportedly been drawing employees from other retail stores in London to staff the new shop. The Galeries Lafayette shop will take over four balcony sections overlooking the main rotunda of the department store.
Apple Watch shop at Galeries Lafayette in Paris (Source: Getty Images via iGen.fr)
Apple will begin in-store previews and pre-orders for the Apple Watch on April 10, with launches in the first wave of countries coming two weeks later. The high-end gold Apple Watch Edition models will only be available at select Apple retail stores, and the dedicated Apple Watch shops at these luxury department stores will almost certainly also be featuring the gold watches, which are priced from $10,000 to $17,000.
Sunday November 1, 2026 3:34 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple has published a support document describing what to do if your Apple Watch continues to show time that's off by one hour after daylight savings time changes. "This incorrect time appears only on the Always On display when your wrist is down," says Apple. "When you activate the display by tapping it or raising your wrist, the time changes to the correct hour."
To fix the issue, Apple says ...
Tuesday November 3, 2026 10:35 am PST by Juli Clover
With the first beta of watchOS 27.3, Apple is introducing new Audio Intelligence features it previewed for the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 earlier this year. Powered by the S11 chip, Audio Intelligence includes Live Rewind, Siri Recap, Sound Recognition, and Shazam Music Recognition.
Sound Recognition and Shazam are already on the watch, but Live Rewind and Siri Recap are now available ...
Monday October 26, 2026 5:26 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Some Apple Watch users running watchOS 27 are reporting a daylight saving glitch after clocks went back in the UK and Europe on Sunday. In a MacRumors forums thread, five users – several in the UK and central Europe – say their watch shows the correct time when activated, but the Always-On display keeps showing summer time, leaving it an hour fast.
The problem has also been reported in...
Complicated interface, no real reason to exist besides just to be there
A very anti Steve jobs product
iPod had no reason to exist - There were Walkmans and CD players.
iTunes had no read to exist - there was the radio and heck, even Napster.
The iPhone had no reason to exist - cell phones and even "smart" phoned aready existed.
The iPad had no reason to exist - laptops were already huge and other tablets had already failed.
Notice a trend here...? None of these products had a "reason" to exist other than convenience and assurance of a quality product. Besides, if I had to guess, Apple has bigger plans for the Apple Watch than just a side kick for the iPhone. My thought is that they can/will eventually sell it as its own standalone product that doesn't need an iPhone wirelessly attached and can event text, call, etc. all on its own.
Well I guess that answers the question of "How are they going to store/sell these in existing Apple Stores?" They aren't. I assume eventually at least some of the larger Apple Stores will, but probably need a lot of modification first.
All Apple stores are getting the watch. According to 9to5Mac the night of 8th and/or 9th will be used to get stores ready. These are just dedicated Watch store-within-a-store.
