Apple has begun shipping the first Apple Watch Series 7 units ahead of Friday’s official launch. Orders started preparing for shipment over the weekend, and now customers are receiving their tracking information.
Sadly, this doesn’t mean that your Apple Watch Series 7 will arrive earlier. Apple works closely with its distribution partners to ensure that doesn’t happen.
Apple Watch Series 7 on its way
Preorders for the newest Apple Watch model opened last Friday, October 8, at which point Apple revealed its official pricing and configuration options for the first time. It had been strangely quiet about these details before then.
Apple Watch 7 starts at $399 for a 41mm model with an aluminum chassis, while the larger 45mm starts at $429. You can add cellular connectivity from $499, and steel and titanium options start at $699 and $799, respectively.
If you managed to make it through Friday’s preorder chaos and secure an Apple Watch 7 for launch day delivery, you should have no received — or will soon receive — and notification to confirm that your device has shipped.
it appears my apple watch series 7 has shipped, this is going to be another long week of waiting 5 days for this to arrive like my new phone, damn excitement makes everything so slow pic.twitter.com/t8fFwlTwDw
— lion (@lionwastaken) October 11, 2021
This indicates Apple has begun passing shipments over to its courier partners in time for Friday’s launch. It may seem like they’ve been sent out early, but Cupertino works hard to ensure that they don’t get delivered before launch day.
Customers now face lengthy waits
If you didn’t preorder Apple Watch 7 on Friday and you’re thinking about pulling the trigger now, you’ll likely be in for a lengthy wait for delivery. It didn’t take long for shipping estimates on most models to slip into November.
Desperate to bag one before then? You’ll likely have more luck bagging a new device from your local Apple Store on or after Friday’s launch. There won’t be many to go around, but they typically get regular deliveries, so keep checking.