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.
Apple is planning to debut a high-end secondary version of AirPods Pro 3 this year, sitting in the lineup alongside the current model, reports suggest.
Back in September 2025, supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported that Apple is planning to introduce a successor to the AirPods Pro 3 in 2026. This would be somewhat unusual since Apple normally waits around three years to make major...
Tuesday January 20, 2026 2:34 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Over the last few months, rumors around the iPhone 18 Pro's front-panel design have been conflicted, with some supply-chain leaks pointing to under-display Face ID, reports suggesting a top-left hole-punch camera, and debate over whether the familiar Dynamic Island will shrink, shift, or disappear entirely.
Today, Weibo-based leaker Instant Digital shared new details that appear to clarify the ...
Wednesday January 21, 2026 10:54 am PST by Joe Rossignol
In addition to updating many of its existing products, Apple is expected to unveil five all-new products this year, including a smart home hub, a Face ID doorbell, a MacBook with an A18 Pro chip, a foldable iPhone, and augmented reality glasses.
Below, we have recapped rumored features for each product.
Smart Home Hub
Apple home hub (concept)
Apple's long-rumored smart home hub should...
Tuesday January 20, 2026 4:36 pm PST by Juli Clover
Apple's App Store, iTunes Store, and Apple TV service are experiencing an outage at the current time, according to Apple's System Status page.
Apple says that some users may be experiencing issues with the App Store and iTunes Store. Apple also says some users may be seeing intermittent issues with Apple TV. The Apple TV Channels feature is down too, and users may be unable to access some...
Wednesday January 21, 2026 12:31 pm PST by Juli Clover
Apple is working on a small, wearable AI pin equipped with multiple cameras, a speaker, and microphones, reports The Information. If it actually launches, the AI pin will likely run the new Siri chatbot that Apple plans to unveil in iOS 27.
The pin is said to be similar in size to an AirTag, with a thin, flat, circular disc shape. It has an aluminum and glass shell, and two cameras at the...
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.
