Dubai: Apple’s first smartwatch will be available in the UAE on Saturday, but from the grey market, for a hefty premium.
Apple will be officially selling the watches at its stores on Friday in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong and Japan.
According to a source, it may be available officially in the UAE by end of July.
Omar Kassim, CEO of JadoPado.com, told Gulf News that it has been tough to get hold of the units. “We are expecting some stocks from our suppliers on Saturday but the big question is what type of watches,” he said.
The Watch Sport is priced at $349 (Dh1,282) for the 38mm model and $399 for the 42mm model. The Apple Watch steel which is 38mm is priced between $549 and $1,049 depending on band. The Apple Watch steel 42mm is priced between $599 and $1099 depending on band. Apple has three models with 38 variants.
The Apple Watch Edition, priced from $10,000, will be available in select retail stores only.
Initially, JadoPado’s aim was to sell the $349 Watch Sport for $500 in the UAE. “But given how quickly the preorders were sold out and we are not hearing any price commitments from our supplier chains and that is worrying me. There is demand from the consumers so prices may start from $750 to $850,” he said.
Apple received more than one million pre-orders within 24 hours in the US alone and according to an industry expert, Apple should have got preorders for more than 3.5 million units globally.
The online retailers are getting the supplies from Hong Kong, Australia, UK, US and Canada.
“Supply is extremely tight. Apple websites across a few countries have shown delayed delivery time frame. For the preorders now, the delivery time is up to July,” said Sheriff Rizwan, CEO and founder at Alshop.com.
Alshop got preorders for more than 250 units for Apple Watch Sport and six units for Watch Limited.
Most in demand
“We expect around 300 units to be available on Saturday. Apple Sport is the most in demand and Apple fans wants to get hold on the device immediately when Apple launches a product and price is not a barrier for them,” Rizwan said.
He said that Alshop does not keep a high premium as most of its customers are repeat customers.
Kassim said that Apple announced last week that they won’t accept in-store orders on the Friday due to “high global interest” and the “initial supply”. “If there is anything that comes in, it’ll be tiny amounts of pre-order stock at high prices, but I wouldn’t hold my breath for large supplies,” he said.
Naushad Pava, customer service agent at mygsm.me, said that his company is getting a lot of enquiries for the Watch Sport but they haven’t started taking preorders due to supply constraints.
“We started taking pre-orders for the $10,000 Watch Limited and got 15 orders from Apple fans. We are keeping a 10 per cent mark up for the $10,000 watch for the first week and it will go down in the second week. We are going to sell the Sport watch for Dh1,900,” he said.
