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Apple Watch Launches in Belgium on September 19 Alongside Brussels Apple Store Opening

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The Apple Watch will officially launch in Belgium this Saturday on September 19, after previously being given a vague "available in 2015" launch date (via Apple Weetjes). The release of the Apple Watch will also coincide with the grand opening of Apple's newest retail location in Brussels, the first one ever in Belgium, which will see its grand opening on that day.

apple_store_belgium-800x521.jpg
Photo of the new Brussels Apple Store via Niewsblad.be​

In Belgium, the Apple Watch Sport models will sell for €419.00 (38mm) and €469.00 (42mm), while the mid-tier Apple Watch line will cost customers €669.00 (38mm) and €719.00 (42mm).

​

When first introduced back in April, the Apple Watch was restricted to Apple's own retail stores and select boutique locations. Ever since, Apple has been slowly expanding the availability of the Apple Watch, with not only cell carriers offering the wearable device but new retail chains across the world.

Article Link: Apple Watch Launches in Belgium on September 19 Alongside Brussels Apple Store Opening
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2015/09/17/apple-watch-launches-in-belgium/
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Everything about this looks amazing. Pushing the simplification envelope. Ahrendts is doing a spectacular job!

The trees, tree seats, architectural window arches, lit ceiling, high-res rear projection screen with deep blacks in that ambient light level and new layout are lovely touches.
 
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Mac Fly (film) said:
Everything about this looks amazing. Pushing the simplification envelope. Ahrendts is doing a spectacular job!

The trees, tree seats, architectural window arches, lit ceiling, high-res rear projection screen with deep blacks in that ambient light level and new layout are lovely touches.
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MGoos said:
Would you look at that store? It's beautiful! Can't wait to be there at the opening.
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Indeed, very nice. I hope they retrofit other store with this look. I have always liked Apple's minimalism in the stores, but it had gotten a bit sterile. Adding a few trees really will add something nice.
 
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These new stores look amazing buy my guess is not much of that will find its way to Apple stores like mine which are inside shopping malls. :(
 
Mac Fly (film) said:
Everything about this looks amazing. Pushing the simplification envelope. Ahrendts is doing a spectacular job!

The trees, tree seats, architectural window arches, lit ceiling, high-res rear projection screen with deep blacks in that ambient light level and new layout are lovely touches.
Click to expand...
And Jony Ive who, according to his bio on apple.com, is responsible for Apple retail store designs as well as Apple Campus 2. Apparently some of the walls in this new store mirror what will be at Campus 2.
 
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Mac Fly (film) said:
Indeed. I forgot this. I believe it's him and Ahrendts that have taken the lead on store design. They did an amazing job with this one.
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I'm glad they're getting rid of the sterile environment and warming things up a bit. I hope we see some of this come to stores inside of malls.
 
budselectjr said:
According The Verge, this is the first Apple store designed with Ive in charge of everything design.
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Link?

Also, although they look nice, I feel like the trees might be a bit messy to care for. Don't they normally shed and drip sap and whatnot?
 
Mac Fly (film) said:
Everything about this looks amazing. Pushing the simplification envelope. Ahrendts is doing a spectacular job!
Click to expand...

Nearly everything. The wood wall insets suggest profits are in store design vs product design.

Billions a year are spent overall by companies, each trying to reflect its buyers' appetite for margin and for how much goes to design vs product.

Sony is an example Ahrendts might like to avoid. It suggests high margins and a culture where communication distances the original technology experts from the final buyers. This is classic Japanese, high context culture applied to a premium brand, Sony.

Apple is known and loved (by some) for its transparency, it's Genius Bar and massive dedication of margin directly to R&D - even if 9 of 10 researched products are never delivered to market.

Making the wood wall insets white, just along the sides, would maintain the appearance that Apple is transparent and dedicating margin to product, not to communication or potential lip service down the road.

By contrast adding darker wood, carpet, a bit dimmer lights and fogged glass for privacy would all negatively snowball with every moment that Apple does need to give a "tactful" non-transparent answer to the market on product and every time their margins are repeated to the buyer.

Just sayin' keep it simple and bright light-reflecting white - Apple has a good thing going here - it's probably some of what Steve Jobs was so obsessed about.

That being said, big kudos to the team for setting the inventory behind wall drawers! That's simple, accessible, and driven by customer engagement and a simplified purchasing process.
 
Wow that's gorgeous. The current stores are looking a bit dated now but this looks so much nicer. Would look even nicer if they replaced the bland wooden tables with something more designer.
 
You should check your sources… Apparently, the Apple Watch is not available for purchase in Belgium at all; there are display tables and demo units and that's that. I read this in french, on this blog: http://belgium-iphone.lesoir.be/2015/09/15/lapple-watch-commercialisee-en-belgique-des-ce-samedi/

Mise à jour: La montre serait finalement exposée, avec la possibilité de la tester, mais pas encore commercialisée. Probablement une question de jours…
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The update was added after a few commenters from Brussels pointed out that they personally went there and were told so by the Apple Store staff, and roughly translates as:

Update: The watch will finally be displayed, with the possibility of testing it, but not yet sold to the public. Probably a matter of days…
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Yeah, sure… days. We all know how the launch went, so keep telling yourself that.

Also, if you check the belgian Apple website, you can see that there are no “buy” links to be seen… If the initial launch started on the online store and only progressed to their brick-and-mortar stores a while later, why should the launch in Belgium be any different?

Anyway, I'm guessing that if the Apple Watch was being actually put up for sale in Brussels/Belgium, surely there would be some evidence of that on www.apple.com/pr, am I right?

I did my own checks because my brother moved to Brussels this Friday and I was hoping he could bring me an Apple Watch come Oct.4 (there will be a general election here in Portugal and, being the responsible citizen he is, he'll come home to vote) but, alas, that doesn't seem very likely now, does it? Thank you MR and AI for deceiving me (not). :mad:
 
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