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My link bracelet (band only also) just went to Preparing to Ship. (I ordered at :05, in a separate order from my SS BSB)

I'm happy for you, but sad for me since I have NO Apple Watch, because I ordered the Watch with the SS Link Band. Shame on me for not being wise, clever, smart, savvy, clued-in and brilliant. I could have just ordered the 42mm SS Apple Watch.....with a BSB and had it days ago. Perhaps even on day one (4/24)! I guess it's a hard lesson for those who want what they want when they want it. Next time.......I'll look at Apple's projected delivery date and be a bit more wise when I make my selection at 3:15am.
 
Here's how I interpret this. Certain bands weren't ready at launch: Link, Modern Buckle, Leather Loop. These are now becoming available to Apple, probably in quantities sufficient to make all their pre-order delivery windows. The ones that were sold as bands just need to be packaged and shipped. The ones that go on watches need to go to watch assembly and get integrated into that process. Those are going to take a little longer, and indeed the initial delivery window for LB watches was a week beyond that for LB bands.

My guess is that all the first-weekend pre-ordered LB watches will get assembled this week and will ship next week, just in time to make the front end of their promised delivery windows.
 
I know this is wrong to say since they are meeting all their shipping deadlines his far.

But this pisses me off.

Ordered at 12:02am. SS LB

Guess I shouldn't have.

I really hoped they would send the orders of the full watch first, at least for the first batch. Guess not.
 
This gives us another of the million reasons to be pissed the way our model is being handled !! You can go out and ship the SS watch with other bands and then SS Link Bracelet Band alone. But not the model itself .. oh come on :apple: are you kidding yourself or us ?

It seems from some of the earliest "preparing for shipment" notifications overseas, the shipments were going direct from China, as opposed to the US's watch shipments that seem to only register once they are in the US. I have a theory that the bands are coming off the line and being split into 2 batches. some go directly out (and hit preparing for shipment from China) and many go to be packaged into watch boxes. I believe those will go to preparing for shipment later when they hit the states. TONS of 42MM Milanese registered last night around 9:15 PT. I am betting the SS w Links do the same thing tonight. No need to worry. We will get them early.
 
I'm happy for you, but sad for me since I have NO Apple Watch, because I ordered the Watch with the SS Link Band. Shame on me for not being wise, clever, smart, savvy, clued-in and brilliant. I could have just ordered the 42mm SS Apple Watch.....with a BSB and had it days ago. Perhaps even on day one (4/24)! I guess it's a hard lesson for those who want what they want when they want it. Next time.......I'll look at Apple's projected delivery date and be a bit more wise when I make my selection at 3:15am.

That's exactly the watch I wanted as well, and I was going to order a sport band for the gym. When I saw the ship times, I scratched my head a bit and said, "well, guess I'll do it the other way around." and it worked out. It's a bit of a mystery why full link bracelet watches haven't shipped yet, but bands are.
 
Here's how I interpret this. Certain bands weren't ready at launch: Link, Modern Buckle, Leather Loop.
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My guess is that all the first-weekend pre-ordered LB watches will get assembled this week and will ship next week, just in time to make the front end of their promised delivery windows.

Great! Next week. Exactly the week that I'll be out of town! Grrrrrrrrrrrrr! Can you say "just shoot me"?
 
I can only assume that the bracelets and watches are made in different factories and that to these have to be 'merged' in order to dispatch the complete watches. This would explain the 2 week difference in shipping times between the complete watch and the bracelet on its own.

We can only hope that 2 weeks is a highly prudent estimate from Apple on the time taken to get our watches ready for shipment.

Personally though I think the start of the estimated shipping times (12 May) will be the very earliest we will see our watches.
 
Im in the same boat. I was going to order the SS WSB + Link Bracelet, but I felt that they would have shipped full link + watch orders first.

I guessed wrong.

My 0.02 is that because of the lead times on the links, Apple probably started production of these watches FIRST. Then, they probably scrapped a TON of them (taptic engine) going into the launch, hence the later window from the get go.

These factors all are beyond a laymen to comprehend, but being from a manufacturing background, I would start on the products that take the longest, first, and then take on the quickest products last.

I know it makes no sense, because the SS bodies are all the same, but remember that they also got flooded with orders across the board.. My bet is that the SS + Links got scrapped en-masse.

TL;DR - They scrapped a bunch of SS Link models and thats why we got a delayed launch date from the get go.
 
Folks who ordered SS LB watches at 1 minute past launch got an earliest delivery estimate of 5/13 (from what I read here and elsewhere). I ordered mine about 60 hrs later, on Sunday afternoon (after a try-on appointment). My earliest delivery estimate is 5/14.

What I think that means is that once they start shipping these, as it now appears may happen soon, they expect to be able to get through their initial backlog quickly.
 
Link bracelet preparing for shipment

Just noticed today I was charged and 42mm stainless link band (only) is preparing for shipment. I'm in South Carolina.
 
Folks who ordered SS LB watches at 1 minute past launch got an earliest delivery estimate of 5/13 (from what I read here and elsewhere). I ordered mine about 60 hrs later, on Sunday afternoon (after a try-on appointment). My earliest delivery estimate is 5/14.

What I think that means is that once they start shipping these, as it now appears may happen soon, they expect to be able to get through their initial backlog quickly.

I hope your right. :)

I'm a 12:02am guy and mine is 5/13 - 5/27.
 
It seems from some of the earliest "preparing for shipment" notifications overseas, the shipments were going direct from China, as opposed to the US's watch shipments that seem to only register once they are in the US. I have a theory that the bands are coming off the line and being split into 2 batches. some go directly out (and hit preparing for shipment from China) and many go to be packaged into watch boxes. I believe those will go to preparing for shipment later when they hit the states. TONS of 42MM Milanese registered last night around 9:15 PT. I am betting the SS w Links do the same thing tonight. No need to worry. We will get them early.

Amen !!
 
It seems from some of the earliest "preparing for shipment" notifications overseas, the shipments were going direct from China, as opposed to the US's watch shipments that seem to only register once they are in the US. I have a theory that the bands are coming off the line and being split into 2 batches. some go directly out (and hit preparing for shipment from China) and many go to be packaged into watch boxes. I believe those will go to preparing for shipment later when they hit the states. TONS of 42MM Milanese registered last night around 9:15 PT. I am betting the SS w Links do the same thing tonight. No need to worry. We will get them early.

Question on "TONS of 42MM Milanese registered last night around 9:15 PT".

That was Milanese fully loaded with a watch?

Thanks for the info!
 
Received my 42mm SS Milanese watch today, and now my 42mm Link Bracelet has been charged and moved to Preparing for Shipment. Other than the rain, it's been a good day. Keeping my fingers crossed that I'll have it by the weekend.
 
Sorry, old news. That's just the band. That's from several hours ago.

Yea .. just realized that ... I got excited that this reached out of a forum to a website main page ..

Noticed the difference now that it has to be -

Apple Watch 42mm Stainless Steel Case with Link Bracelet

btw .. how lame of iclarified to talk about a band alone being shipped... if you wanna make a noise, make about the entire LB watch !!
 
NUH UH.... lol.

I laughed at the post you were replying to. Thank you for responding to it.

Your both have absolutely incorrect information. Apple uses a "marine" grade of Stainless Steel (316L). This grade of stainless steel actually shows surface scratches quite easily. Ask anyone with either a boat or SS cookware. The scratches can be easily buffed out with a polishing agent. BTW, this is the same grade of steel used on the early iPods. Their cases got quite scratched in my experience.

Rolex watches uses a different grade of stainless steel (904L). This grade is more expensive, but is also both very acid resistant and is highly polishable. This is one of the reasons why high end mechanical watches can have shiny SS links. Upon close inspection, my 30 year old watch shows surface scratches; these could also be polished out. It still looks good and has only been polished once (during a servicing).

The Apple SS Watch case is a shiny, not matte, finish. The band takes a lot more abuse than the case and that is why I think Apple went with a matte finish on the band. It doesn't match the case, but it still looks good and is a lot more practical.

Listen, I ordered a link bracelet. It's my favorite of all of the Apple bands. Apple was very clear what the product was made of (316L). I have polished 316L on my boat for decades and know its characteristics. It's a fine material, but it does scratch. There are already people posting about their SS watch cases scratching.

You can easily verify this information. Google it.

Knowing the strengths, and weaknesses, of your product can only enhance your experience with it. Ignorance of them will do the reverse.
 
My SS Link bracelet (bracelet only for 38mm SS Watch) is now preparing for shipment.

I ordered it at 1:06 PST on 4/10.

My shipping window was 4/29-5/12.

I'm thinking this means all of you who ordered the SS Link Watch should start seeing some movement by end of this week or first of next, because I think the only reason those of us with band orders are getting ours first is because they didn't need to attach these to watches to ship them out and slapping them into a band package was less complicated.

Which is why they gave us all the earlier window at launch in the first place.
 
Which do you guys feel had the larger order volume. AW with the LB or the LB by itself?

----------

Your both have absolutely incorrect information. Apple uses a "marine" grade of Stainless Steel (316L). This grade of stainless steel actually shows surface scratches quite easily. Ask anyone with either a boat or SS cookware. The scratches can be easily buffed out with a polishing agent. BTW, this is the same grade of steel used on the early iPods. Their cases got quite scratched in my experience.

Rolex watches uses a different grade of stainless steel (904L). This grade is more expensive, but is also both very acid resistant and is highly polishable. This is one of the reasons why high end mechanical watches can have shiny SS links. Upon close inspection, my 30 year old watch shows surface scratches; these could also be polished out. It still looks good and has only been polished once (during a servicing).

The Apple SS Watch case is a shiny, not matte, finish. The band takes a lot more abuse than the case and that is why I think Apple went with a matte finish on the band. It doesn't match the case, but it still looks good and is a lot more practical.

Listen, I ordered a link bracelet. It's my favorite of all of the Apple bands. Apple was very clear what the product was made of (316L). I have polished 316L on my boat for decades and know its characteristics. It's a fine material, but it does scratch. There are already people posting about their SS watch cases scratching.

You can easily verify this information. Google it.

Knowing the strengths, and weaknesses, of your product can only enhance your experience with it. Ignorance of them will do the reverse.

Do you think Apple went with the slightly softer steel due to all the milling required with the link engineering?
 
I know this is wrong to say since they are meeting all their shipping deadlines his far.

But this pisses me off.

Ordered at 12:02am. SS LB

Guess I shouldn't have.

I really hoped they would send the orders of the full watch first, at least for the first batch. Guess not.

I think they're just sending what they have first.

My guess is that they got these fresh off the assembly line and some went directly for watch orders and some went for band only orders and the band only orders are easier to package and send out.

That's why they listed a 2-4 week time for band only and a 4-6 week time for band plus watch when we all ordered on launch day.

I chose the 2-4 week wait for the band and ordered my husband a 38mm SS BSB (arrived on launch day) specifically to avoid the 4-6 week wait.

I know you're all going to get your watches really soon, though. This movement of bands is a very good sign. :)
 
Which do you guys feel had the larger order volume. AW with the LB or the LB by itself?

Considering the SS body should be the same, it really doesn't matter a whole bunch. I'd suspect the former, but a lot of people could have cancelled and ordered it as an accessory after the fact (when they got tired of waiting) - and ordered a sport band. We've seen a number of people do this.
 
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