Will Apple sell Apple Watches to foreigners?

[McFreggle]

Hey

Anybody any idea of you will be able to purchase an Apple Watch as a non-resident of the launch countries?

I want an Apple Watch as soon as possible. I live in Belgium where the Watch won't be available at launch. However, Paris isn't far away for me, and I travel for free.

Shipping to my home isn't available as I'm not living in France, but I plan to pick one up in one of the Paris Apple Stores.

What do you guys think? Will I be eligible to order one for pick-up? And will I be able to activate it using my Belgian Apple ID?

Any thoughts?

 

[cmChimera]

Hey

Anybody any idea of you will be able to purchase an Apple Watch as a non-resident of the launch countries?

I want an Apple Watch as soon as possible. I live in Belgium where the Watch won't be available at launch. However, Paris isn't far away for me, and I travel for free.

Shipping to my home isn't available as I'm not living in France, but I plan to pick one up in one of the Paris Apple Stores.

What do you guys think? Will I be eligible to order one for pick-up? And will I be able to activate it using my Belgian Apple ID?

Any thoughts?

I'm pretty sure yes.

 

[iDac]

I think yes, if you will buy directly in a retail store, you can do that in Lille or Paris.

 

[MH01]

You are in the EU, you will be fine buying one in Paris.

 

[rolexwatch]

I'm not so sure about this. If you want to be 100% sure, you have to preorder to a local address. In the german and uk apple watch reservation sourcecode there is a line about a valid govt.id needed to reserve one:

iReserve.productSelection.error.emptyGovtID":"Bitte Ausweisnummer angeben.",
"iReserve.productSelection.error.invalidGovtID":"Ausweisnummer muss gültig sein.","iReserve.sms.smsReloginIntervalError":"Du kannst dich nur einmal pro Minute anmelden. Warte bitte eine Minute, bevor du es noch einmal versuchst.","iReserve.sms.maxReservation":"Du hast das Limit von einer <%= family %> Reservierung erreicht.","iReserve.productSelection.error.genericError":"Leider ist dieser Service derzeit<br>nicht verfügbar. Versuch es bitte später noch einmal.","iReserve.sms.invalid.phone.error":"Die eingegebene Nummer ist ungültig. Die Nummer muss mit der Nummer des Mobiltelefons übereinstimmen, mit dem die SMS verschickt wurde.","iReserve.sms.invalid.phoneOrReservationCode":"Die eingegebene Telefonnummer oder der eingegebene Registrierungscode ist ungültig. Bitte gib die Nummer des Mobiltelefons ein, über das du deine SMS verschickt hast, und den Code, genau so wie du ihn auf deinem Mobiltelefon bekommen hast."

 

[McFreggle]

Thanks for the replies everyone.
Guess I will have to see on Friday if I can manage to make a reservation...

 

[wchigo]

Thanks for the replies everyone.
Guess I will have to see on Friday if I can manage to make a reservation...

I can't speak to the EU but back when the iPhone 6 and 6+ were launching in Hong Kong, they put some pretty hefty "restrictions" on in-store pick-up.

First of all, when trying to make a reservation, you had to text a certain string of characters (i.e. - abcd1234) to a number provided by Apple using a HK-based phone number. You then had to wait for a reply, which could take some time due to the high number of individuals doing the same thing, which was another string of characters (i.e. - efg5678).

You then enter that code in when logging into the Apple website with your Apple ID, allowing you to choose the location, colour, storage size, etc. The kicker was that at the end, you had to pick a time for pick-up, and they were sectioned off as one hour chunks. So if you chose 3pm - 4pm and weren't able to make it during that hour block, you were out of luck and had to try again the next day or whenever stock was available again.

It sounds more complicated trying to explain it than it was when doing it, but it would have made it very difficult for people not residing in HK to make it down there and get their phone during the allotted time. It might be slightly different here due to the market and population but that has been my one experience trying to reserve through Apple online.

 

[rcp27]

I would expect EU single market rules mean that any attempt to prevent someone from Belgium buying a watch in Paris would be illegal (IANAL).

 

[McFreggle]

Well, apparently, as it turns out: personal pickups are not available in France.

So I was unable to order an Apple Watch for pickup. Seems like I have no choice but to wait until it comes available in Belgium, or else until it's just sold in store in France...