With limited production and high demand, I wonder if Apple's manufacturing partners are putting bands on watches now based on pre-orders to satisfy as many orders as possible without having inventory of low selling combos sitting around. For example, rather than build a 100K of each silver sport watch combo, and selling out of silver/white instantly, perhaps they're just now putting bands on like 300K silver/white, 100K silver blue, 10K green/silver etc.
It would be the optimal way to satisfy as much demand as possible while eliminating any inventory of unwanted combos.
It would also explain why buying online is the only option initially. To ship completely assembled watches with bands to stores without orders is stupid because you have to build and distribute in combos that may or may not be popular, potentially tiring up inventory that could be converted to combos more in demand.
It would be the optimal way to satisfy as much demand as possible while eliminating any inventory of unwanted combos.
It would also explain why buying online is the only option initially. To ship completely assembled watches with bands to stores without orders is stupid because you have to build and distribute in combos that may or may not be popular, potentially tiring up inventory that could be converted to combos more in demand.