Apple Watch to be sold at Best Buy stores and online starting August 7
Apple Watch to Be Sold at Best Buy — One month after Apple Inc. started selling Apple Watch at its own stores, the company said it will bring the device to Best Buy stores in August.
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple's Watch rollout has been a staged exercise in channel control: a March reservation-only retail launch with no walk-in sales, an April experiment placing the device in select fashion boutiques before it hit Apple's own stores, and a June expansion into seven more countries. One month after own-store availability began, Best Buy becomes the first mass-market chain to carry it.
The move matters because Apple had spent months clearing the runway — pulling Jawbone Up and Nike FuelBand from store shelves back in March to make way for the Apple Watch — and now hands that shelf space to a third-party retailer with roughly a thousand US doors.
First-order effects
- Apple Watch gains immediate physical reach far beyond Apple's own store footprint, putting try-on inventory in front of shoppers who never visit an Apple Store; Best Buy gets a marquee wearable exclusive among big-box chains starting August 7.
- Apple's senior retail leadership shifts from gatekeeping demand (reservations, boutique tests) to managing a wholesale relationship with a partner that controls its own floor space and merchandising.
Second-order effects
- The partnership pays off fast enough that Best Buy [[a:832164|beats quarterly earnings expectations and commits to expanding Apple Watch availability to all of its stores by October]], adding AppleCare sales on top — turning the watch into a measurable driver of its results rather than a trial SKU.
- Rival fitness bands lose their remaining big-box distribution path: having been pulled from Apple's own shelves earlier this year, they now face an Apple-branded wearable occupying prime placement at the largest US electronics retailer.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, wearables follow smartphones' route to scale: scarcity-staged launches give way to broad carrier- and retailer-led distribution once supply catches up, with big-box chains becoming the primary volume channel rather than boutiques or flagship stores.
- Retailers gain leverage as Apple's category matures — the October expansion and AppleCare bundling suggest partners will compete on service and attach rates, not just stock, reshaping who owns the customer relationship for accessories and warranties.
The trend: Apple is transitioning the Apple Watch from a deliberately scarce, tightly controlled launch product into a mass-market device distributed through third-party retail at national scale.