No, the Apple Watch Edition did NOT already totally sell out in China

Preorders for the Apple Watch are open and in China – as expected – they’re coming in hot and fast. But some of the Western media seems to have gotten a bit overzealous about the news. A number of publications, including Business Insider and Cult of Mac, are reporting that the Apple Watch Edition is totally sold out in China, and indeed that it sold out within an hour. Unfortunately, that isn’t true.

The source of this claim is a tweet from @benthompson, which reads: “Every Apple Watch Edition I’ve checked in the China Store is listing as out of stock.” Unfortunately, most of the international press seems to have missed his immediate follow-up tweet pointing out that the two Rose Gold Watch Edition models are still available.

That tweet was posted 15 hours ago. As of right now, both of those Watch Editions are still available. You can preorder the 38mm one here, or the 42mm one here.

The green buttons indicate these models can still be preordered.

It is true that the other models of the Watch Edition, including the most expensive one, have sold out. But how impressive a feat that is remains to be seen, as no one knows how many were available to begin with.

As of this writing, many of the lower-priced Watch and Watch Sport models are also still available for preorder in China.

It’s also probably worth pointing out that the watches that have sold out may not have been purchased by people intending to wear them. Scalpers frequently buy high-end Apple products at launch for resale (at inflated prices) once the devices are sold out, and indeed there are already a couple of sellers claiming to offer preorders for the Apple Watch Edition on Taobao.