Apple Watches on sale tomorrow

The Apple Watch in action. Not many Kiwis are expected to queue for Apple's latest device. Photo / Getty Images

Three Noel Leeming stores are the only bricks-and-mortar stores to get the Apple Watch when it launches in New Zealand tomorrow morning.

Parallel Imported has been selling the devices online for the past few weeks.

From tomorrow, New Zealanders can buy the product directly from Apple's website and will pay $599 for the sports version and $21,000 for a rose-gold cased version. Doors at the stores in Queen St and Wairau Park in Auckland and Tory St in Wellington will open at 8am.

Whether there is much appetite for the watch here is another story, with one expert saying it will probably attract only "early adopters" and executives.

Technology commentator Peter Griffin said that with an entry-level price of $599, the Apple Watch was an expensive product.

"I see it remaining the domain of executives and early adopters for the time being," Mr Griffin said.

"There's good scope for bundling deals with iPhones and other Apple products. But it is a first generation model and experience with other smart watches, such as the Samsung Gear, shows that innovation progresses rapidly.

"By the time consumers really warm to this thing, a couple of generations of watches will have passed and hopefully the price will have come down," he said.

The official Apple device includes a rectangular touch-screen face, sensors to detect pulse rates and other health-related features and must be paired with an iPhone to work properly.

What: Apple Watch.
When: On sale from tomorrow, Fri, July 31.
Where: Available at three Noel Leeming stores in NZ:
• Queen St, Auckland: 126 Queen St, open 8am-7pm.
• Wairau Park, Auckland: 3-5 Croftfield Lane, Glenfield, North Shore, open 8am-7pm.
•Tory St, Wellington: 133-139 Tory St, open 8am-7pm.

The watch was released in April to excited crowds, however last month it was announced that sales for the watch had plummeted by 90 per cent.

Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri said this week that the company beat its internal expectations for the watch and that the number of them sold in the first nine weeks was greater than the number of iPhones or iPads that the company sold in a comparable period after those products launched.