Supply snafus delay Apple Watch’s retail arrival

You can look at it, you can touch it and you can even try it on — but you won’t be able to buy an Apple Watch at a store on April 24.

That was the surprise news from Tim Cook’s Apple on Thursday as the Cupertino, Calif., company grapples with production issues for the newly launched device, according to a leaked internal memo.

Apple had announced last month that its Watch would hit stores April 24.

But last week, after pre-orders began on Apple’s site in the wee hours of Friday morning, availability of several models was quickly pushed back into June — signaling either massive demand or limited supply.

Apple wasn’t saying — and it didn’t address the weeks-long delay — until the memo from its retail boss leaked.

Apple’s site, which previously had promised the watch would be “available 4.24.15,” switched this week to a noncommittal “The Watch is coming.”

Some critics have dismissed the supply shortages as a marketing stunt to build buzz for the new wrist computer, which is the first device developed entirely under chief executive officer Cook — and not first set in motion by the company’s late founder Steve Jobs.

A host of celebrities have been spotted wearing Apple Watches lately, including Karl Lagerfeld, Drake, Pharrell Williams and “Star Wars” director J.J. Abrams.

Nevertheless, the snafu has made for an unusually messy rollout for the Watch, as the company has been forced to backtrack on key promises to its rabid consumer base.

“Yes, it’s embarrassing and everybody’s going to be sad — including me,” said Shelly Palmer, a marketing and technology consultant at Landmark Ventures.

Still, the stumble won’t do much to trip up Apple, Palmer added, as “they’re making more products that more people want than anything else.”

Cook left his retail boss to break news of the retail delay to store employees.

“Many of you have been getting questions asking if we will have the watch available in stores on April 24 for walk-in purchases,” Angela Ahrendts, the former Burberry CEO who took over Apple’s retail stores last year, said in a memo to store employees.

“As we announced last week, due to high global interest combined with our initial supply, we are only taking orders online right now,” Ahrendts wrote in the memo, first reported by 9to5Mac.

“I’ll have more updates as we get closer to in-store availability, but we expect this to continue through the month of May.”

There were already hints of constrained supplies when the Apple Watch was unveiled at stores last Friday and made available to try on for the first time, says Landmark’s Palmer.

After checking one out at the company’s Fifth Avenue flagship, Palmer says employees told him to order the watch online if he wanted one.

“They didn’t even try to sell it,” Palmer said. “They might have known right at that moment that they couldn’t deliver anything.”