The world’s last Apple Watch store will soon be no more. On May 13, the only remaining Apple store completely dedicated to the sale of Apple’s wearable will be closing its doors, as per signage recently spotted at the Isetan department store in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The closing doesn’t necessarily come as a surprise — the store was only ever a pop-up, and earlier this month, Apple opened a full-fledged store in Shinjuku as well. As a result, it seems reasonable that the iEmpire decided to shutter the pop-up, previously located just across the street from the new store in the fancy Isetan department store.
The pop-up has been in existence for an impressive three years, ever since the original Apple Watch made its debut in 2015. There were only ever three such pop-up stores in the world, which exclusively sold Apple Watches and their corresponding bands. The other two were previously located in Galeries Lafayette in Paris and Selfridges in London, and both closed their doors early in 2017. All three stores were located in department stores that carried other luxury watch brands.
The Isetan location was also the last place where potential buyers could not only see, but also buy the original, 18-karat gold Apple Watch Edition straight from Apple. Earlier in April, as per 9to5Mac, the watch was still in stock, and could be tried on and purchased upon request. And with hopes of getting rid of the wearable altogether, the pop-up was apparently cutting the price of the watch by as much as 70 percent. Recently, however, the store managed to sell out of its remaining inventory by putting on a fire sale that offered the Apple Watch Edition for as little as $700 — when they made their debut, the watch was sold for somewhere between $10,000 and $17,000.
This Tokyo location was also the only to feature an entirely black interior. In place of the traditional bright lights and all-white, all-glass design of many other Apple stores, the pop-up had what was described as a “near Vantablack appearance.”
But don’t worry — just because the pop-up is closing doesn’t mean that Apple is losing any of its mojo. The new Shinjuku Apple Store, for example, features a 6K video wall, and is meant to host Today At Apple events.
