The Apple Watch will be sold at Best Buy from August, making the electronics store the first retailer to stock it aside from Apple and a handful of high end boutiques.
Apple has said the watch will be sold in 100 Best Buy stores in the US to start with, rolling out to over 300 outlets by the winter holiday period, when Apple is hoping to see a boom in sales.
“The Apple Watch is an important addition to an emerging product category, and we know our customers want it,” said Jason Bonfig, senior category officer at Best Buy, the Wall Street Journal reported.
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Best Buy will stock a range of watches including the sport edition, but it will not sell the gold-cased model costing $10,000.
The Apple Watch has only been available in Apple stores since mid-June due to supply issues, according to Apple. The company said it was limiting store sales to makes sure those who had preordered the watch received it on time.
Apple announced last week that it was cutting investments in high street stores and manufacturing equipment to save up to $1 billion dollars, following third-quarter earnings that beat profit expectations but fell short on expected iPhone sales.
Although separate Apple Watch sales were not released with the results, Tim Cook said that sales did exceed expectations.
“Our objective of the quarter wasn’t primarily sales but also how we position the product in the long term because we are starting a new product category,” he said.
The decision to sell the watch at Best Buy, which is the largest electronics retailer in the US, is likely part of this positioning ahead of Christmas.
