Gizmo Guy: Get ready for the Apple Watch

Thinking about buying an Apple Watch? You can wait for Friday morning, when Apple stores will begin presale previews and (five- to 15-minute) fitting sessions by appointment.

Or you can put off a decision to the launch date, April 24 (or maybe a day or two before), when Apple pundits pile on with reviews - likely to rave about the product's ease of use, to proclaim it "the first smart watch for smarties."

Among its attractions, Apple's wrist computer is the first "phone-tethered" model you can lift to your mouth to make a call, Dick Tracy style. The only smart watch that will scan incoming messages to predictively prepare one-touch responses to questions like "Chinese food or sushi?" (Creepy - and cool.)

An Apple Watch can blast you with headlines by the second, function as a charge card, use "geo-fencing" to automatically open your garage door as you near the house. Even without an iPhone (5 or 6) in your pocket, it will track footsteps, show off photos, and feed music wirelessly to a Bluetooth headset. And, in case you were worrying, this thing can keep on ticking as a timekeeper for three or four days between recharges, though heavier chores require a daily power-up.

Authority figures also will proclaim this the breakthrough to finally jump-start the smart-watch business. Given the hoopla Apple Inc. has already put out there, its new baby is likely to sell more pieces in three days than all other makers have managed in three or four years (about 750,000). The usual informed sources say factories have geared up to produce between five million and six million Apple Watches for worldwide distribution in the next three months.

If you can manage without the blather, there's a third way to scope out the product, and it's the best if you want to score one on the 24th. That's to go online yourself this week, before Friday, to view Apple's video tutorials and virtually "try on" models for size and design.

Then, if all still seems right, you can place an order early for assured delivery. Not too scary a proposition, really, given Apple's two-week money-back guarantee if the customer is dissatisfied.

The window of buying opportunity at Apple's website opens at 12:01 a.m. Friday West Coast time, 3:01 a.m. here in the East. Appleholics will set an alarm, knowing from experience that if they wait until, say, 8 a.m. Friday to place an order, the "guaranteed delivery date" might be pushed back three days, five days, maybe even a week or two after the opening gun. Apple is saying that because of "initial supply constraints," no watches will be available for impulse purchases in stores April 24. Playing hard to get, are we?

Clearly, there will not be a long waiting list for gold-cased $10,000 to $17,000 Watch Edition models, a bit of marketing genius that makes the $349 to $1,099 versions seem like such a fabulous deal.

Even bling-loving Kardashians ought to know that all Apple watches are the same inside. Same 8GB memory. Same subtle haptic feedback (turn left at the next buzz). Same snazzy Digital Crown control. (Think "mouse on a wheel.") Kim K. may even suspect that the first gen will likely be supplanted by a better-endowed second iteration in as little as six months or a year. Thinner, with more health sensors, better battery life, or even direct 3G/4G connectivity.

So, in Gizmo Guy's addled brain, it only makes sense to early-adopt one of the least expensive Apple Sport Watches - priced at $349 in a 38mm (1½ inch)-tall case or $399 in a 42mm (15/8-inch) version. And the Space Gray Aluminum Case version with Black Sport ("fluoroelastomer") Band is by far the coolest looking and most likely to hold resale value.