Customers planning to buy the Apple Watch without reservation might be sorely disappointed. Apple isn't allowing customers to walk in without first reserving or buying the smartwatch outright, regardless of how much cash you have on hand.

Even for the Apple Watch Edition -- which won't be available in most stores -- customers will need to book an online reservation and might have to wait for weeks in the case of the Watch Edition.

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It's part of Apple's strategy to manage stock while also maintaining the style of a typical luxury fashion store. Having customers order or reserve the watch will make sure the Watch area isn't busy.

Apple is planning to only give Watch and Watch Sport customers 15 minutes of time with the smartwatch. Watch Edition customers get 30 minutes and 30 minutes with the straps, but Apple has a vetting process to make sure random enthusiasts won't get the tour.

The smartwatch is a different product category from Apple's other products, which can be nestled in the 'tech' category quite easily. Apple is really trying to sell the smartwatch as a luxury product, tailoring its whole retail experience towards that side.

Internally, it might run on similar chips and modules inside the iPhone and it's bound to have similar apps working with iOS counterparts. The underlying image of the Apple Watch, however, is it can compete -- design wise -- with some of the best watches in the world.

This means Apple can't put out boxes of the watch with printed images of the straps. It needs to sell the watch in a way it hasn't sold a product before.

Apple's head of retail, Angela Ahrendts, has been working on changing the experience for almost a year following the company's acquisition of Ahrendts from Burberry, where she maintained a position as chief executive.

Even though the operating revenue for Apple won't be affected whether the Apple Watch is successful or a failure, a lot is riding on the success of the wearable. The whole wearable industry could receive a massive spike in popularity if the Apple Watch becomes popular.

Apple will launch the Apple Watch worldwide on April 10. It will be available for $349, $459 and $10,000 for base models of the Sport, Watch and Edition.

TagsApple Watch, smartwatch, Apple Retail