Time for a Change

3 a.m. Special in Aisle 9 of the Apple Store

Just to be safe, I set the alarm on my iPhone for 2:45 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time last night.

By 2:30 I was wide awake. Beside the bed, I offered my daily morning prayer for world peace and freedom from the bondage of self. I did not ask for divine help in scoring an Apple Watch.

Within five minutes I was at my desk, dressed in sweatpants, T-shirt, my favorite green plaid flannel shirt, and L L Bean wool slippers. I moved quietly out of habit, even though my wife Darlene was two time zones away, sleeping undisturbed at our home in Denver. The Yorkie Claire was not barking at me.

But I was clearly not alone. Twitter was lit up with tweets from half-awake early adopters who had set their own alarms in advance of 12:01 a.m. Cupertino Time, the designated M Minute for pre-order of The Watch.

3:00 a.m. - Nothing. Thought I'd try.

3:01 a.m. - Still nothing. I'm watching my computer monitor set to the Apple Store. On my iPhone 6 Plus I monitor the Apple Store app. No change on either screen.

3:02 a.m. - Bingo! I'm in. The display changes on the iPhone Apple Store app. Nothing yet at Apple.com on my computer.

I didn't wait for my computer to go live with pre-orders. I tapped into my phone. The Apple web site on my MacBook Air finally caught up in another couple of minutes. By then I was done.

In the hour before I'd gone to bed last night, I had revised my Watch Lust upward a tick. I left myself a written note that read, "Apple Watch, 42 mm, stainless steel case, Light Brown leather loop." That would have set me back $699 or about $200 more than I had originally planned when I thought the entry-level Apple Watch Sport model would be just fine, thank you.

But the Apple Store app on my phone remembered that I had clicked a heart to favorite the cheaper Sport model. If I tapped on it, I would save precious minutes in the pre-order process compared with resetting my choice for the mid-grade model, called simply "Watch." I chose the faster, cheaper path and thus spent $482.27 - including tax and $49 for AppleCare+ support. Click. Done.

If you are a sane person who slept through the night and will amble over to your computer after a muffin and coffee today at a more civilized hour, you too will be able to buy an Apple Watch Sport. But yours will arrive sometime in June, I see by a check now on the web site. The minute-after-midnight crowd will see delivery starting on April 24th. The email I received confirming my purchase states that my watch will be delivered between April 24 and May 8 "by Standard Shipping." Standard is the only choice I remember seeing; I would certainly have paid more for overnight.

The Apple Store app also offered me a chance to sign up for a watch show-and-try appointment today at the real store here in Cambridge, at the Galleria Cambridgeside Mall. I took the earliest slot available, 10 a.m., which is when the store opens. Within an hour last night there were no more appointments available today.

So in a couple of hours I will have a chance to slip on the Black Sport Band that I chose for my watch. I hope I won't experience clicker's remorse and wish I'd spent another minute to update my order to the mid-level watch. I expect the store is going to be a happy tech zoo this morning, not as nuts as Product Launch Days of yore when Apple fanatics have happily lined up a day in advance at the New York City store and elsewhere for the first iPhone or iPad. On April 24th, I've read, you won't be able to buy and pick up a watch at a physical store, except as a pre-order.

I returned to bed at 4 a.m. and slept fitfully for another three hours, dreaming of falling asleep. Today at breakfast of apple slices and cheddar cheese I read news of The Watch. Delivery times of June are the norm, unless you ordered the Apple Watch Edition in rose gold. You will pay $12,000 for that baby, but it won't arrive until July. The buzz factor seems to be running at about 11, confirming my sense that Apple's newly intimate computing device is going to be big--very big.

Today will be all about Apple Watch, but competitors have not been idle.

Pebble yesterday emailed me a form for choosing which color band and face I want for my Pebble Time and Pebble Steel, the new models that will ship in May and July. I selected black for the Time and gold (the color, not the metal) for the Steel. What I will do with three Pebble watches, counting the one I'm now wearing, the original black and white model--I have no idea. Darlene and Claire and I will be at Ocean Park, Maine, in July, so in addition to deciding which T-shirt to wear, I will have to ponder a choice of watches.

There have been rumors this week that Google will add iPhone compatibility to its Android Wear operating system for the Moto 360 and other Android watches. That will royally roil the ghost of Steve Jobs, who never forgave Google for copying the iPhone look and feel for the Android OS.

When I think back to my indecision when I began this story, I can't believe that I ever really thought I would choose to miss out on Apple Watch Mania. It's a tribute to how fond I had grown of my Fire Phone, which is now a distant memory, like the Motorola Q Windows phone I owned a decade ago.

My mother shakes her head when she sees my gearing up for the Next New Gadget. She likes to tell the story of how, when I was a boy, I would grab a new jar of Peter Pan peanut butter and slide my finger through the untouched smoothness for a taste. "First of the peanut butter!" I would announce, primarily to irritate my long-suffering younger sister, Stephanie. I can't believe they let me get away with such behavior, and I don't like to think that what drove me last night at 3 a.m. was more than a distant cousin of boyish cheek.

But that's okay. At age 64, I am grateful for the unadulterated delight that an invention like Apple Watch sparks in me. I will be tearing that little box open in Denver later this month like a boy under a Christmas tree, hoping for a real Davy Crocket coonskin hat with tail. It will be fun to be one of the first kids, I mean grownups, on my block with an Apple Watch. But even if no one notices, I will be loving the newness, the brilliant color, the unkown things it will do and how much fun I will have learning them.

This is the first major product developed by Apple without any involvement by the founder. If Steve Jobs was up there last night, watching the excitement as midnight circled the globe, I bet he was one happy cherub, even if as an angel he remains prickly and demanding. It makes my eyes water to think of it, appreciating this morning just how much that one man made a difference in the world.

NOTE: This chapter's posting coincided with my 20-minute recorded Kindle Chronicles interview with Ashleigh Gardner, Wattpad's direct of content. If you are enjoying this story, I hope you will check it out at http://www.thekindlechronicles.com/2015/04/12/new-media-expo-nmx15-is-this-the-year-podcasting-will-be-big/ .