Unsurprisingly, Apple Watch Series 7 will be in short supply at launch

Apple announced on Monday that it is opening up preorders for the Apple Watch Series 7 on October 8, starting from 5 a.m. pacific, 8 a.m. eastern, with availability starting from October 15. In jumping on the news, prominent leaker Jon Prosser offered a warning that there could be limited stock of the new model.

"It's gonna be hard for you to get one," said Prosser on Twitter. "I'm told that mass production began just under a month ago, so stock is very limited."

Prosser's comments seem to correlate with those of analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who said in early September that mass production was set to start in mid-September, with volume shipments later in the month. Kuo added that Apple had solved production issues on the model, caused by the adoption of new display panel production processes.

The warning of potentially limited availability for the new Apple Watch is not a surprise to anybody who's been following Apple for a while — especially during fall release season. Limited stock of products is a common occurrence, with shipment schedules often stretching long into the future within hours of preorders starting up.

In the case of the iPhone 13 Pro Max, shipments started to slip back within an hour, and by September 23, estimated delivery dates for some configurations pushed into November. The same effect was also felt by the iPad mini.

For non-iPhone products, the same limited availability can happen at a far more rapid rate. For AirTags, initial preorders for the engraved four-pack started to slip within just five minutes of preorders opening, pushing deliveries from April 30 to mid May. And, every Apple Watch release since the original has shown the same kind of issue pop up on preorder day.

HomePod mini preorders in November 2020 had a similar effect, with the Space Gray speaker's shipments quickly slipping to a three-week delay in the U.S., or up to seven weeks in Germany.