Unfortunately and I'm guessing related to the story it is expected to be 10 business days from order for it to actually ship(across all models). Pick up in store was even longer with it being over 20 days at all the Apple stores I checked.
What's the software like too? From a brief look it seems like nike+ is mostly focused on running which fitbit has been moving beyond.
To answer your second question:
I got the nike+ because I've started to get more into running lately. The only difference between the nike+ model and the others is a special interface for the nike run club app and a different wrist strap so not a huge difference but enough to make me choose it.
Does it do things like mapping of your route, graphing it, showing elevation and pace on sections, things like that? Can you run programs for intervals or hills sessions or advanced things like that?
I tried it in an Apple store and it just seemed like a stopwatch, but I wasn't sure if I was just not looking in the right place.
I'm really impressed by how Apple is able to charge an extra $100 just by allowing a custom app to run on the home screen. Brilliant!
It's the Apple Watch version 1 (not to be confused with the original Apple Watch, which was discontinued, despite being obviously confusing to just about anyone) is what starts at $269.
PS: I momentarily thought maybe Apple had 'pulled a Siri' on the Watch. When the iPhone 4S came out, Apple deleted Siri from the App Store so only new (4S and later) devices had it. Pretty sure it increased upgrade rate.