I went to the Apple Store to check on the watch situation. The Series 9 and Ultra 2 have been taken off of shelves.

The Apple Watch SE was the only one displayed at the Apple Store when I went to check it out in Richmond, Virginia.

Haley Tenore/Business Insider

• I went to the Apple Store, and as expected, the Ultra 2 and Series 9 watches weren't on display.
• The cheaper Apple Watch SE is still for sale, but doesn't offer as many features. 
• The latest Apple Watch models have been taken off the shelves because of a court ruling.

The latest Apple Watch models appear to have been yanked from the shelves at Apple Stores across the country. I checked a store near me in Richmond, Virginia, to see whether employees had taken the products off the shelf — they had.

Apple was forced to pull the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 from shelves last week after a ruling from the International Trade Commission that said Apple had violated patents held by another company with the new watches.

On Tuesday morning at the Apple Store just outside Richmond, the counter with Apple Watches had no Series 9 or Ultra 2 models on display.

Instead, only the older models were displayed — the Apple Watch SE.

No signs indicated the newer watches were off-display — or when they might reappear. I couldn't find any traces of the newer-model watches at the Richmond store.

The Apple Watch display at the Apple Store felt weirdly bare after the Ultra 2 and Series 9 were pulled from shelves.

Haley Tenore/Business Insider

When I went to look at the iPad display on the Apple Watch table, it only let buyers look at the Apple Watch SE.

It was as if the Series 9 and Ultra 2 had never existed.

When I asked a store employee if they had any newer models, he said, "No." And when I asked if they'd be getting any more in stock, he said, "It doesn't look good."

Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from BI.

Apple Stores still have the Apple Watch SE for sale but don't have all the bells and whistles of the pricier Ultra 2 and Series 9 models.

Haley Tenore/Business Insider

The pulling from the shelves follows the patent dispute from medical tech company Masimo over technology that monitors the wearer's blood-oxygen levels.

Apple stopped selling the watches in its online store on December 21, and at physical Apple Stores on December 24. Most Apple Stores in the US are closed on Christmas Day, so Tuesday marks the first day the stores are open and not selling the newest watches.

Still, resellers like Best Buy, Target, and Walmart can sell the watch until they run out of inventory. Some colors and sizes of the watches already seem to be sold out, I found in a quick online check.

So, if your heart is set on owning a Series 9 or Ultra 2, you might want to act fast. That's because the International Trade Commission's ruling in Masimo's favor only bans Apple itself from selling watches with the patented blood oxygen monitor. Third-party vendors can continue to sell them, but the ITC ruling bans imports of further inventory.

For its part, Apple has said that it would appeal the ITC ruling: "We strongly disagree with the USITC decision and resulting exclusion order, and are taking all measures to return Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 to customers in the US as soon as possible," Apple said in a statement.

Have you tried to buy a new-model Apple Watch but come up empty-handed because of the legal ruling? We want to hear from you. Contact this reporter at: htenore@businessinsider.com.

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