Pokemon Center puts a queue on its site when a drop is on. This tells you when the queue goes up, and again when it comes down, so you don't have to sit on the page refreshing. It's on every plan, including Free.
Under Where should we tell you? choose how you want to hear. Alert this device is the quickest, and Email me too adds email.
Press Send me a test alert to see one arrive.
On an iPhone, alerts on the phone need StockWatch on your Home Screen first. Setting up alerts has the steps.
What each alert means
Queue could be opening. The first sign of a queue. Most of these settle back down with nothing behind them, so treat it as a heads-up and get to the site. We message you again either way.
Queue is up. The queue is live. If you want something, go now.
False alarm, it settled. That early sign came to nothing. There is no queue and no drop.
Queue has cleared. The queue has come down, and the drop may be over.
When "Queue is up" arrives
Tap the alert. It opens Pokemon Center, where you join the queue like everyone else. StockWatch can't hold a place for you and doesn't buy anything.
A queue tells you Pokemon Center is expecting a crowd. It doesn't tell you what is on sale. Pokemon Center's own support page says a queue "does not necessarily mean a product is launching".
Worth knowing
It checks every 15 seconds, whichever plan you're on.
It doesn't use up one of your plan's cloud monitors, and its emails never count towards your monthly email allowance.
For email, Restocks under Email me about in Settings is the box that covers it.
The queue can go weeks without going up, so a quiet alert isn't a broken one.
Pausing it, and turning it back on
The queue alert sits in your Monitors list with the same pause button as any other monitor. If your dashboard says Your queue alert is paused, press Turn it back on.
If the dashboard says it is on but can't reach you, nothing is set up to carry the alert. Press Choose where alerts go.