I can answer my own question now for future ref should anyone want it
I received the VIN approx. 3wks before the car was delivered to the dealer, and approx. 4 weeks before I collected it.
The car didn't show up in the app ahead of this, so the progress of the build couldn't be tracked there. As soon as the VIN was available it showed the correct car in the app, but nothing much could be done as you need to be with the car to initiate the app connection.