Apple Watch is already a hit, over 1M sold in pre-order

The company is said to be gearing up to sell 20 million devices this year

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We already know that the Apple Watch it going to be popular. In fact, its expected to buoy the entire wearables space to unprecedented heights this year. All of that was in the abstract, though, until Friday, when the devices finally became available for pre-order.

It looks like over one million devices were sold on that day alone, according to new data out from Slice Intelligence.

The firm is estimating that 957,000 people in the U.S. pre-ordered an Apple Watch on Friday. Using e-receipt data from a panel of two million online shoppers, each Apple Watch buyer ordered an average of 1.3 watches, which comes to a total of 1.24 million units. The average purchase price was $503.83.

There are three versions of the Apple Watch; the first is simply called "Watch Sport," and is considered to be on the low end. Apple Watch Sport will start at $349 for the 38mm version and cost $399 for the 42mm.

The next is called "Watch" and is the mid-tier version. It comes with a larger selection of bands, including leather and a link bracelet. It costs between $539 and $1049, depending on the selection of band on the smaller version; or between $599 and $1099 for the larger one.

The third is called "Apple Watch Edition" and it covers the high end of the spectrum. The Watch Edition comes with a case, clasp and bracelet that are all crafted from 18-karat gold, so this is not a product for your average wearable user. Apple Watch Edition costs $10,000.  

Given that there is no difference between the different Watch editions (you're actually just paying more for a nicer band) it's not too surprising that to learn that the vast majority, 62 percent of them, went for the Sport model. 

It's also not a surprise that almost two-third, 72 percent, had bought an Apple product in the past two years, given that making the Apple Watch useful means integrating it with existing Apple devices. It also spurred some people to buy new devices to go along with it: nearly one-third of those who bought an Apple Watch purchased two Apple products, and 11 percent bought three devices.

The effect of all of this is already being felt: Apple is getting set to ramp up production on the Watch, and is now getting ready to sell 20 million of the device this year, according to what analysts told Reuters on Monday. 

There are 5 million Apple Watches expected to be available for delivery by the 24th of this month.

If the Apple Watch proves to be as popular as so many are now expecting it to be, it could drive even higher sales of wearables than were already expected.

In all, 19.6 million wearables were shipped in 2014, a number that will more than double, going up to 45.7 million units, in 2015, according to a report out from the International Data Corporation (IDC) last month.

By 2019, total shipment volumes are forecast to reach 126.1 million units. That means it will have a five-year compound annual growth rate of 45.1%.

And it's all about the wrist now: in 2014, there were 17.7 million wristwear devices sold, for a 90.4% of the market, far beyond any other category. The next closest was modular devices, which are the kind that can be worn on any part of the body with a clip or a strap. Those only sold 1.6 million for 8.3%. 

In 2015, wristwear devices are expected to balloon to 40.7 million though they will lose marketshare, dropping to 89.2%. By 2019, IDC expects 101.4 million wristwear devices to be sold, for an 80.4% share.

VatorNews has reached out to Apple for confirmation of these numbers. We will update this story if we learn more. 

(Image source: apple.com)