Apple Watch was launched in 2015 amidst certain amount of skepticism about how a smartwatch would fare in the real world. More than five years later, Apple’s smartwatch is a bona-fide hit and as per an analyst 100 million people now wear it.
According to Neil Cybart, analyst with Above Avalon, “it took five-and-a-half years for the Apple Watch installed base to surpass 100 million people.” Cybart estimates that 30 million new people began wearing the Apple Watch in 2020 “nearly exceeded the number of new Apple Watch wearers in 2015, 2016, and 2017 combined.”
Cybart estimates that at 100 million users, the Apple Watch is Apple’s fourth-largest product installed base behind the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. “At the current sales trajectory, the Apple Watch installed base will surpass the Mac installed base in 2022,” he noted in his research report. While the Watch may overtake Mac next year, surpassing the iPad installed base will take longer and likely be measured in a number of years based on the current sales trajectory, as per Cybart.

On the factors driving growth of Apple Watch, Cybart says that people want to be seen wearing an Apple Watch. The device has wide appeal across gender, age, occupation, and social status. “The Apple Watch brand has evolved to become cool yet approachable,” notes Cybart. Add to it the immense functional appeal the Watch has, Cybart says that “everything from a great line of sight for displaying snippets of text and data, to an opportunity to successfully monitor activity and vital signs makes the wrist a valuable space for bringing utility to the body.”
Not to forget how the Apple Watch is an efficient digital health purveyor, says Cybart. “The Apple Watchis able to seamlessly monitor our health and alert us to things that we should know without overwhelming us with lots of data and information,” he says. This gives the Apple Watch a key role in people’s lives that would be difficult for other devices to handle.