Apple Watch Scored An Estimated 1 Million Pre-Orders On Launch Day

The Apple Watch went up for sale last Friday and it was clear supplies went fast. The units ready for the official April 24 launch date quickly vanished off Apple's website. But we still don't know exactly how many units of Apple's shiny new gadget were sold. According to new data from research firm Slice Intelligence, it looks like Apple did pretty well for itself.

Looking at e-receipts from 9,080 online shoppers, Slice estimated that 957,000 people pre-preordered an Apple Watch in the United States on Friday. Apple Watch buyers pre-ordered an average of 1.3 watches and spent $503.83 per watch.

Most consumers went after the least expensive option with the Sport, which starts at $349. Slice also estimated most consumers preferred the larger 42 mm watch at 71 percent versus the smaller 38 mm version.

Slice's data does not include the eight other countries that the Apple Watch went up for pre-sale in -- including Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Japan, China and Hong Kong. Sales in these other countries could vary drastically from the US -- especially in China, where Apple is increasingly finding massive consumer demand for its products.

In contrast to past launches, the first generation iPhone only sold 270,000 in the first 30 hours of going up for sale. And the iPad sold 300,000 in its first day. It's important to note, though, that Apple is approaching the launch of the watch differently than past devices. Instead of having Apple fans line up for days to get a chance to buy the device on launch day, consumers had to pre-order the watch off the Apple website last Friday.

Overall, though, we'll still know less about how well the watch is selling compared to the iPhone or iPad. Apple has opted to not report watch sales in its own category for quarterly earnings. Instead, the watch will be lumped in with the new "other products" category, which includes sales figures for the iPod, Apple TV and other accessories.

Early reviews of the Apple Watch were mixed when they first came out on Thursday. Many praised the device as the first smartwatch with mainstream potential, but many found problems with how well the third-party apps performed. Apple has promised many of these software issues will be smoothed over.

I've contacted Apple about the accuracy of Slice's data and will update this story if I hear anything. For past launches, Apple announced sales stats the following Monday, so we may be hearing more from Apple soon on how well the Friday launch went.

Apple's nice new Macbook also went up for sale last Friday and Slice estimated it sold 48,000 of them. 43 percent of consumers who bought the new Macbok also purchased an Apple Watch, Slice estimated.