If You Invested $1000 In Apple When It Released Its Watch 8 Years Ago, Here's How Much You'd Have Now

Apple, Inc. AAPL is the most valued among all the global companies, thanks to the sticky ecosystem around its hardware products that have a strong appeal among its loyal user base.

The latest statistics disclosed by the company show that Apple has more than two billion active devices.

April would mark the eighth anniversary of the launch of the Apple Watch, a wearable smart device that has features for fitness tracking, wireless telecommunication, and health monitoring, among other things.

Apple Watch: How It Evolved Over Years: Apple’s latest iteration of its smartwatch is the Apple Watch Ultra launched in Sept. 2022. The company promoted it with the tagline “Adventure Awaits.” Among its unique features are the 49 mm titanium case, a GPS antenna for positioning, an action button that can be customized, dual speakers and a sound siren that emits an 86-decibel sound pattern to attract help.

The newest iteration is priced at $799 and the second-generation SE model launched a few days ahead of the Ultra is priced at an affordable $249. The Series 8 comes at $399.

See Also: Everything You Need To Know About Apple (AAPL) Stocks

Apple Watch Revenue: Apple Watches are included as part of the company’s “Wearables, Home and Accessories” business. In the fiscal year that ended Sept. 2022, the business fetched revenue of $41.42 billion, or 10.5% of the total revenue. The category comprises Apple Watch, AirPods, HomePods, Beats Headphones, AirTags, etc.

The category was the third-highest revenue earner for the company after the iPhones and the Services business, edging out the Macs. On a year-over-year basis, the revenue growth was 7.6%, outgrowing the pace at which iPhone revenue grew.

Data from Counterpoint Research show that Apple Watch had a dominant 56% share of the global smartwatch market in revenue terms, in the calendar year that ended in December 2022. Samsung was a distant second with a little over 10% share.

Apple Watch sales were around 53 million units in volume terms, according to estimates compiled by Business of Apps. The firm estimates that the product accounts for about $14 billion to $18 billion in revenue annually. This would mean roughly 3.6%-4.6% of the company’s total revenue in 2022– probably not big enough to move the needle on the stock.

However, with advanced healthcare monitoring and other features envisaged for this product, it could grow to be an important part of Apple’s business.

Returns From Apple Stock Since Watch’s Debut: At the outset, it should be understood that much of the stock’s growth since the launch of the Apple Watch may not be attributable to the product alone.

Looking at the stock’s trajectory since April 24, 2015, when the Series 0 was launched, Apple has made strides.

A $1,000 invested in Apple a day ahead of the launch would have fetched roughly 34.2 shares (based on an April 23, 2015 closing price of $29.25). The same shares would be worth roughly $5,551 now, even after the steep sell-off seen in the tech space in 2022.

This would mean a 455% return over an eight-year horizon, clearly outperforming the 91.7% return for the S&P 500 Index and the 190% gain of the Nasdaq 100 Index.

In premarket trading on Friday, Apple shares fell 0.21% to $162.02, according to Benzinga Pro data.