Apple Watch release date: wearable to hit stores by end of April, but likely much earlier

The new computer will probably be on people's wrists around mid-March

A man cleans the window displaying the Apple watch during the unveiling of the new and highly anticipated product at Saint-Honore street in Paris (LOIC VENANCE/AFP/Getty Images)

Apple is set to launch the Apple Watch on Monday, but has remained tight-lipped on when it will actually be released. However, the company's past form means it's likely that the watch will arrive by mid-March.

The watch will certainly be released by April, which is when Tim Cook promised they'd be out in a call to investors in January. But that appears just to be a deadline, rather than a target, and the watch will probably come in March.

If Apple's previous announcements are anything to go by, the company could announce on Monday that orders are open for the watch, in advance of a release in a week or so. The company appears to be able to launch the phone within a week — after outfitting its stores and following visits from Tim Cook — and that is the usual gap between the launch and release that is seen in other products like the iPhone.

Apple is unlikely to make people wait for the watch, given it announced the new device all the way back at the iPhone event in September. While it could make people wait all over again — and there have been bigger gaps between announcing a product and actually selling it — it seems unlikely that the company would schedule another event if it was only going to announce yet another delay.

The Apple Watch event was announced last week — the company presumably wouldn't do so if the product weren't ready — and will take place on Monday evening.

Apple will almost certainly say at that event when the watch is coming to shops. A release date and a confirmation of price will probably be among the biggest of the evening's announcements, and the most closely-watched by people eager to get their hands (and wrists) on the watch.