Apple Watch release date: Smart watch is coming in April, says Tim Cook

Smart watch was announced in September, and is thought to have been delayed by last-minute improvements

The Apple Watch will be on shelves in April, according to Tim Cook.

“Development for Apple Watch is right on schedule,” Cook said on a conference call following Apple’s record-breaking results last night. “We’re going to be thrilled to start shipping it because we have a lot of customers wanting to get one.”

Apple has previously said that the smart watch will arrive in “early 2015” — and Apple said that it considers that schedule to cover the first four months of the year.

The company usually ships its products shortly after announcement, but April will be more than six months after the watch was first unveiled in September.

Tim Cook salutes the audience at the unveiling of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus at an event in California earlier this month (Reuters)

When Apple announced the watch, it remained quiet on the release date. It is though that it was targeting an earlier release, but that problems with suppliers and last minute tweaks have delayed the launch.

Some of those tweaks have included improvements to the battery, according to reports last week. Apple has been aiming to have the watch last for about 19 hours, and not being able to reach that target initially meant pushing the launch back from late 2014 to early 2015, according to 9to5mac.

It has also been working to perfect the MagSafe charger that will be used to charge up the watch, which was hit by problems of slower-than-expected recharging times, according to reports. That will be similar to the charger used on Apple’s laptops.