Samsung unveiled a surprise at its annual Unpacked event this month: the Samsung Galaxy Watch, the first smartwatch in the company's flagship Galaxy line.

The Galaxy Watch, which comes in two sizes with a rounded AMOLED display and strong battery life, is a more direct competitor to the Apple Watch than the company's earlier line of Gear smartwatches. The LTE-enabled wearable comes with fitness and sleep tracking, heart-rate monitoring, and intelligent notifications integrated with Samsung's long-in-development Bixby assistant. But Samsung has a huge amount of ground to make up before it can catch up with Apple.

According to estimates by market intelligence firm IDC, Apple shipped around 17.7 million smartwatches in 2017. That's nearly five times as many wearable devices as the next closest competitor—Samsung, at 3.6 million shipments.

Recommended by Our Editors

Google Pixel Watch 5 Spotted in Bizarre Underwater Leak

Samsung Galaxy Watches May One Day Predict If You’re Going to Faint

This Smartwatch Plays Mega Man 2, Tracks Your Steps and Heart Rate

Following the two tech giants are Garmin at 2.7 million shipments, Fossil at 1.8 million, and Continental Wireless at 1.4 million. IDC also has an "others" category of 6 million shipments, which may account for the one missing name on the list: Fitbit.

Time will tell whether the Galaxy Watch turns into the flagship wearable Samsung hopes, but for now, the Apple Watch has a more-than-comfortable market lead and a host of watchOS feature updates announced back in June at WWDC.