The Apple Watch will not hit the market until early next year, and it appears that even so, it may face supply strains at launch.

The so-called iWatch has been rumored for what seems like ages, and some even expected it to debut in 2013 and land in stores this year. The company finally made its Apple Watch official in early September, and said at the time that the gadget would hit commercial availability in early 2015.

Apple offered no exact launch date or a more specific timeframe other than "early 2015," and it now looks like interested buyers may have a tough time getting their hands on an Apple Watch at launch.

Just recently, reports started surfacing that the Apple Watch would enter mass production in January, which led everyone to assume that it will be readily available not too long after that.

Nevertheless, a new report now cites sources from Apple's supply chain claiming that the Apple Watch will definitely hit commercial availability sometime in February, but it will be only in limited quantities. This is not the first time that February is mentioned as a likely release timeframe, as some previous reports said that the Apple Watch may see a Valentine's Day launch.

The latest report now comes from popular Chinese Apple portal Feng (via GforGames), but doesn't detail just how limited the Apple Watch supply will be at launch.

According to the publication, the reason behind this allegedly limited supply is the sapphire yield. Apple has very strict quality requirements, and the sole supplier of sapphire glass for the Apple Watch is GT Advanced. Because of this, the source said, Apple will not be able to release the smartwatch in the quantities it likely wanted, at least not at first.

It remains unclear at this point whether the Apple Watch versions that don't have sapphire glass will be more widely available, but this reasoning suggests that they should.

At the same time, it's all based on leaks and speculation at this point, so take this news with a grain of salt. We'll keep you up to date as soon as we learn more about the Apple Watch availability, so stay tuned.