Smartwatch demand saw a steep decline in the third quarter as shipments declined by 51 percent.

The market is still dominated by Apple, which saw a fall in its smartwatch demand. Similarly, Lenovo and Pebble also reported lower demand while Samsung posted a flat performance. Garmin is the only prominent smartwatch company to show positive results.

According to a report released by International Data Corporation (IDC), the third quarter saw the shipment of 2.7 million watches globally, down by 51.6 percent from 5.6 million shipments in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Ramon Llamas, a research manager with IDC, said that the decline is indicative of the "way platforms and vendors are realigning."

Jitesh Ubrani, a senior research analyst with IDC, said the data shows that presently smartwatches are not for everyone. He added that the future of the smartwatch would depend on "differentiating the experience of a smartwatch from the smartphone."

However, there are other factors which affected the numbers in the third quarter. Apple released its smartwatch during the third quarter of the previous year, creating a big spike in demand. However, this year, prominent smartwatch companies including Google and Samsung held back their upcoming products. Google delayed the launch of Android Wear 2.0. Similarly, Samsung also delayed the launch of its Gear S3 watch.

Apple is currently leading the smartwatch segment with a 41.3 percent market share, despite seeing a 71.6 percent decline in its shipments. The company shipped 1.1 million watches in the third quarter of 2016, down from 3.9 million smartwatches in the same quarter of the previous year.