Samsung Electronics Co.'s Galaxy Watch has gained popularity among Android phone users, coming in second to Apple Watch in the global market in the first quarter, an industry report showed Saturday.

Global smartwatch shipments rose 48 percent on-year in the first quarter of 2019, as wearables with fitness tracker and health monitoring functions attracted more users, according to industry tracker Counterpoint. 

Apple Watch remained the world's most popular smartwatch with a 35.8 percent market share in the January-March period, data showed.

Counterpoint said Apple Watch maintained a clear lead with health-related features like electrocardiogram monitoring and fall detection in the Apple Watch Series 4, which helped offset weak demand for its iPhones.

Samsung's Galaxy Watch accounted for 11 percent of global smartwatch shipments in the first three months of this year, marking a 127 percent year-over-year growth, it said.

"Its success was due to the latest Galaxy watch series, which came with better battery life as well as a very traditional round clockface design," Lim Su-jeong, a senior analyst at Counterpoint Research, said.

"Further, it provides cellular LTE connectivity, which gives it an edge over others targeting Android-based smartphone users."

Imoo, a Chinese smartwatch vendor, slipped by one notch to third place with a 9.2 percent market share over the period, the data said. (Yonhap)