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It can't receive phone calls, track your exercise or let you send messages, but an old watch made by Apple is on sale via eBay for more than the brand's latest offering.

An analogue promotional watch from Apple with a blue bezel, rubber strap and colourful hands, is listed on the internet auction site with a 'buy it now' price of $2,499.99 (£1,707.47) plus postage.

For the same price as the 1997 timepiece, Apple fans could pre-order five of the cheapest Apple Watch Sport, which cost £299 in the UK and still have some change.

An analogue promotional watch from Apple (pictured) with a blue bezel, rubber strap and colourful hands, is listed on the internet auction site with a 'buy it now' price of $2,499.99 (£1,707.47) plus postage

However, it is still cheaper than the Apple Watch Edition, which costs upwards of £8,000 ($10,000).

The seller, called 'theappleipodbay' calls the watch, which was made by Quartz and released to promote Apple's Mac Operating system, a 'rare collector item'.

'The watch was part of an Apple promo and has been preserved from the 1990s,' the seller wrote on their eBay page.

'A new battery has been installed and the watch is new, never used or worn.'

It is still in its original box and the seller claims to have two to offload, with 10 days to go.

The seller, called 'theappleipodbay' calls the watch, which was released to promote Apple's Mac Operating system, a 'rare collector item. This image shows the listing on the auction website

Unlike Apple's new Watch, the vintage model has a circular screen, which has no digital capabilities and shows the company's old rainbow hue logo. Three versions of Apple's watch (pictured) are available to pre-order online and almost one million orders are thought to have been taken in the US on the first day alone

Unlike Apple's new smart watch, the vintage model has a circular screen, which has no digital capabilities and shows the company's old rainbow hue logo.

The International Business Times reported that the watch is almost 50 times more valuable – according to its seller – than it was a year ago, thanks to the launch of the new Apple Watch. 

It's not known how many of the vintage watches Apple had made at the time, or how many still exist, but one sold on eBay in Match last year for $54 (£37).

At the time of writing, two more of the watch model are listed online for $1,000 (£679) and $750 (£510), but neither have fetched that amount of money, suggesting sellers may just be trying their luck.

It's thought that Apple sold almost one million Apple Watches in the US alone on the first day that the device could be pre-ordered.

It goes on sale in shops in nine countries on April 24.

Apple has not confirmed any sales figures, but Tim Cook, interviewed on cable television channel CNBC, said initial orders were 'great.'

Slice Intelligence measured digital commerce by tracking consumer receipts to come up with its number of 957,000 American shoppers ordering Apple Watches on the first day that they could do so.

Those ordering an Apple Watch Sport, the cheapest version, spent $382.83 per watch and those ordering the Apple Watch spent $707.04.

'As expected, most consumers – 62 percent – purchased the less-expensive Sport model,' said Jaimee Minney of Slice. 

The data also showed that most consumers opted for the larger 42 mm case.

Apple predicted on Thursday that demand would exceed supply at product launch.

Soon after online pre-orders opened on Friday, Apple's website listed shipping times in June for some models of the watch and four to six weeks for others.

There was immediately brisk bidding on eBay for confirmed orders for watches, with hundreds of sellers looking to make a few hundred or even thousand dollars by passing on their watches, once received.

'The watch was part of an Apple promo and has been preserved from the 1990s,' the seller wrote. It comes in its original box (pictured) and has a new battery