They've had developer units but not a publicly released one as far as I know.
When Apple TV was being developed they were handing them out to devs for free like they had millions they were trying to get rid of. I was a lowly single app creator and they happily sent me one.
For the Intel to M1 migration they did something similar but required them to be returned this time, and limited which devs they sent them out to.
The first Intel Mac and the first ARM Mac were DTKs: Developer Transition Kits.
You’d buy them from Apple at a reduced price, could use them to get your software running, and then had to give them back when the real hardware was released.
There was nothing similar for the watch, iPad, or iPhone though.
Five times the price, yeah. Today. This really feels like a product aimed at developers right now not the mass market yet.
Which fits. The iPhone took a few years to really take off. The Apple Watch took a few years to really takeoff.