I suspect that the Watch is a result of Apple's attempt to dominate every market. They're no longer on top with smartphones (Android's winning, barely), but they've still got the tablet market cornered pretty well, and this is a bid at the "smartwatch" market, which unfortunately doesn't really exist.

Pando has been pointing out for several months now that the total market penetration of the wearables market is less than 3%

Yeah, I don't know exactly what that means either, but my interpretation is either a) only 3% of people have ever bought wearable tech, or even worse, b) only 3% of people report that they would be willing to buy wearable tech. Either way, I hope they didn't spend too much money developing this thing, because I don't think they'll see returns on their investment.

Personally, I don't even wear a watch... I have an iPhone (jailbroken iPhone 4... why upgrade?!) in my pocket, and investing the 2 seconds it takes to retrieve the thing doesn't seem like too big a deal. The only piece of wearable tech that I might jump on is a Google Glass-like contact lens. And that isn't gonna be here for another couple decades. I could be wrong, but I think smartphones have effectively filled the niche of connectivity for the immediate future.

I've gathered that I'm roughly a decade younger than you, 'bloo, so it could be that the youngsters will see the appeal, but I'm inclined to agree with mknod.