Oh my god. dat ad.

Let's talk about Point (1), because I think it's a really important point:

It looks cool and fits my style, so I wear it.

So I live in the iDevice Capital of the World. Growing up I used to wonder why every computer you've ever seen in a movie or TV show is a Mac; I could count on one hand the number of people out in the world I knew with Macs. Here? I can count on one hand the number of people with PCs. Apple is probably 99% of the marketshare within Hollywood. As a consequence, every phone is an iPhone, or at least it used to be. There are a few Androids leaking in, but they're the "geek" phones. Most everybody else is using an iPhone of some sort, and the only personalization is in the case, and most people forego the case because they're bulky. So what you're left with is almost a uniform: are you

A) a shattered-screen hipster

B) an Otterbox/Lifeproof faux-adventurer

C) a cosmetic-cased wannabe

D) an Android nerd?

Those are your choices. There's no real personalization beyond that. Not surprising. There's some work that goes into creating a phone and nowadays, the ecosystem around it. So you go to a Sprint store or an AT&T store or whatever and you'll probably have 30 choices of all phones.

Now go to a Jeweler. Now go to a Sunglass Hut. Now go to anywhere watches are sold. They'll have more choices in one counter than you can buy in the entire Samsung arsenal. Movado has more collections than Apple has ever had phones, and Movado is a Mall brand. Some of the Tokyoflash brands are hand-made; Arbor used to sell watches but then they burned through their run of 50 (at $100 ea) and stopped.

A watch is an intensely personal choice. It's jewelry. It's unique(ish). and an iWatch or a Moto360 is a mass-produced device with some customization tweaks. It's just another part of the uniform.

Which doesn't invalidate Point (2). However, it does yank any smartwatch out of the realm of "jewelry" and into the realm of "utility" and I'm not sure the utility is there.

Funny thing - my dad had a "smart watch" in 1992. It was a Timex Datalink. it'd transfer his calendar and appointments via IR. It was not particularly useful and, without a cell phone to tie it to, was severely underutilized as far as what was possible. But Timex has been making Datalinks for over 20 years now and I'll bet this is the first you've heard of it.

And maybe that's part of it. Maybe another part of my reluctance is I'd rather give Seiko $1500 for an Astron than Apple $350 for an iWatch. The Seiko is something I want. The Apple? Is something Apple wants of me.