Honestly, I don't see myself buying a smartwatch any time soon, but then again, I don't see myself buying a watch any time soon, period.
That said, it's obvious that the majority of watches sold will be smartwatches sooner or later. After all, if you've already made up your mind on having a watch - and yes, there are applications outside of fashion and jewelry - then why not get a smartwatch? Outside of the Apple bubble, the difference in price will be negligible.
There are two open questions in this context: First, will the Apple Watch come to dominate that market? Most likely, it will go the way of the smartphone market in the medium term: small number of units sold with comparatively high profits purely for brand reasons.
Second, will there be a land rush of application development comparable to when smartphones and tablets really came into their prime? Most likely not, or to a much lesser extent, for a combination of the reasons that you mentioned and that smartwatches will basically be appendixes to smartphones, where that land rush has already happened.
Why not get a smartwatch? Well, there are actually several reasons:
- price. It is still going to be more expensive than a cheap dumb watch
- lifespan. Electronics generally won't live more than 3-5 years on average. A good watch can outlive you and your children.
- too much feature. The same way some people still buy dumb phones because they just want to phone and text, some people only want time out of their watch (recent threads about iPod sells explain that pretty well, albeit for a different product).
- fashion, as you said. Some people want to look good, and a smartwatch with a digital screen (gasp!) may be against their sense of aesthetics
That said, it's obvious that the majority of watches sold will be smartwatches sooner or later. After all, if you've already made up your mind on having a watch - and yes, there are applications outside of fashion and jewelry - then why not get a smartwatch? Outside of the Apple bubble, the difference in price will be negligible.
There are two open questions in this context: First, will the Apple Watch come to dominate that market? Most likely, it will go the way of the smartphone market in the medium term: small number of units sold with comparatively high profits purely for brand reasons.
Second, will there be a land rush of application development comparable to when smartphones and tablets really came into their prime? Most likely not, or to a much lesser extent, for a combination of the reasons that you mentioned and that smartwatches will basically be appendixes to smartphones, where that land rush has already happened.