I once owned an ipod nano as a proto-smart watch. It was cool, but not that useful. It had an MP3 player, but so did my phone. It had an FM radio which was cool. Anyways, the watch got compliments but was always seen as being a little weird.

Today was my first day using Android wear in public. I felt that it would be a little weird talking to my watch in public, but in fact people were amazed. A friend was saying they thought it was just a normal watch but then animations started happening and he was floored.

The point I am getting to through this though is that the smartwatch has evolved now. It used to be seen as something weird or useless. But with apple people begin to give it credit.

Now let's be honest, apple has a lot of people listening whenever they announce something. While we are mostly (if not all) android users here we do have to give them credit for being popular and being able to sway people. The iphone was the first product like that which solidified them as a trend-setter. Then came the never ending stream of smartphones. Then they made the ipad. Then came the stream of tablets. But smartwatches are something that have been toyed with the past few years. With things like the pebble popping up the smartwatches began to be useful.

Then several months ago when android wear popped up it took it to the next level by making it so much more integrated with our phones. Despite that it was still seen as something a bit weird. The watches were a bit awkward in shape and appearance and looked very geeky (no offense to samsung or lg here, I'm just being honest). That is off-putting for a lot of consumers. Even with the Moto 360 being stylish it still didn't interest most people. But Apple managed to get their attention by having a watch. Now, I dislike the apple watch. A friend of mine who is an apple lover dislikes the watch (he uses pebble). But there are some people who swooned at the announcement of the watch. In one of my lectures a kid was freaking out about the apple watch being announced. The thing that apple did was that they made it cool to wear a smartwatch. They changed the public's eye. Smartwatches are no longer going to be seen as something geeky or nerdy. They are going to be the same thing as a having a big phone now. No longer will people question why you are asking your watch for the weather. Instead it is a question: Is that an apple watch?

TL:DR: Apple made smartwatches cool.

EDIT: Also, the Moto 360 is the reason why smartwatches are amazing to me. I'm an architecture major and among my peers there really is a pressure to dress well and look good. The square slates just don't look that good to be honest... But the Moto 360 is so damn good looking. I have a brown leather band with a black face and am just in awe at its beauty :P