SAN FRANCISCO — Apple is trying to have another iPod experience.

The company was not the first to create a digital music player when it introduced the iPod 13 years ago. But the device, with its click wheel and slick integration with the iTunes software that ran on a computer, took digital music into the mainstream.

Nor will Apple be the first to introduce a so-called smartwatch when it unveils its much-anticipated wristband device on Tuesday, along with two iPhones. But if the company gets it right, it could be the first to make average people want to buy one of these devices.

Wearable computers — attached to a wrist, a belt, a lapel or even a head — have so far been the property of serious gadget enthusiasts and calorie-counting fitness buffs. While a lot of attention has been paid to Google Glass, for example, the computer-in-eyewear is as well-known for the privacy controversy it has caused as for its technical trailblazing.

Smartwatches have not fared much better. Samsung, Apple’s biggest rival, introduced the first of its six smartwatches last year with a commercial that recounted watches that have appeared in science fiction entertainment, from “The Jetsons” to “Star Trek.” A long list of other tech companies like Motorola and LG have also introduced smartwatches, but none of them have been anywhere near as popular as the movies and television shows featured in the Samsung ad.