Another helpful travel component is the watch’s health and fitness features, particularly its ability to show how often you’ve taken a break from sitting. The watch senses when you stand up and logs that information. Sitting too long? The Apple Watch reminds you to get up — welcome prodding for those who spend hours in cars or planes.

As you might expect, the watch will also have apps from leading travel brands such as American Airlines and Starwood, although it’s hard to get excited because versions of such apps are available on smartphones and tablets. There are a few twists: An app from Starwood, for instance, will allow you to unlock your room at any W Hotel in the world by waving your watch in front of the door. But frankly, opening my hotel room door with my watch was never on my wish list.

And of course some travelers will like that the Apple Watch has Apple Pay, a new mobile system that allows you to pay at the registers of places as varied as McDonald’s and Walt Disney World. Until the system is ubiquitous, I’ll be carrying my wallet. I’ll also be carrying my iPhone because, well, you must in order to use all the features of the Apple Watch — and that’s a real drawback for travelers who aim to carry fewer, not more, devices.

So far wearables haven’t exactly taken off. And, for what they cost, they’re not always practical for the average traveler. Google Glass is $1,500, while the Apple Watch starts at $349 and you have to have an iPhone 5 or higher for it to work. Ditto for the Samsung Gear smartwatch, which is about $300 and requires that you own a Samsung phone or tablet.

Still, some analysts, including Mr. McQuivey, think Apple has the best shot at delivering on the promise of such technology in part because the company is well positioned to go beyond the smartwatch. It could eventually roll out a full-body network of devices; a system that allows travelers to access the same information in a variety of ways — for example, in an ear, not unlike the way the artificially intelligent Samantha talks to Theodore through his ear bud in the movie “Her.” Indeed, Mr. McQuivey thinks Motorola’s new Hint earpiece, which has the same abilities as its Moto 360 smartwatch but relies on the user’s voice, is a “defensive move” against the sort of system Apple might offer one day.

“Nearly four in 10 travelers can see a benefit of using wearables when they are traveling,” said Henry H. Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst with Atmosphere Research Group. To attract more of them, the devices should be easy to use: The typical American traveler is about 41 years old, not 21, according to Mr. Harteveldt. And if the wearable is a smartwatch, he said, it should look inconspicuous, if not beautiful. “It would have to be something that doesn’t make me look like an extra on the set of an alien movie,” he said.

Apple, unlike many competitors, tackled that concern, offering an array of watch faces and bands, including leather and stainless steel mesh. “It’s as much about personal technology as it is about style and taste,” Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, told the crowd at the news conference. Though for those of us with fashionable watches that merely tell time, the Apple Watch presents a problem. There’s only so much wrist real estate.