The Apple Watch is doing two things very well. Best-in-class health tracking and best-in-class personalization. Those things may not appeal to everyone here on The Verge, but they have huge mass market appeal. How much do you think people spend each year on fitness and fashion? How much more are they willing to spend in the future... especially when combined with the Apple name that has a premium brand appeal?

I don't see the mass market caring much about notifications on the wrist or even contextual alerts - when they already get some flavor of these on their phones. Especially considering how frustrating the experience can be when these are configured poorly (which they are for some non-techie people). Even smart contextual alerts have a very long way to go before they mature into something valuable that society understands and appreciates. They won't be the killer app that sells watches to the mass market for at least 1-2 years. Apple has plenty of time to get that right, so they focused instead on the things that matter today.

I'll be first to admit I expected something quite different from Apple in terms of design and even functionality, but never the less I'm blown away by the practical benefits of the health tracking... and, as more of a geek thing, am also looking forward to seeing how haptic feedback and notifications are used by third parties.

TL;DR - Fitness & fashion is more valuable to the mass market than notifications already available on the phone. If there is a watch that will take-off it's the Apple Watch.