Initial reaction to the Apple Watch (not, disappointingly, the iWatch) falls into two camps: those who have only seen photos, who think it looks ugly and big, and those who have actually worn it, who realise it's surprisingly light, and not oversized.
Indeed, it's so light you can forget you're wearing it as one Bloomberg reporter did. He only realised he was wearing Apple's model, not his own, when he was some distance from the giant white building Apple had erected beside the Flint Center in Cupertino to showcase and demonstrate the new watch. (He gave it back to the ashen faced Apple demonstrator.)
I tried it, too, and while I didn't manage to make a break for it, what I noticed was that I didn't notice it until it tingled on my wrist to indicate some message coming in. I usually wear a thin, analogue watch, but this was neither heavy, nor bulky. "It's like a bracelet," remarked one woman trying it on, who said she didn't normally wear a watch.
Analysts already estimate Apple could sell between 30m and 50m of the 'wearable technology' when it goes on sale in 2015, a number that seems wild in view of the fact that there are only 200m iPhones in use new enough to work with it, and that only 15m iPads were sold in their first nine months of existence.
But it's possible. Apple is reaching beyond the technology world to that of fashion; as the presence on Tuesday of singer turned fashion designer Gwen Stefani and singer turned fashion plate P Diddy, not to mention Alexandra Shulman of Vogue, shows.
The watches come in three different "collections" with multiple strap and buckle options; the smaller sized one doesn't look like a brick on a slim wrist. It's thinner and lighter than the smallest Android rival, the Moto 360 from Motorola. The US price will be $349; no UK price has yet been announced.
But what of the software? The "home" screen is bright and pinsharp, and shows a collection of icons that look like multicoloured soap bubbles; look closer, and you realise they're app icons. You can swirl them around, or press another button and get instant access to a different set of icons, of your friends who you can call, or text, or (puzzlingly) send little swirly pictures to.
Back with the apps, you use the "crown" button (like that used to wind old watches) and you can zoom in or out and select any of those apps. The crown is a clever way to control the screen; rather than reusing the "pinch and zoom" familiar from smartphones, Jony Ive's team has come up with yet another way of controlling information on a device. The Watch's screen can also sense force, so it's now a three dimensional set of commands.
The time, a stopwatch, maps, phone calls, messages, calendar appointments, your current heart rate, how many steps or stairs you've climbed that day, the phases of the moon, your current position in the solar system, the Watch can show you them all. The screen is excellent, though those with ageing eyesight may find spectacles useful.
Which is where we come to the difficult questions about a smartwatch: what is it for? Why not just use your phone?
It's the same question I confronted when I tried Google Glass last July. That would show you maps and messages and search results in a little lens above your right eye. Fine, but was that £1,000 worth of usefulness? People seem to think not: though Glass is on sale, there are no signs of any broad adoption.
Glancing at a watch rather than your phone saves you some effort. But is it $349 worth?
American wearers will be able to use it to buy things using "contactless" payments (like Oyster cards, but for real stuff). But in general, Apple hasn't specified what it's for, which differs from what happened with the iPhone (when Steve Jobs famously spelt out that "it's an iPod, an internet communicator and a phone" the middle part having become the primary use for many). Like the iPad, the Watch is a tabula rasa for app developers to create something new.
Personally, I used to wear a smartwatch (the Pebble) which weighs about the same as Apple's Watch, but is far more clunky. I gave that up because a software update stopped showing text messages, and I got bored charging it every five days or so. While one can count on Apple not messing up the former part, the latter is trickier. Apple said nothing about how long the battery will last. We may be used to charging our smartphones every day, but our watches?
