Well, the heart-rate monitor for starters (and I suspect, based on the optical design of it, that it was built with an eye toward measuring blood oxygen content in future incarnations). Extant activity trackers on the market don't really do it for me from a value standpoint--but I do own a Garmin cycling GPS. The Apple Watch also has enough computational oompf that they should be able to implement Suunto's Firstbeat HR algorithm for better calorie burn estimation (this is all speculative, of course).

Strava is a killer app for those who already have an iPhone: Watch Sport costs about what I would pay to upgrade to the latest Garmin Edge, plus it tracks non-exercise activity (which is something I like but am not willing to pay for by itself). On top of all that, Apple Watch comes with maps (and turn-by-turn directions) for free (something you pay for out the nose with Garmin).

Then there's the mobile payments piece. Taking out your phone is fairly low-friction, but double-tapping a button on your watch and holding it up to a terminal is even less so, plus the idea that I could go out with just my phone and watch is pretty appealing.

Most Android Wear watches also have an optical heart rate monitor, and they all do turn-by-turn.

Fair point on the payments, though. I think only the Sony watch has NFC, and I haven't heard when/if that will be actually supported by the OS for payments.

I'm not a fan of what I've seen of Apple Watch, or wearables in general, but the UI innovations that Apple has made for a tiny screen feel clear to me. The manner of navigating apps with the crown (and using a crown to navigate, period), is the one that jumps out the most. The casual sketching and heartbeat communication modes are a bit contrived, but novel. Their approach to haptic alerts sounds distinctive and thought-through.

To be clear, I am not a believer in this product, and I really like Apple stuff. But if you're not seeing ideas and improvements, I think a closer look is warranted.

I had a Swatch Beep (a watch featuring a numeric pager) in the late 90s which used the crown to navigate messages.

Taptic feedback. Diversity in product design. Digital touch. Architecture of Apps.

Those are all unique to Apple's Watch as is pretty much every aspect of the look & feel. You can argue different watches having the same features but Apple's implementation will always be quite unique.

I don't know if diversity in product design is valid for the watch. There was a UI side-by-side with Android Watch UI products at the reveal of the Apple Watch, and they're pretty much identical (save for the top-level app view)

Put aside the UI. There are a couple different case sizes, a few different case materials, a lot of different wrist bands, some special editions, etc. All combined, there are a lot of choices when it comes to the physical appearance of the Apple Watch on your wrist, spanning a huge price range. The Motorola watch comes closest on this score, but it's still a distant second.

sorry, misread that as "diversity in the entire space". It's definitely diverse as one product.

Taptic feedback and force touch come to mind, but let's get our hands on it before drawing any conclusions.

Moving the space app centric is a pretty big deal for me at least. Even if it requires teathering to a phone, and with the performance issues, it's a big step above the notification centric nature of Android Wear. Plus the ability to run on wifi and stay connected with the phone.

Not saying the device isn't worthy of most of its criticisms, but let's not pretend this is and iOS-ified version of Android Wear.

What do you mean by app centric being a new feature?

The pebble watch had a whole store that would work either with android or iOS (some limitations here).