Why haven't smart watches caught on?

Smart watches were supposed to be the next big "thing" in tech. But how many people do you know even have one? The CEO of Chinese electronics company Huawei, whose company sells a smart watch, said this week that he doesn't see the purpose of the device.

"As of now, the smart watch has not really caught on in the same way the smart phone has and we don't know if it ever will," says Seth Porges, a tech journalist. He says the majority of us -- even those who own smart watches -- understand only a fraction of their capabilities. At this point, the device is attractive to mostly niche audiences.

"I have a friend with diabetes who has a continuous glucose monitor checks their diabetes every couple of minutes, it pings the results to their watch, it potentially could save their life," Porges says.

The smart watch may not vanish into the tech product ether the way Google Glass once did, but until it serves a purpose that our smart phones can't satisfy in a truly unobtrusive manner it seems unlikely to reach the mainstream, Porges says.

"At its best, the smart watch keeps you from having to pull your phone out every time you have a notification, every time you have a vibration but in practice what happens is sometimes you feel that vibration or notification even more," Porges says.