But I'm still unsold on wearables.

Yeah, though I admit I'm tremendously curious to try the Apple Watch (and that's literally it for wearables). After demoing Google Glass for a very short time it was glaringly obvious just how...absurd it was. On so many levels. But a smartwatch seems so much more compelling to me, not least because if it looks very nice and tells the time competently, it can damn near justify its place on your wrist on that alone.

Wearable penetration is negligible now and it will likely be negligible until someone comes up with a killer app for wearable tech.

A recurring theme I've seen in a lot of the Apple Watch reviews is that the utility is subtle, intimate, but very real...which doesn't take any real suspension of disbelief for me. Notifications in particular are something I think people may misunderstand on a watch. I think the last thing you want is to know when every email or phone call comes in, but that there are certain selective notification in certain selective scenarios that could make the device extremely compelling. I'll tell you right now that if my turn by turn directions were beaming from my phone in my pocket to my wrist while on my motorcycle, that alone would be great to me.

I'm not quite curious enough to buy one because it's so early in the life cycle, but I am definitely going to demo one, and I wouldn't be surprised if I pick one up withing the next three years.

something as high fashion as a Ventura may well look dated in 5 years.

It's already dated :) That's the cool thing about Atomic Era design...it can look pretty progressive even though it's old. But it can very easily be a bit overwrought too imo. Much better than the hideous modern update to the old design though.