If your bar for "innovative" is seriously that incredibly high, prepare to be disappointed..

I assume they want the watch to become a standalone platform (or at least, similarly to the ipod, a companion device to either an iphone or android phone), ultimately replacing your need for a phone at all.

That last statement of mine sounds absurd to me, but then again who would have predicted 10 years ago that many people would have a smart phone but no laptop nor desktop?

The iPhone was a Mac derivative and computer accessory that required iTunes to even work but became the most successful product in all of human history. You could call it just a ‘mac in your pocket’ but it would still be the most successful products

The watch is on a similar trajectory.

The Apple Watch does not need an iPhone to function.

You could also point to AirPods. They sold a lot of them because a lot of people had iPhones

AirPods work with any Bluetooth device, not just iPhones.