Apple spent millions to bankroll the splashy launch of Apple Watch in an effort to position it as fashionable accessory for must-have for trend followers.

apple watchIn March, the Cupertino behemoth took an unprecedented 12-page spread in Vogue for a high-end platform to promote Apple Watch models such as the 18-carat gold item.

In November, Vogue's China edition featured an Apple Watch strapped on the wrist of model Liu Wen. The People's Republic is a vital market for smartwatch marketers.

Apple's quest for buzz among the upper crust and wannabes fell apart today following a devastating piece in the New York Times, which is typically a reliable Apple fanboy or fangirl.

Times fashion writer Vanessa Friedman delivered the coup de grace, an article about how she swore off the Apple Watch that she had been wearing during the past few weeks.

She wrote: "Because no matter how attractive the Apple Watch is in the context of other smartwatches or smartbands, no matter how much of an aesthetic advance its rounded corners and rectangular display, it still looks like a gadget. Especially on someone, like me, with relatively small wrists."

Friedman feels its downright rude when Apple Watch wearers obsessively stare at their wrists for messages or surf the `Net while with others. (My father used to angrily dismiss those who punched out promptly from work each day -- whether or not their job was done-- as "clockwatchers." Does anyone want to be branded as a watch watcher?)

Her last paragraph buries Apple CEO Tim Cook's Apple Watch marketing aspirations. "But here's the thing: The watch isn't actually a fashion accessory for the tech-happy. It's a tech accessory pretending to be a fashion accessory. I just couldn't fall for it."

The Apple Watch is for geeks. Apple's marketing geniuses wasted their money in Vogue. It would be better spent in Wired, Scientific American, 2600: The Hacker Quarterly and Maximum PC.

Cook could have bought a slew of ads in that geek magazine package for the price of his Vogue spread.

I dropped into the Apple store in Grand Central this afternoon. The Apple Watch counter was the loneliest place in the whole joint.