With the release of its Galaxy Gear smart watch, Samsung Electronics Co.005930.SE +1.64% is betting that consumers will be willing to pay up for a second device that provides some of the functionality of a smartphone - without having to reach into their pockets or purses.

Many people already have a hard time putting away their smartphones, giving them an exalted place at the dinner table and the pillow's edge. But Samsung sees an unfulfilled niche market for a $299 device that makes some of the functions of its smartphones available on your wrist.

Yes, there's a camera. There's a weather application. There's even a step-counting pedometer and S Voice, a voice-activated analog similar to Apple Inc.'s Siri. But this isn't a device for sending e-mails, downloading music or conducting most tasks requiring more than two fingers at a time.

For those functions, and many others, you'll still need to buy Samsung's Galaxy Note phablet - a 5.8 inch phone-tablet hybrid that has been recast in its latest iteration as a 'docking station' of sorts for the Gear smartwatch.

Any e-mails or messages sent to the smartphone will also be available on the wristwatch, though you'll want to pull out your Note for crafting a reply.

Samsung says that the watch won't be marketed as a standalone device, but rather as a companion to the Note, which is likely to dampen some of the excitement over the release.

At a preview event for journalists at its Suwon, South Korea, headquarters last week, the company's mobile chief, J.K. Shin, shied away from any sales projections, but offered up a benchmark of roughly two to three Gear smartwatches sold for every 10 Note phablets sold.

The Gear smartwatch, which runs on Google Inc.'s Android operating system, comes in a variety of bold colors - the version that this reporter got to strap on for five minutes was a solid orange - and looks like a sleeker, 70-gram version of those old bulky sports watches.

The band is made of plastic, with a rectangular head and a neon-backlit 1.63' OLED touchscreen that can be swiped left to right to toggle between the different features. The 1.9-megapixel camera is embedded in the wrist band, allowing for easy snapping. (A noisy click sound, which can't be adjusted, also accompanies each photo, preventing any misfires or surreptitious snaps.)

One potentialannoyance for consumers: The watch will require its own, separate battery charger, which must be strapped around the screen, though Samsung claims that an overnightcharge will power the device throughout an average day's demands.

Samsung says that the watch will be made compatible with other devices in its suite of smartphones including, eventually, its flagship Galaxy S 4 smartphone. And one day, it says, the watch may be developed to the point where it can be marketed as a standalone device.