Missing the holiday season is intentional -- for one, Apple does that all the time, to great effect re Q2 sales (they require no additional holiday sales boost). Secondly, they deliberately licked the cookie of this product category, which is going to annihilate holiday quarter sales for their competitors and most likely cripple wearables teams in terms of group buyin for the coming year.
There could also be a "Well if Apple is going to release something right after the holidays, the other companies might try to make better models right after the apple watch comes out" feeling. Sort of the feeling that Apple might get one-upped by Samsung, et al.
