Samsung's Galaxy Gear ads play on your nostalgia, invoke Dick Tracy

You've heard every hero with a wrist-worn communicator cooly say it to his watch: "I'm on my way." Fearless words, spoken before charging into danger: a nostalgic experience you can now have with the Galaxy Gear. This, at least, seems to be the promise of Samsung's new smartwatch ads, which likens the Gear to Dick Tracy's watch radio and Kirk's gangly wrist-communicator from Star Trek: The Motion Picture. It's a cheesy marketing tactic, but we can't say we blame the company -- we made the very same parallels in our review of the device. The two ads feature a parade of inspirational smartwatches, flaunting hardware from Power Rangers, Inspector Gadget, Knight Rider, the Jetsons, Predator and more, suggesting in their titles at the Gear is an "evolution" on these ideas and "a long time coming," at that. Limited device compatibility and fledgling third-party support leave those claims up for debate, but that doesn't make the nostalgic overview any less amusing. Check the videos out for yourself after the break.