Apple just has to see that there is a market for something, and then execute the hell out of it. Something Samsung isn't as great doing.
note I use a Note 3 and think it's the greatest portable electronic device I've ever purchased, despite the crappy Samsung software on it.
edit
somebody doesn't like this idea and has downvoted both my comment and the parent without explanation. Which is just the equivalent of "wrong!". What exactly is wrong with this assertion? Pretty much all of Apple's expected upcoming announcements are Apple executed versions of things that other companies have already produced: larger screen phones, watch, etc.
There's nothing wrong with using somebody else's R&D and marketing dollars to develop the market for you. That's what Apple did for everybody else with the iPhone and now it's what they're letting other companies do for them. It's smart since it puts execution front and forward, which is squarely in Apple's wheelhouse. Not feature development and market testing.
Just because Apple releases a watch 6 months after Samsung, that does not mean that they started working on it 6 months after Samsung did. It's possible that Apple has been working on a watch concept for years, and Samsung rushed theirs out the door when the rumors got louder.
That's probably why you're getting downvoted. You're drawing conclusions solely from the public launch date of things, which actually don't tell us much about who is copying whom.
But to be honest, it doesn't really matter. Time to market is important. Real companies ship.
(1) http://www.cnet.com/news/heres-apples-e-mail-thread-about-a-... (2) http://9to5mac.com/2014/04/06/why-apple-has-to-make-bigger-s...