His original power was intuitive aptitude, or whatever. Seeing how things work, and fit together. That's what the whole deal with the watch was, seeing how things work. Future Gabriel even explicitly stated that was his power, and it'd be pretty dumb of the writers to try and say heh intuitive aptitude with ANYTHING basically, including watches and how the world will degrade, is totally the same as a form of power empathy. His power was so interesting and original and actually had pretty good potential, but now it's just another way to make him a super-powered character on par with Peter and Papa Petrelli.