Why sometimes doesn't ng-init trigger $watch listener?

Question

I execute the follow code in my app and sometimes ng-init doesn't trigger $watch. Any ideas?

HTML

<div ng-controller="MyCtrl">
   <p ng-init="stages = 'coco'">{{x}}</p>
</div>

Controller

var myApp = angular.module('myApp',[]);

   function MyCtrl($scope) {

       $scope.$watch("stages", function() {
            alert($scope.stages);
       });
   }

Answer 1

No it does, according to your code you have not added ng-app anywhere.

DEMO

var myApp = angular.module('myApp',[]);
myApp.controller('MyCtrl',function($scope){

       $scope.$watch("stages", function() {
            alert($scope.stages);
       });
 });

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/angularjs/1.2.23/angular.min.js"></script>
<div ng-app="myApp" ng-controller="MyCtrl">
   <p ng-init="stages = 'coco'">{{x}}</p>
</div>