My mom, in her 70s, uses hers for calls a lot -- though in her case it's tethered to her phone so the phone has to be within range (I don't see how that's very useful, might as well use the phone).
Especially when traveling and doing activities like hiking, I do find watch modestly useful. Hiking distance etc. Apple Pay as you say. Calendar events and other notifications.
It is for me modest benefit and I often wear a cheap Timex at home. And yes the charging is the big downside although there are quite a few things I do daily that are a routine.
The notifications are nice if I'm on the subway and don't want to pull my phone out of my pocket to see what's up.
It doesn't take long to charge the watch, whenever I take a shower I put it to charge and it's full battery by the time I'm back at my desk.
I also like turning off alarms by using the watch rather than pulling out my phone.
I do own a smart watch, but I don't use it in the typical manner.
I don't ever want to see notifications on my wrist. People seem to think it's ok to read notifications in situations where looking at a phone would be rude, such as at dinner or whilst having a conversation.
I wear mine when doing sport. I like that I can play music and track my activity without my phone.
And I wear mine when navigating cities. I like that I can pay for public transport and check map directions without making myself a target by getting my phone out.
Other than that, I don't wear mine. I don't see the point of wearing it day to day.
For me telling the time is the least valuable aspect. It's convenient for email notifications, particularly since I don't tend to keep my phone in my pocket (or often even in sight), it's a convenient way to control music playback when out and about and things like weather reports are also neat info to have on a wrist.
But even more valuable are the health related features, I tend to get too easily absorbed in work so the reminders to stretch when I've been sitting too long and the water consumption tracking is very useful. I also often have trouble sleeping, where the sleep coaching functionality is pretty useful for identifying what I need to do to fix things. Additionally having things like step count on my wrist has gotten me to try to walk more as it's a constant reminder of how little I walk. It's also a very convenient morning alarm since it stays on your wrist and can just use vibration to wake you instead of playing a loud sound and making you dig around for the phone while half asleep.
Notifications I could take or leave; they're not super reliable but have occasionally been useful.
Battery life is IMO fine; I charge it once or twice a week while sitting at my desk or having a shower.
I know I could cobble together these capabilities from a suite of other apps— Strava, Apple Health, whatever. And I get annoyed that certain things on the watch aren't more customizable. But the overall package is more than good enough for my basic needs, and has motivated me to make (and stick to) real lifestyle changes, which is ultimately the point, at least on the fitness side.
And it doesn't have its own GPS; it piggy-backs off the phone for that. Which is fine for cycling and running, but obviously doesn't work for open water swims where you could use GPS for position but wouldn't normally bring your phone.
https://developers.strava.com/
The Coros I have was around $400USD refurbished on Amazon. I considered the Apple Watch Ultra which was nearly 2x the price but wanted something made by a company focused on runners rather than a consumer products company making a running watch.
Overall I’ve been extremely happy with it as a semi-serious runner.
* Consuming notifications without potentially being distracted once you unlock your phone
* Haptics for notifications - I'd like to be notified of some things, but 'vibrate' is a little too much
* Fitness/sleep tracking
Also, the vibrate function for alarm or calls in the middle of the night does not disturb anyone else, but still gets me up.
This is why the Pebble was good. Charge it once a week.
