Some of it has to do with existing experience. I suspect many people in this thread have not worn something other than a smart watch with regularity in at least 15 years, possible longer if they were below watch wearing age when cell phones became common. Additionally, I'd argue that the pebble is closer to an apple watch than even a digital watch and certainly closer than an automatic watch. You chose to compare a smart phone to a flip phone rather than a POTS phone? Likely you either have very limited experience with POTS phones or you view the smart/flip comparison as more apt. Either way, I think context is important when making comparisons so I still think it's entirely fair to say "the Pebble has good battery life".

And those Casio watches were terrible. Even without a comparison to anything else, they just didn't work reliably.