Among my friends and colleagues, those who don’t buy Apple Watch often buy Garmin watches instead. In the area of fitness tracking watches, Garmin seems to be serious competition. It’s missing the full app ecosystem of Apple Watch but I think you can send messages and email to some Garmin watches over 4G, for example.
I finally caved and bought an automatic. I just want a watch to show me the time accurately, last long and offer good water resistance as I wear the watch all the time.
Personally I love my Garmin Fenix watch. It lasts a week with light usage or up to 18 hours when using GPS. It also offers NFC payment. Notifications might be supported but I honestly don't need yet another device to bother me with messages and such... Meaning I disabled all of them ;).
On another note: Apple might simply be successful because of consistency. They've been iterating and improving on there smartwatch platform for years whiles others change their whole product every few years (samsung) or simply neglect it (google).
Superior how exactly?
If you count the fitness trackers worn by the top finishers in any sort of endurance sports race you won't see many Apple watches. There's a reason for that.