I can’t remember the last time I saw someone wearing a watch other than an Apple Watch. Maybe a couple Android watches.
You probably aren't actively looking. The market for sub-$150 retro-ish ("inspired" by the 1980s/1990s) quartz watches has exploded over the last few years [1].
A month or so ago, I "splurged" and bought a $300 solar-powered analog quartz watch. It will need a $10 battery replacement once every 15 years or so, and is simple enough to do at home with tools I already have.
This is just my opinion (and you seem like you are the opposite - that's fine), but I think that Apple has completely lost the plot with the Watch concept. It was supposed to be a companion device to the phone that helped reduce screen time while not missing anything important. Now, the Apple Watch is trying to be a kitchen sink on your wrist, with a battery situation that makes no sense. If you were to do all the health tracking it is capable of, you'd need to wear that watch 24 hours a day. But the battery doesn't even last that long. So you can't actually fully use all of the features. It makes no sense.
My Apple Watch has been in a drawer for I don't even know how many months. Where it will probably stay.
I've never felt the need to get a smart watch, they seem badly hobbled by their need for frequent charging, and the Apple watch is so common that it signifies the opposite of fashionable and stylish, more utilitarian and conventional.
[1] https://www.casio.com/us/watches/casio/product.AQ-S800W-1B2V...
That's why I'm doing the tracking with a Garmin. At this point I'd probably only buy the Bin Laden Casio, F91W if I were to get a regular watch, maybe even as a joke present for someone as long as it keeps being disposably cheap. Or some analog model of which I have two in the drawer. I think both are Timex.
But ya, I charge my watch at night and forgo sleep tracking. The health stuff is just a bonus really to payments and unlocking things.
Today, I use it to Apple Pay for everything without whipping out my phone or wallet, from restaurants to transit (with Express Transit I don't even have to double click -- I just point my wrist at the card reader).
It tracks my sleep so I know to compensate accordingly if I'm not well rested... as in adjusting how much caffeine to consume.
Its alarms wake me up gently by buzzing (haptics) as opposed to a shrill phone alarm.
I can glance at it to see when my next meeting is, so I know how much time I have to dawdle. (I need my down time throughout the day)
It tells me how loud a room is in dB. You might ask, can't you tell by just listening? Yes, but when I know it in dB, I know whether the ambient noise is going to affect me over a long period of time and that I should use ear plugs or put on ANC headphones. 30-40 dB is ok, but anything above that is annoying. You don't realize how noisy a city truly is -- and cutting that noise out can really do wonders for head space.
It helps me to navigate while walking in the city -- it's easier and works better than than holding up a phone.
I only charge it when I shower (it goes from nearly 10% to full in minutes), otherwise I wear it 24/7.
You can do all of this with a phone, but having all of it on your wrist is just that much more seamless. (no need to whip out your phone)
I didn't miss my Tissot at all.
I got sick of smartwatches. One more thing to change every night. One more thing to debate upgrading all the time. One more home screen to manage. More apps to update and deal with. More notifications and interruptions. It’s all too much.
With a little maintenance, my go-to watch will outlive me. My travel watch just needs a new battery when I renew my passport.
This is exactly why I got a cheap $35 "Amazfit" fitness band (a clone of a Xiaomi Band 5 I think). It does things a normal watch won't do, namely count my steps every day and also monitor my sleep patterns, but it goes 2 weeks on a charge, or more. I've never understood why anyone would put up with a watch that needs to be recharged every day. How do you even use it as a sleep monitor if you have to charge it?
Of course, a fitness band like this also doesn't come with so much extra crap like you're referring to ("more apps to update and deal with"); it's comparatively simple.
As for the heart rate monitor, any fitness band will probably give you very different results just depending on how tight it is. I wouldn't consider any of them a substitute for a proper heart rate measurement, simply because of where they are on your body.
All I can say is that, for myself, for the cheap price, it's kinda handy for what I use it for (daily step counting, sometimes telling the time so I don't need to pull my phone out of my pocket, checking my sleep quality, etc.). I haven't noticed any wildly and obviously inaccurate data yet. Sometimes I'm not so sure about the sleep data, but it's hard to say because I don't normally remember when I really did go to sleep or wake up, and don't have a way of cross-checking. I'm not about to spend tons of money on some kind of professional sleep study to do this, so the cheap-o band is better than the data I'd get otherwise, which is nothing at all.
Well, I don't, it's not like it was the only issue with that - all other functions, not dependent on wearing, would glitch too. Alarms would not go off, workouts would not record, or would not export to Strava (and its own fitness app only shown data in km), it would not go into DND with the phone, or would not get out of it. And it could not filter notifications, which, apparently, Android makes very often: playing radio in the car would be accompanied with constant buzzing informing me what song is playing if I did not put it on DND. I junked the thing and replaced with Garmin, which, apparently, is pretty consistent and can detect even HRV. Even if I had faulty hardware somehow (broken alarm in an electronic watch, which works 95% of the time sounds a bit of a stretch) the accompanying app is obviously buggy and hostile to the users.
The sleep monitoring on Garmin is very different from the Mi Band, btw: Mi Band would not detect short wakeups, sleep start was so off that it would start before I went to bed, as I already mentioned, its heartrate during sleep was off Garmin's by ~20%, though not something I'd care about much, and its SpO2 is pretty random at any time so I'd imagine it would not detect sleep apnea if I had one. Also, step count on the Mi Band depends on the hand movement so I'd get 1000 steps in a half an hour on a balance board, Garmin counts much closer to the phone as both track linear movement too so they don't count steps when you're moving your arms while being stationary.
It's sure cheap and the form factor is great but it is not a reliable source of any data. I would not even trust its time readings, as far as I can tell it has not glitched on me but I did not have it long enough. There is a reason Garmin manages to sell $1000+ fitness watches despite competition from both cheap bands and Apple's.
I do think the general popularity of jewelrywatches is dropping as the generations turn over, though. It's a lot harder to convince the old generations of tomorrow to fork over thousands of dollars on a jewelrywatch; status symbols come and go.
I agree, most people I see are wearing an Apple Watch.
I personally haven't bought one as I don't see the need. I take my phone with me everywhere already, why do I need duplicate functions on the watch? And for those occasions where I might not have my phone with me -- it's almost always by design and I don't want notifications on a watch. I also don't want to hassle with charging a watch daily or every other day.
So I'm not switching from my analog watch anytime soon.