To be fair, your Apple Watch becomes a secure authenticator for your Mac when paired, so Apple probably prefers that you just buy an Apple Watch.
Sometimes it would take a few minutes in the morning before my Mac would even recognize 'hey, there's a watch' (typing in my full password was usually much quicker than waiting for the watch unlock).
Sometimes whatever notification happens that triggers the watch to vibrate and allow the double-squeeze-to-accept action would just... not.
Other times the above notification would pop up about 8-15 seconds after the prompt on the screen.
It was inconsistent enough I got _really_ good at typing my password, since it was normally quicker than waiting on the Apple Watch.
Contrast that with the Touch ID, that's always ready to go.
The main downside is it doesn't always recognize and it takes a few seconds to trigger. I'd love a separate touch id. But absent that the watch is quite useful.
It's tied to your iPhone and Apple account during initial setup.
Each time you put the Apple Watch on, you have to enter your PIN to unlock it. It can only perform automatic unlocking of your Mac and iPhone in this unlocked state.
The watch does automatic wrist detection and it will automatically RE-lock itself as soon as you take it off.
This is reasonably secure for most needs, though of course you can disable all of this automatic unlocking if you want more security. I forget if it's on by default or not. IIRC I had to enable it but I'm not too sure.
As a watch user i will also say that the Bluetooth wake is unreliable enough to make this a poor replacement. Frustrating, even.
I've found the Bluetooth connectivity quite reliable. When it doesn't work, it's because the watch re-locked itself.
It has no concept of “who” you are, only that it got positively authenticated while on a wrist by proximity to your iPhone unlock or a manual correct PIN entry and hasn’t separated from that wrist since.
I’m no Apple salesperson, but, no.
Once you set the watch up, you can throw the phone in a lake, and retain most if not all major features.
Especially the cellular models.
This does require an iPhone though, right?
An achievable bar for people buying Dick Tracy computers.
That seems…ripe for disruption.
Why is nobody selling a cellular standalone watch?
Not enough units to make manufacturing worth it?
Is this a chicken-and-egg problem?