A Smartwatch, can be more convenient at first glance than a watch. You can make calls, receive important emails and notifications, and collect virtual versions of every watch inside your device. You can measure your heart rate with it. And much more.
However, what a smartwatch ultimately is, is a phone shaped like a watch, made to be worn like a watch.
This entails many key differences. The smartwatch can do all the processes described above better than any traditional watch.
But for giving you the time, although it’s more accurate than any watch, it simply will take longer. It may not be always on so you need to unlock it. Or it may have detected you’re exercising and by the time the exercising ends, you need to manually conclude the process before you can access your dial screen. It can be a bit slow because too many processes are running in the background
It’s a software, it’s not a mechanical device. Therefore it also can’t withstand the same range of temperatures as a mechanical watch, or even a quartz watch. This means you can’t dive, nor swim, nor visit any hotter places with it.
The screen in a smartwatch is no different than that of a phone either. If it scratches a bit, it’s not like with a watch. It can easily pixelize. Or it may even lose image in part of the screen completely. Therefore the confidence it inspires and convenience ends up actually being less than that of a actual watch.
In conclusion. If you love smartwatches only. Then might as well not have a single watch and just have your smartphone. Even a smartphone is more usable and convenient than a smartwatch because at least it’s not always in your wrist so it’s not as prone to get damaged, and it lets you choose what you want to do with it without automatic detection processes or cycling between screens automatically.
NOTE: I concluded this from owning a Smartwatch. I still like it but it definitely has more limitations than a traditional watch.
I agree with some of your points, but disagree with other points including the concern about defending smartwatches (although honestly, I see more posts in this sub against smartwatches than in support of smartwatches).
I have a smartwatch (Garmin Forerunner 245 currently, previously Forerunner 225 and Forerunner 15) and 4 traditional watches I wear in rotation. By far I’ve found my smartwatch to be the best tool watch I have found so far.
It is very easy for me to read the time as I have the display set to always on and the dial displays the time in analog and digital format. The light function allows me to see the time in the middle of the night which I am not able to do consistently with my lumed watches (however my G-shock has an excellent light function).
I turned off the automatic activity detection so that it won’t pull me from the dial unintentionally; there may be a similar setting for your smartwatch. When I’m exercising (usually running or cycling), the time is always displayed along with my pace, distance travelled, and heart rate. The time on the smartwatch is indeed harder to read compared to a traditional watch when running, but it’s impossible to see my pace, distance travelled, and heart rate on a traditional watch. I could run with a chronograph and tell the time well, but it would be harder for me to see time elapsed.
My smartwatch isn’t slower than my traditional watch and is faster than it takes for me to take out my smartphone and navigate to the appropriate app.
I’m not sure what environments I can wear my traditional watches in, but my smartwatch is able to operate -4F to 140F and down to a swim depth of 50m. It’s cool if my traditional watch can operate beyond where my smartwatch can, but honestly, I hope to never find myself in those situations. The one where I’m most likely would be able to reach is -4F, but then that would also mean my body temperature would be so cold for the watch to be experiencing -4 that I’m not sure I’d even be able to read the time.
Yes, my smartwatch scratches easier than my traditional watches. I’ve worn various smartwatches since 2009 and they’ve never become pixelated or lost a part of the screen.
Phone without smartwatch would not work well. In my line of work, studies showed that clients are okay if we looked at a watch to check the time but they would significantly disapprove if we pulled out our phone to check the time. I’ve also found it safer when driving to have the text message flash briefly on my watch than to pull out my smartphone and look at it. When I run races, I carry only my smartwatch and leave my phone with family as it’s far too heavy and bulky.
One thing you didn’t mention that drives me nuts is how long they last for. I hate that I have to charge my smartwatch weekly and would much prefer if it had an eco-drive or automatic. There are some smartwatches that can be partially charged by solar, but you’d still have to charge it with a cord at least monthly. And even then, the battery loses its longevity and will have to get a new watch in a few years, I suppose around the same time when one would be recommended to send in their mechanical watch for maintenance.
I consider a watch to be something I can carry with me that tells time. My smartwatch does that for me easily like my traditional watches. I could make my smartwatch very difficult to tell the time and I have also seen “traditional” watches that I needed YouTube videos to teach me how to read the watch, but that wouldn’t make me consider them not a watch.