It's been a game changer for me as a life-management aid. The calendaring and task list functions are solid. Pulling your phone out of your pocket (especially a big 6s+) is actually a big barrier to using Siri to jot down a note or set a reminder. I never used to use Siri, but with the watch I use it all the time. I just wish it could do more without telling you to pull out your iPhone.
May have done a poor job of communicating it above but I do think the watch is swell and useful and I'm big on wearables.
But I also don't have a watch for reasons above and long term I'm even more skeptical of the form factor because I think that most of the utility can be replaced by other wearables, and some of those wearables are not replaceable while the watch is. As you mention, things like notes, daily calendar and tasks work great with Siri but if you think about it how necessary is the watch to those interactions? I think most can be done great with just a headset and when that's impractical you can take the phone out of your pocket. If you start with a wearable ecosystem where the headset is core then, as AI and voice assistants continue to improve, we should expect to see a lot of notifications and health tracking migrate there and that whittles the use cases of the watch down considerably.
If you take those away what do you have left? Payments/id, fashion, video playback, games, partial or total phone replacement. Payments seems large but a ring seems superior. Games, video and fashion don't seem like killer apps for the watch form factor. A phone replacement/platform for 4g and wifi radios seems like a killer app but does the watch do that better than other options? Maybe yes but maybe no. If we're talking a total phone replacement you probably want the radios next to wherever the camera migrates to.
We're a long way from where it's acceptable to have a headset with a screen on in a business meeting. Meanwhile, during a meeting I can surreptitiously glance down at my watch to check when my next meeting or a email alert.
It's a surprisingly good form factor, combining voice touch and a display in an accessory that's already socially acceptable to wear everywhere.
Wearing headsets of any sort in a business meeting is pretty unacceptable in most cases. There's a reason the one ear Bluetooth sets largely fell out of fashion. Sure, social conventions can change but they haven't so far.
But on a headset without a screen you can't quickly see and dismiss an email or text that comes in without pulling out your phone. Or you can't glance quickly at it to remember your next appointment. I found that the bit reduced friction actually made me much more likely to rely on my phone to manage my schedule.
