For a decade a smartwatch was a phone worn badly — a small screen showing the same notifications, with a battery that needed the same nightly charge. The interesting thing about this generation is what it stopped trying to do.
Five days of battery changes the object completely. A watch you charge on Sunday is a watch you wear to bed, and a watch you wear to bed is the only kind that can tell you anything useful about how you sleep.
The sensors have quietly become good. Resting heart rate over weeks is genuinely informative in a way a single reading never is. Blood-oxygen trends are a real signal. None of this is medical, and any device that tells you it is should be treated with suspicion.
What has not arrived, despite the announcements, is anything that reads your intent. Gesture control is still a demo. Assume you are buying the sensors and the battery, not the promise.
Which is fine. A round face, five days of charge and honest health trends is a good object. It does not need to be a phone as well.