I never used the cellular feature of my Apple Watch so I discontinued the line.
If not for using the watch to tap at a POS I wouldn’t miss it much.
Oh but it's great for the little things.
- It's a flashlight
- You can use it for visibility on your bike or walking outside
- You can look for stuff with the red light without blinding other people at the theater
- Film behind furniture with the remote screen feature
- Use as a self-timer for picture and for checking if the pic looks right
- find your phone or another device
- Get notified if you forget your device
- Be notified of calls even if your phone is on mute.
- Silent alarms : you don't have to be an ******* and wake the whole house, roommate!
- Silent notifications.
- Take calls easily if you can't reach your phone
- Pay with Apple Pay (you've cited that)
- Voice memos
- Unlock your phone and Mac and also activate Face/Touch ID when you get away from them. This was very useful on iPhone when we still wore masks in 2021.
- Wallet with boarding tickets and QR codes with no need to fumble for your phone
- It tells you when you are having a heart attack or a panic attack.
- Again, it reminds you to take your meds INTRUSIVELY by tapping you (silent notifs). The combo of "mute" on iPhone but "tap" on the Watch can literally mean I won't miss my intake. Ever since my watch got shattered I have missed my medication several times.
- It can tell you right on the face what's the current UV index. That's primordial for this blondie (even if you usually know by the time -- but it changes slightly over the year and for me a 10 minute difference can mean 3 days spent indoors with a 3rd degree burn smelling of Silvadene)
- Sleep monitoring and waking you when you're out of REM sleep is a blessing.
That's only on Series 3
And of course all the safety features that have been added since, like fall detection, accident detection, loud noise detection, satellite calls on Ultra, etc.
The sports features are amazing, it can detect what kind of stroke you're doing : freestyle, backstroke, freestyle...
And being able to leave your phone behind and go canoeing or swimming with your watch is also great.