Notifications, navigation, Siri (to set timers, to respond to messages, and to ask general questions like "What time is it in Shanghai?"), listening to podcasts and audiobooks (iCatcher), taking the occasional call, fitness tracking of various sorts (hiking, mostly, via AllTrails), sleep tracking, heart monitoring. Oh, and to check the time. The always-on display is surprisingly nice to have. And I like how the Watch (in combination with the iPhone of course) always sets itself accurately to the local time when I travel. Keeping track of time-zones and Daylight Savings Time was painful with my previous watches (Seiko and Casio mostly). The emergency alert and fall-detection functionality is reassuring to have-- the expansion of that feature to most countries (even without activation) was a big reason I went for the Series 5.
So, there's a mix of things I could just as well do on my iPhone (but which are quicker or more convenient on the Watch) and things that are unique to the Watch. And sometimes, leaving the phone behind or in my pocket is the whole point.
I've also been known to page through favorited photos on the Watch. Once, on a flight from Taipei to Shenzhen, my seatmates were a young family including a 3 year old boy. Beautiful child. Unfortunately he had taken a tumble on the steps to the plane and split his lip. He was inconsolable. Now, in China you can't turn on your phone in airliners at all, not even in airplane mode. Other electronic devices are allowed, such as Kindles. For this short flight, I just looked through my photos on my Watch, having a little visit with my family and pets. And: I noticed the boy was suddenly quiet and paying rapt attention to what I was doing. So I paged through the photos, commenting on each of them (though he couldn't understand a word I was saying), and introducing him to our dogs and horse and other wonders from far away. And the flight went smoothly for us all, and he forgot his owie.
One of my fondest moments from my travels.
