My perspective is the exact opposite - I can't tell what "smart watch" features the Apple Watch is supposed to provide me over my "fitness" Garmin as a trade of

My perspective is the exact opposite - I can't tell what "smart watch" features the Apple Watch is supposed to provide me over my "fitness" Garmin as a trade off for terrible battery life. The Apple Watch actually provides worse functionality for notifications than my Garmin, since it wants to act as its own separate device, instead of simply mirroring my phone's notifications. Interacting with the Apple Watch is usually so difficult and the app support is lacking (I believe it's actually gotten worse over time) that I generally take out my phone for anything beyond pressing the dismiss button, so it's no better than the Garmin.