Yeah but you really need to buy the IPhone to go with it.

Point taken.

You can see the same thing happening with the Apple Watch needing an iPhone as what happened with the iPhone needing a computer early on.

It wasn’t until iOS 5 that you didn’t need a computer running iTunes to activate and update an iOS device.

Apple has slowly been detaching the Apple Watch from the iPhone. First with a cellular connection and then with an independent Watch store and adding better APIs for third party apps.

Right now, you can get away with only having the Watch with you in day to day use and the phone company already assigns a dedicated number to the watch (even though you can’t use it), I can see in the next couple of years not needing a phone at all to use the watch.

A cheap beat up iPhone SE fulfills this requirement for $75.

If you're leaving it at home anyways it doesn't need to be pretty or fast. Just needs to allow you to set up the Apple Watch.

The Ford Mustang and Chevy Camaro are each better because the other exists. I think Apple users should be especially happy when Google enters the game.

Friend of mine decided to go phoneless -- borrowed an iPhone 6S from his QC department and used it to activate an Apple Watch, which is now his sole mobile device.

The Apple Watch cellular requires an active phone subscription to pair with it.

The Series 3 without cellular is $199 and you can find a cellular model on sale under $250 all the time too.

Yeah well I'm from Eastern Europe where it's more expensive, never on sale and I have less money

Out of curiosity, what is the cost of an iPhone 8 (the cheapest current iPhone) + Apple cellular watch where you live?

In a shop or used? 1788kn watch + 2452kn iphone 6s = 635$ usd. Average net salary is about 750$ usd.

I think this is the cheapest new: https://edigital.hr/apple-i-dodaci/iphone-c18325?filter%5Bse...

And watch

https://edigital.hr/apple-i-dodaci/watch-c29547?filter%5Bsea...

Is there a way to send voice messages without using the phone? Does any of the bigger chat apps offer the "record voice" button?

I haven’t tried any of the other chat apps. But you can send a voice message with the built in messages apps from the watch. It should work with both iMessage and SMS.

Are you thinking of the dictation option, which makes text from voice?

I don't see a way to send a voice message in my watch interface.

And it's looking like this year's Black Friday deal is that model for $199 (cellular for the price of the regular).

Does your Fitbit have a cellular connection? He explicitly said he wants something that allows him to leave his phone at home.