While it did some fitness tracking (especially the heart rate stuff which couldn't be done with a phone), it certainly wasn't promoted as a fitness device.
There was all that stuff about "connecting" (where you could send doodles and heartbeats to your Apple Watch wearing friends) and they made a big deal about watch apps and notification management. And of course the "luxury watch" aspect (gold watches that go out of date in a couple of years - sheesh).
It's only after a couple of iterations that Apple doubled down on the fitness side of things.
I am only commenting of what the Apple Watch actually solved. The marketing was bad and I agree. The Apple Watch series zero was useful for me and others but it was something concrete that the watch does solve while the Vision Pro is different.
The first couple AW gens didn’t really have much of a fitness angle, though. The hardware and software for health tracking was very lacking. It was only later on that they pivoted hard on fitness and did a big marketing push with the “three rings”.
I beg to differ. People dicking around on their e-watch during in person meetings or social settings where they should be paying attention to who is speaking, is just as socially rude as those on their phone.
