Having seen how often the bluetooth/wifi calling and messaging fails b/w my iPhone and Mac, I decided against trying an Apple Watch. Is it any better?
Sometimes I have to turn on sound on the phone for things like Waze or for playing videos or music. But the ringer stays off (due to settings).
The connection with the iPhone and Mac seems fine. However, with my watch (1st generation) a couple of updates ago the lost phone ping feature got a new unwelcome degree of latency. It can now take up to 30 seconds for the phone to ping, where it used to be immediate. I don't know if this is the case for newer models. Nor could I say whether the problem is on the watch side, or the phone side (doesn't matter, I guess). But at least it still works.