Wearable guides

Two very different things called a smartwatch

The real choice here is between a watch that replaces a phone and a watch that delays one.

Apple Watch For Your Kids - the feature Apple used to call Family Setup - gives a child calls, messages and location without handing over a phone, but the family needs an iPhone to set it up and manage it, and the watch must be a GPS+Cellular model. Standalone kid watches do less, deliberately, which is usually the reason to buy one. Settling that question first answers most of the others.

Every watch here has an age cliff, and it is the thing most likely to catch a family out. Kid watches are built around a managed account that the child eventually ages out of, and some hand the account over at 13. Buying one for a nine-year-old is a decision with a few years in it, not a permanent one.

Cellular is the cost nobody mentions at the counter. A watch that can call, or be found, without a phone nearby needs its own line, and the carrier charges monthly for that on top of the hardware. Apple does not set that price and does not publish it, so ask your carrier what adding a watch costs before you decide between a connected watch and a cheap phone.