[Samsung Gear 2] Zeuserx:
I got the gear 2 just a few months ago and prior to that I had the Galaxy gear 1, which I still think is good. The Gear 2, not the Neo, got a lot of things right. I'll go over several of the reasons why I'm keeping the Gear 2 and why it's my preferred wristwatch, even moreso that my Rolex Submariner.

1 - It's a watch, not a cellphone. Most people expected "smartwatch" to be the same thing as "smartphone". Once you adjust your expectations to something more realistic, you find out that it's really a great watch.

2 - The Gear 2 is much lighter than my Rolex, Suunto and even my Patek Philippe.

3 - It's a more accurate watch than all my other watches. Even though Rolex may say "officially certified chronograph", It's actually not that accurate. Any Seiko quartz watch is more accurate. Read up on that if you don't believe me! Mechanical watches have a way bigger margin of error over 24 hours than most quartz watches. Quartz technology is VERY accurate. Not too sure about the oscillator in the Gear 2 but I bet it's a pretty good one which is far better than any mechanical ones.

4 - Price; I got mine for $250 CDN. Some people may say that's pricey. Sure, if you compare that cheap digital watches. My Suunto which I use for freediving is $400! My Casio G-shock is $118 and doesn't do 1/3 of what the Gear 2 does. And don't even ask about the price of the Patek Philippe. Thank god I won that one during the president's club competition. Even most mid-range watches are in the $200-$300 range these days and don't have the prestige of the luxury swiss watches or the features of the Gear 2. You get a lot of "bang for the buck" from the Gear 2.

5 - Battery vs. winding. My swiss watches are mostly self winding "perpetual" watches. Yes, they keep going and going... so long as you wear them. If you put it down for 2 days, it runs out of energy and you can't tell time. Surprisingly, my gear 2 still has some power left over after 2 days of inactivity and it can still tell time... accurately. Given that my swiss watches cost hundreds of times more and do far less for a modern connected person like myself; it's a much better choice if you can put aside the luxury watch snob factor. I really like showing off my Patek Philippe and it's spinning balance wheel at the bottom. It impresses a lot of people. But after a day where I couldn't check my messages, make messages, phone calls and so on, I really miss my Gear 2.

6 - The changeable wristband is a godsend. I have 3 wristbands besides the original; a large rubberized one which I wear when going skiing, my el-cheapo just to prove the point that for $15, you can class it up and a really nice stainless steel (heavy one) which I just got. It's so easy to change wristbands on this watch. Much easier than any other wristwatch I have, even my cheap plastic ones. Kuudos Samsung

7 - Button on the front. This is one area where samsung has it right and Apple will get it wrong. The Gear 1 had it on the right side which is just wrong. Not too bad when you use your right hand to press but for those who like the watch on the right wrist, you find yourself putting your hand over the screen when pressing the button or using your thumb instead of your index finger; which doesn't work quite as well. As a golfer I can tell you that a crown on the right side of a watch is a pain! This is where Apple will really get it wrong. When you swing and you pronate and supernate, you'll find the crown snags on your glove. That's why most left handed golf watches are built with the crown on the left. Samsung go it right by putting the button on the front.

8 - Size, this thing is smaller than most Breitlings and even smaller than my Patek Philippe. So while it is larger than most watches, even the square and rectangular ones, it's by now means unwieldly.

9 - Camera; It takes decent pictures and for really quick snapshots, it's far faster than reaching for your phone. I just double press the front button to get to camera mode and then I can snap. Great for those "did you see that?" moments

10 - Heartrate monitor; not as accurate as the HR monitors on my gym equipment or even those blood pressure monitors but it does the job pretty well most of the time.

11 - IR blaster; ok, this thing is really cool! I was changing the TV at a bar and nobody knew it was me. It's very discreet. I even have the "power off" app which is great when there's just too much noise. As far as I know, the gear 2 is the only one with such a thing. I don't even need my phone to use it either.

12 - Built-in apps; this thing comes with so many right from the factory it's really good value. Think about it: Dial the phone, call a contact, check the weather, get notifications, for almost any app on the phone, play music and videos directly from the watch, control the media player on the phone, record voice memos, voice controls, pedometer, heart rate, sleep tracker, exercise tracker. reply to text messages, check my schedule for the day, tomorrow etc, stopwatch, timer. That's a LOT of things that you can do from your wrist.

13 - Autonomous apps; A lot of people get this part wrong. They think the watch has to be constantly tethered to the phone. This is not the case. Many apps require the phone to work because of internet connectivity or GPS but there are lots of apps which don't. Once you're paired with your phone, power off your phone and try some of these: Pedometer, Heart rate, Exercise (except hiking and biking which require GPS), camera, Gallery, music player (and videos), sleep tracker, stopwatch, timer, IR remote, voice memo and of course, the watchface itself. That's a lot of things that regular watches can't do.

14 - Lots of apps; Yeah so there isn't 1 Million apps in the app store. But like I said before: this is a smartwatch, not a smartphone. You don't really need an app store that has 50,000 different variations of a LED powered flashlight. Yes. I wish there were more apps but given that the gear 2 hasn't even been around for a year, the samsung app store gives a pretty decent choice of apps. Lets not forget that some apps just aren't suited for your wrist. Do you really want to play angry birds on this thing? I already have a solitaire game and I barely use it because it's just not right for my wrist. Developpers are still trying to figure out what works and what doesn't on a wrist.

15 - Some apps, really work well though. Some of my favorites: anti-sleep alarm which is really useful for late night driving. Meternome which I use all the time when playing guitar. Calculator, I mean duh right? Casio had it back in the '80s. Alarm, especially the vibrate part so I don't wake up my wife. Swing by Swing golf; this is actually pretty damn good for us golfers. Runtastic, strava, bike computer, bike; all apps that are really handy for a cyclist. I just can't choose which one is the best for me. xbmcGear to control my media boxes (goes really well with IR remote), Expedia, which I always use when travelling. It knows everything about my bookings. DSLR remote, comes in handy with my Nikon 300. Calendar, of course! If you've got a clock, this is the next logical choice. A lot of these apps can work autonomously as well!

I could go on and on. The only downsides to this watch are that I have to plug it in about every 2 days and I need to press the button to see the time. I turned off the "wake on gesture" to save the battery. Still, charging is really fast; it's usually fully charged in 30-45 minutes. Nice!

As an owner of many watches, from high end Swiss luxury watches to cheap plastic digital quartz, I can tell you that this is currently my favorite for everyday use. And since I "get it" that this is a WATCH and not a "PHONE ON MY WRIST", My expectations were REALISTIC when I got the Gear 2 and I've been pleaseantly surprised by the Gear 2 and everything it can do.

How do the others stack up? Well, the Android wear ones seem to be lacking a lot of what the Gear 2 has; no camera, no speaker, no IR blaster etc. The Apple watch? Well the whole "you must ABSOLUTELY be tethered to an iPhone for ANYTHING to work" is a turn off for me. Not to mention the stupid crown AND button on the right side which will piss off many people wearing it on the right wrist and any golfer wearing it on their left. The Gear S? Well, the simm card thing is cool but deleting the camera and IR seems like it's taking away some useful tools I've gotten used to. The Gear 2 isn't the best, but it's really hard finding others which have better functionality and features. All the "better" options out there always seem to be missing something that the Gear 2 has.