Switch to a MIPS transflective or e-paper display as on a Pebble or Garmin, OLED and LCD displays on Apple and Samsung watches look pretty indoors (when they're not turned off to save power) but are hard to read outside (without excessive brightness) and are battery gobblers.
Just charged my Garmin Fenix for the first time in... 9 days (it was down at 18%, could get a few more days but it makes me nervous), most of the battery use went to some 11 hours of GPS activity recording and heart rate recording. Could get 30 days if I turned off the features the Pebble doesn't have.
Even Garmin has largely moved to AMOLED screens. They look great both indoors and outside and with modern technology they are not as battery hungry as they once were. Personally I find the battery life on my Apple Watch more than acceptable. I charge it while I’m showering and getting readying in the morning and have never had any issues even though I am a very heavy watch user and often use it independently of my phone.
I used to have a Pebble Time and agreed the battery life with those displays is nice, but honestly it doesn't bother me to put it on the charger every evening.
The only real benefit a longer battery life would have is not needing to bring a special charger if I go out of town for a few days, but I solved that years ago using a power bank that has qi and watch charging pads on it as my travel charger.
If anything, I'd switch back to a Pebble or similar because the Apple Watch does too much and I don't want that much gizmo on my person all the time. But the Pebble reboot products don't do it for me design-wise.
Just a tip with Apple watches: get the battery service at least once during the lifespan of your watch. It's $99 and Apple gives you a brand new watch.
With that battery service the watch should last you about 6-10 years judging by the current status of my Series 4.
Yes, a watch should be able to last a lot longer than that, but I think if you're buying Apple products you already have the expectation of a maximum 10 year lifespan just from software alone with just about the entire product lineup.
As long as it's minor scratching and not big chips or cracks, yes. Another huge plus to the battery service.
Another tip regarding scratches is that the higher tier finishes (Stainless Steel or Titanium in the Series 10) are, in my opinion, worth the price premium solely for the improved screen glass.
Apple barely mentions the spec nowadays, and I'm not sure why they don't tout it. A conspiracy theorist might say that it's because it keeps your watch looking new longer so they'd rather you be buying the cheap one frequently.
The sapphire crystal screen is the killer feature that justifies the upgraded models more than anything else: it's something like a whole extra number higher on the Mohs scale for hardness (scratch resistance).
I buy them on the refurbished store to lessen the pain of their ridiculously inflated price.
You may have an app draining your battery. Was having the same issue with my watch, I deleted a few apps and all of the sudden my watch was better. I can’t tell you what app was because it was just luck. I was creating space on my phone when it happened.