MANY SMARTWATCHES can perform tasks and tricks your smartphone would normally do. Some features worth exploring:

Buy Stuff Add your credit or debit card information to your watch through your smartphone, then pay at checkout with a gentle touch of your watch.

Listen to Music Play tunes, podcasts and audiobooks directly from your wrist through wireless earbuds or headphones. Use a cellular connection to stream out of Wi-Fi range. Download music to noncellular watches.

Get in the Picture All Apple watches and those that run on Google's Wear OS have a remote viewfinder app that lets you see what your phone’s front or higher-quality rear camera sees. Use the remote camera app to put the phone as far as 30 feet away and snap a photo, or set a countdown timer by tapping your watch. This avoids the dreaded “selfie arm” in photos.

Navigate From Your Wrist Find your way step-by-step or turn-by-turn with your smartwatch’s map app. If your watch lacks a cellular connection, download maps to it before you set out.

Light Your Way Flashlight apps make the screen bright white. Apple and Google Pixel watches also have a red light option that preserves your night vision.

Photos on Rotation Apple, Google and Samsung smartwatches let you create a watch face that shuffles through favorite photos downloaded to your device. An Apple Watch can sync an album of up to 500 photos. —Stewart Wolpin