Short version: the Apple Watch is a good camera remote with two hard limits — it can only control its own paired iPhone, and the preview is the size of a postage stamp. Knowing when those limits matter tells you whether your wrist is enough or whether you want a second device running Remote Shutter.
What the built-in Camera Remote does well
Every Apple Watch ships with Apple's Camera Remote app. Open it and your paired iPhone's Camera app launches automatically; the Watch face shows a live (tiny) preview, and you can fire the shutter immediately or on a 3-second timer. You can also pick flash, HDR, and which lens from the Watch's ⋯ menu.
It shines for exactly one job: you propped your own iPhone somewhere, and you're in the shot. Family photo on a beach, solo hiking portrait, checking your form at the gym — prop the phone, glance at your wrist to confirm you're in frame, tap. Zero extra hardware, and it's already on your wrist.
Where it runs out of road
- One paired phone only. The Watch can't be a remote for your partner's iPhone, your old spare phone, or an iPad. Whoever owns the Watch must also supply the camera.
- Preview size. Confirming "I'm roughly in frame" works; judging a composition, checking corners, or noticing a blink doesn't.
- Photo-first. It's built around stills and quick timer shots, not directing a video take.
The two-device alternative
Remote Shutter pairs any two Apple devices: one is the camera, the other is a remote with a full-screen live preview and complete camera controls — photo, video start/stop, lens switching, flash, front/back. The camera can be a spare iPhone while your main phone is the remote, or your iPhone can be the camera while an iPad or Mac gives you a big monitor (that setup here). There's a Remote Shutter Watch app too, so your wrist can trigger the separate camera device — something the built-in app can't reach.
Which should you use?
Use the built-in Watch remote when it's your own iPhone, a quick still, and rough framing is fine. It's free and instant.
Use Remote Shutter when any of these is true: the camera is a different device than your paired iPhone; you're shooting video; or you need to actually see the frame at full size before you commit. (Full three-way comparison, including Bluetooth clickers: here.)
Both apps are free to try, and they're not rivals so much as different tools — plenty of people prop the phone with Remote Shutter for the framing and keep the Watch as a wrist-mounted shutter button.