I think people overreact to the indeed rare (these days) no-smart watch racing. Great if it works for him. Of course the more experiences runners run ‘to feel’ many of the runs. But a running watch is great for measuring and tracking process especially for the sessions where pacing or speed is important. and it’s not 1k, my forerunner is $200 if I recall and has served me for almost 4 years and 12k miles