Kind of a silly article. The iPhone is only marginally a timepiece, just as a smartphone is not really a phone.
They’re both portable computers with infinite functions. Two of which are making phone calls and telling time.
Others that I regularly use mine for: timer, stopwatch, compass, psychrometric calculator, boombox, alarm clock, camera, voice recorder, GPS. Among many others, each of which I used to need a separate device for.
I suspect the watch, or something like it, will eventually take off. The separate phone, especially in the larger sizes, is just too awkward.
iPhone should be iWatch, of course. Sorry.