The scenario is a family member (child) is going to have a separate Apple Watch (with Cellular) so that they could call us and send texts.

My understanding that family setup for Apple Watch is different in a way that the watch is not paired to the phone apps and can be used independently by another apple account (part of same family).

I am trying to understand how to make this work here in NZ.

1. Spark and One NZ both have plans for the watch. Both plans are so called "one number" plans. The idea is to share same phone number between the watch and the phone. I've approached Spark support and had a long unproductive conversation. I was told that the only way I could load esim on the watch is by using "one number" and I can not just purchase standalone esim on Spark website and make it work on the phone. Is this correct? What is your experience? It still doesn't make lots of sense to me.

2. The Apple website lists only 2 providers for NZ. Spark and One NZ. Is this some kind of whitelist restriction by Apple or any esim provider would works (2degrees for example) ?

3. I've found info that for the Family setup the watch does NOT have to be on the same network provider as the phone. So why would Spark told me that this is not going to work? Hm...

4. What is the cellular set up looking like when setting up the watch in the Family Setup (different from standard watch pairing)? Is there a chance to scan a standard esim QR code using the iPhone during the setup? (I don't have the watch to try yet and could not find it on YouTube).

Just trying to understand limitations before I go purchase the watch, esims, and fail miserably to set this up. Any ideas are welcome.

Thanks so much for help :)