For one that's still a watch but much less smartwatchy you might like the Withings Move ECG, which is "coming this spring".

https://www.withings.com/us/en/move-ecg

Or for no ECG but an on-face heartrate display, their Steel HR:

https://www.withings.com/us/en/steel-hr

Their least watchy one is the Pulse HR:

https://www.withings.com/us/en/pulse-hr

I have a pretty positive impression of them as a company. The iOS app aggregates its data into Apple Health (unlike FitBit where your data is stuck in their own apps last I checked), and it's back under the original founder. They had a stint as Nokia Health but separated off last year.

https://www.withings.com/us/en/event/nokia-withings

Note I haven't had any personal experience with their fitness tracker watch; I've got one of their scales.

I have the Steel HR. It's pretty nice, basically looks like a decent "normal" watch. good pedometer, heart rate tracker, sleep tracker.

I have an Apple Watch now, but I still wear the Steel HR when I go to bed for sleep tracking.

While I do use an Apple Watch, I can second the build quality of Withings’ products. I also use their scales!

There's a dedicated device, Kardia, which does this; it's fairly low-cost and claims to be able to reliably diagnose AFib. There's also another wearable heart monitor I can't remember the name of, but I had major issues with it because the electrodes weren't hypoallergenic and so caused an uncomfortable rash...

Withings recently announced a watch with the ECG capability: https://www.withings.com/us/en/move-ecg .

I'd also like to know this. Is the apple watch better or just better with marketing & PR?

The 'my watch told me i had heart issues' all seem to be Apple Watch related.

This might be because Apple Watch is significantly more popular than most heart rate monitors with comparable features.

I don’t think there ARE any other consumer devices with those features out.

It seems someone else has announced one but it’s not out and hasn’t gone through a clinical trial of 400k people.

Heart rate monitor watches are a dime a dozen but watches that can do ECGs or even analyze your heart rate are pretty rare.

I assume by this you mean Fitbits are not comparable as heart rate monitors?

Anecdotally I find fitbits are much more widespread than Apple Watches

Here is something you might be interested in: https://www.aidlab.com

There is a Xiaomi band I think (named Xiaomi Amazfit Health Band), but currently only sold in its Chinese version I think.