This is anecdotal but in my house there are three 4s that work just as they did with iOS 8. That's not to say that they work perfectly, we all know that, but this people are so wrong it's not even funny.
Just buy a new phone if your four-going-on-five-year-old phone with a FREE update doesn't work.
I think Hermes will make a ton more money from this than Tag Heuer from their smart watch thing. And I think that Apple gave them so much access to the watch because that's the way Apple sees the future of this kind of device: Apple Watch Hermes, Apple Watch Cartier, Apple Watch Longines, etc.