Setting up the Alcatel MOVETIME Family Watch involves downloading the TCL Move app, and pairing it via QR code to the watch. You're then prompted to enter your child's details, including their gender and date of birth.
While I get naming the account, I have no idea why TCL/Alcatel want that kind of detail. If you're already concerned about your child's security and privacy, it feels a little creepy, to be honest.
Then again, there's absolutely nothing stopping you putting in false data, which is why as far as TCL/Alcatel are concerned, I now have a 119 year old daughter called Tarquin.
The other preparatory work you'll have to do is to drop a nano SIM card with call and data inclusions enabled into the Alcatel MOVETIME Family Watch.
Alcatel has partnered with Vodafone Australia for the Alcatel MOVETIME Family Watch, and dropping a SIM card in is a simple process of taking the band strap off and placing the SIM the correct way around into the watch. There's no SIM tray, so this can be a little fiddly.
Once installed, the watch primarily acts as – shock – a watch, with calling and tracking features that only kick in when requested.
The child wearing the Alcatel MOVETIME Family Watch can initiate phone calls or send emoji only to phone numbers set up within the App, or from friends who also have an Alcatel MOVETIME Family Watch. I only had the one, so I wasn't able to test that functionality, but in theory you should be able to bump two together to get them to share details over Bluetooth.
There's no direct SMS function from the Alcatel MOVETIME Family Watch, but you can send small pre-defined emoji to anyone you've set up as family or friends on the watch. It's a smart enough step, because it means that someone couldn't spoof a message and perhaps lead your child astray.
On the voice side, you can either start a full call, or send short voice messages. Call testing showed the Alcatel MOVETIME Family Watch as a reasonable way to communicate, although there's no headphones option, so whatever your call is will be broadcast to the rest of the world.
The shorter voice messages function does work, but it's not sending to an actual voicemail inbox. Instead it's controlled via the TCL Move app, which means if you don't have notifications enabled on your iOS or Android phone for it, you could miss a message. It's also not super-clear to the wearer that a message has successfully gone through.

The story from the parent side is a little more complex, because this isn't a smartwatch that's just intended to allow your child to call you or send you smiley faces. It's also enabled as a full tracking device, so you can check where your child is at any given time.
There's a whole separate argument around surveillance and trust that comes into play here, and I've got my own opinions there, but I think it's fair to say that anyone looking to buy a tracking watch is already conceptually fine with it.
The Alcatel MOVETIME Family Watch is a 3G-only device with no Wi-Fi capability, and that has some consequences on how well it actually tracks at any given moment. When you fire up the TCL Move app, it naturally enough takes a few seconds to get a lock on where the watch is.
I would show you that via screenshots, but the app specifically prohibits that. That's a smart step too, because again you wouldn't want somebody creating a map of your child's movements if there are any bugs in the software – or even if it's as simple as your own phone being stolen.
The issue here is that 3G network only triangulation has its definite limits, especially indoors. The Alcatel MOVETIME Family Watch mostly tracked accurately during my tests, except when I took it indoors. Often it would totally lose track of where the watch was, and sometimes it jumped it radically off track.
There's no way to tell absolutely, but I suspect it was busy jumping between network towers at the time, and the combination of a lack of GPS signal and that move confused it too much.
The Alcatel MOVETIME Family Watch allows you to set "safe zones" that your child isn't meant to move out of, but the GPS tracking can send that just a little awry. Obviously that'll depend on the safe zones you set and how well the watch can see the GPS satellites as a result.