The AppleWatch is developed as, sold as, and marketed as an accessory for the iPhone.

It’s is not a standalone device that can work without one.

Thank you all for the replies

Couple of things:

The watch may still be paired / locked to an Apple account so while you might be able to pair it with a phone you would then likely need to go through a login process. This is your first roadblock.

If you could get around that and you knew someone with a iPhone they could set the watch up for you, but unless it had cellular service its use would be fairly limited to the apps they could load on it for you at the start. This process is primarily used for setting up watches for children, this is how my son has a watch but no phone.

The third option would be to buy an iPhone, but then your first roadblock would still be a problem.

The moral of this story is that it’s rare for things that aren’t yours to just suddenly become yours.