You picked a horrible example. Rolex Sea Dweller is amongst the thickest of dive watches because it's designed to be taken to extreme depths (depths no human will ever descend to in a diving suit).
Well, that’s true, but you went to the other extreme of the spectrum: Piaget’s specialty are ultra thin watches, I don’t think it’s a much better example.
Mechanical watches under 7mm are already considered thin; more usually they are 9-11mm. Quartz are easily thinner.
I think smartwatches currently around look thicker because of case and lugs design. For example, the Sea-Dweller is 18mm, but the side of the case is not flat all the way like the 360, the case back is actually inset, so it’s less noticeable.
Here's a Rolex[0] (Sea-Dweller 4000). Here's a Moto 360[1].
And now instead of holding eWatches to the same standard as mechanicals, it has turned into another thickness race.
[0] https://imgur.com/TVroPQp [1] https://imgur.com/Vbve1pq