As al alternative, it would be an option when you click on watch, as an option like watchlist expiry.

I don’t think this is a good idea, as subscriptions and watching are independent things, while watching and watchlist expiry aren’t – there are four possible combinations of subscriptions and watching:

• The page is neither watched nor subscribed to
• The page is watched
• The page is subscribed to
• The page is both watched and subscribed to (useful e.g. if one wants to follow article changes through the watchlist and new topics through Echo – it’s impossible to unwatch the talk page without unwatching the subject page as well)

Whereas there are only three possible combinations of classic watching and watchlist expiry:

• The page is not watched
• The page is watched temporarily
• The page is watched permanently

The suggestion is to make the subscribe link as important as the watch icon.

This could be the way to go. Different skins may need different treatment:

• Monobook and Modern look fine.
• In Minerva, both watch and subscribe have an icon + text entry, but subscribe is hidden in the menu. Maybe it could be moved out of it? We could run into space constraints, though.
• Vector 2010 and Vector 2022 are above. Vector 2022 could reuse the Minerva icons with slight color modifications (Minerva seems to use a more grayish shade, Vector 2022 a more blackish one), Vector 2010 would ideally use an icon that better fits its 3D design.
• In Timeless, the watchlist icon is on the left, subscription is on the right. Both are always visible, although subscription doesn’t have a distinctive icon and has a text on larger screens, while watchlist never has text. Timeless doesn’t give much room customizing things (T251258).
• Cologne Blue is sort of fine (the two are far from each other but watch is not more prominent) and a totally unsupported skin.