Newer, smaller geometries are not less power hungry, they are faster. The oscillator for most clocks is only 32.758 kHZ. so the added speed is wasted. The leakage current in the newer, sub-micron parts is also higher.
25 years ago when I am working in a watch and clock with LCD display, ex-fty product should be < 2uA and majority is under 1uA.
Presently the problem is customer requests more function but some of them are not needed but only for selling point especially to be chasing faster device like Mobile phone why needs so many function. So present product are more power hungery.