I am 4 years late to this thread but after a couple of years trying to connect my Apple Watch Series 3 to my iPhone 12 Pro Max with no luck I have finally figured out a solution for myself. I’ll share it in hopes of helping someone else.
I completely gave up trying to connect it to my new iPhone. (12 pro max)
It just wasn’t going to work no matter what I tried.
So I got out my old iPhone (iPhone SE) from my closet.
Note:
1: There is NO SIM card in the old iPhone (SE)
2: I used my new iPhone (12) hotspot as Wi-Fi.
3: On the iPhone (SE) I deleted the watch app
4: I force restart the iPhone (SE)
(Press and quickly release the volume up button. Press and quickly release the volume down button. Press and hold the side button.
When the Apple logo appears, release the side button.) - Works for majority of older phones.
5: I factory reset the Apple Watch to pairing mode.
6: I re downloaded the watch app.
7: I reset the network settings on iPhone.
(Settings-General-Reset or it may say Transfer or Reset IPhone) Clicked on Reset then click Reset Network Settings in pop up Reset Menu.
8: Both Apple Watch & iPhone SE were connected to chargers. (The whole time)
9: Once everything was loaded back up & connected back to Wi-Fi. (Must Re enter Wi-Fi password so don’t forget it.) I opened the watch app on iPhone (SE) then set phone down.
10: Picked up Apple Watch. Chose location. ( A location I was not in) (Canada) then hit continue until the picture that your phone scans popped up. Used the iPhone SE camera to connect. Brought me back to the watch app.
Then it said that awful message that the Apple Watch needed to be updated to finish pairing. I clicked yes to update so of course it took me to the checking for update screen. This time though In about 8 seconds a message popped up saying that I would need to update my iPhone in order to update my Apple Watch so I clicked yes (to phone update).
I was surprised because I’ve never gotten that far before.
I then waited for the phone to update. (The long dreadful Requesting Update download)
While I was waiting on that I decided to check back at what the watch app looked like. LO AND BEHOLD it was actually loading.
I had to wait for my iPhone to finish updating of course but it finally did.
Once the phone came back on I went straight to watch app. Refreshed back into the loading update for Apple Watch. Took 30 mins in all to download the update. (Not Including all the steps I took before this)
Haven't tried pairing it to my new phone just yet because all I really wanted was for this Watch to just have the “required update” it needed.
I’ll update when I decide to do that. If I can do that.
Anyway,
If you have an older iPhone, one you don’t care about resetting the network settings and don’t have a SIM card in or plan on putting one in then maybe this is worth a shot for you to try.
I truly hope this works for someone. Specially since a lot of everyone’s problems seem to be the same but not everyone solutions work.
ive been trying to pair my watch for 4 months and I won’t work. It says the WiFi is not connected when it is and has 4 bars. I don’t know how to fix it and I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.
Make sure you’re not on 5g and reboot your router.
Purchased the Apple Watch 5 in Nov of 21 for a Christmas present, it was an open box, unused device. It took over a week of trial and error including the hard resets and app removals, etc. I had success just today. My network had a 2.4 Ghz and a 5Ghz network; for the last week i have had the phone on the 2.4Ghz band.
Just today I connected the Iphone to the 5Ghz network, then started the pairing process once again. Note the apple watch never appeared on my 2.4 Ghz network when my phone was connected to the 2.4 Ghz.At this point the Router network recognized the Apple watch.I assigned it to a home device and rename it within my network.Next I had to list it as a wearable device. This allowed the router network to open communication to the Apple Watch and begin to accept the updates.It appeared for a while that the updates stalled, but after almost half an hour the Iphone said it had another update, then another. It finally finished updating to OS 8.3 and restarted. Now going through the final set-up phase. Hope this helps.