Brand new Apple Watch 3 will not pair with ANY iPhone

[HumpDayMedia]

So ... my step daughter today got an Apple Watch 3 for her birthday - but the setup process kept blowing up when attempting to update the watch. It would "pair" then ask for LEFT or RIGHT preference. As soon as you selected one or the other, it would say "could not pair" and it would unpair from the phone.

We have tried manual pairing and automatic pairing. We have tried 4 different iPhones.

We also went back and exchanged the watch - and still same thing.

I am a software engineer - and I am fairly certain I have done everything that you would normally try to do. Reset the watch back to factory settings, manual & automatic pairing, turning on airplane mode and then turning off phone / turning on phoen and turning off airplane mode.

NOTHING WORKS.

We even went to yet ANOTHER WalMart to excahnge for a third watch ... same thing. And again ... we have tried iPhone 8, iPhone X and iPhone XR. Anyone have any ideas? I was thinking maybe the sofware is so out of date? Maybe I can somehow UPDATE the watch BEFORE trying to set it up/pair?

 

[MiniMoney]

Three different Apple Series 3 watches won’t pair with four different iPhones?! This seems very unlikely. (Not saying you’re lying, just that it’s too peculiar.) Think about all your experiments/tests. What was the same in every single test? Were you using the same Apple ID in each test? Were you doing it in the same room each time? Were you hooked up to the same WiFi network? Were you using the same power cables? Anything that was the same each time, I would try to change (within reason. I wouldn’t want you to get a different spouse ). I’m thinking an Apple ID configuration or some sort of electromagnetic interference might be your problem.

Also, when I first paired my Series 3 to my phone, it told me to put on the watch first, which I did. I was never asked for my Right or Left preference.

How far is the phone from the watch when you do this? I never had the phone more than a foot away from the watch when I set it up.

Please keep us posted. This is a very interesting problem.

P.S.
You shouldn’t be trying to pair the watch with phones running beta iOS or jailbreaks.