Apple watch will not pair with iPhone.

[JerryMack89]

Well, I think it is a bit stinky for Apple to require someone to have an iPhone so they can use the Apple Watch. But to make matters worse, my iPhone is a model Xr. For some reason it won't pair with the watch. So now what do I have to do? Go out and spend another $1200 to get a new iPhone so I can get my watch working?!?!?

 

[MacInWin]

What have you done so far? What results did you get? What messages? What Apple Watch? What version of iOS? What version of WatchOS?

Welcome to the forums, by the way.

 

[IWT]

@JerryMack89

A warm welcome to our forums.

I should say, without offence, that buying a relatively expensive watch would normally require pre-thought and investigation, particularly as in your case, your going for an Apple product.

Their is voluminous literature explaining how the watch requires to be linked to an Apple iPhone.

As MacInWin has requested;

Is the Apple Watch (AW) brand new? And what version, style etc is it? There are a lot of variants.
As I guess you know, it has its own operating system called Watch OS. Which OS does your AW run?
Regarding your iPhone X; again what iOS is it currently running? We need to know. That iPhone is capable of running the latest iOS, which iOS 16.

Once we have these essential details, we need to explore how you attempted to pair the AW with the iPhone X.

Sorry for all this hassle, but the above questions are critical to our ability to help you.

Ian

 

[Rod]

An Apple Watch is not a Stand Alone device as you are now aware but, once setup it virtually is. That is, once it is registered via your iPhone to your Apple ID it will Mirror many of the Apps on your iPhone via a combination of WiFi and Bluetooth rather than have the entire application stored on the device such as the Mail app, Weather app, Health app, Translator, iMessage, Photos app, Music app and many third party apps as well.

This increases the functionality of the Apple Watch far beyond what could be provided by a free standing device of this size. I should add this is exactly the same for the Samsung smart watch which like the AW requires a Samsung phone for everything other than basic functions.

Having said that once set-up/paired with your iPhone it is able to perform many functions on its own such as displaying your heart rate, sleep pattern, activity levels, exercise, time, date, lap timer, torch, compass etc.

Doing a search for how to set up your Apple Watch will result in this site from Apple or similar; Set up your Apple Watch

If the watch is brand new it will probably come with AW OS 8 or 9 pre installed and the first thing you must do is Upgrade the iOS on your iPhone to match that eg. iOS 15.7 or 16.0 this ensures the AW app on the iPhone is fully compatible with the AW.
After that the process is a simple one as described in the illustrated instructions on the above link.

If on the other hand you are dissatisfied with the AW and do not want a watch with these capabilities by all means return it to Apple within the 30 day warranty period.