Pairing older apple watch(series 2) to iphone 12

[LewisRaz]

Hello all we was gifted an apple watch series 2 recently but I have had no joy in pairing it with any of our phones. My iphone 12mini and my wifes iphone 8 both say "to update the software on your apple watch you first need to update the software on your iphone" whilst both phones are fully updated already so obviously cannot comply with that..

Anyone have any tips or things to try? Not much help on google for this one. I have tried the full erase of the watch and deleting the watch app on both phones but no joy yet.

I have considered rolling back my phones ios but that seems long winded and can only go back as far as 13. With no promise it will even help.

 

[VaderDSL]

Not 100% sure possibly it's on an old watch os version, maybe watch os 3? Probably why it won't pair. You could chat Apple, see if you can send in to have the OS updated to a later version, 4 onwards for example to see if that helps?

 

[Alpherah]

Not 100% sure possibly it's on an old watch os version, maybe watch os 3? Probably why it won't pair. You could chat Apple, see if you can send in to have the OS updated to a later version, 4 onwards for example to see if that helps?

This is probably gonna be the answer.
There is a chance of a hardware fault (watch faults cause all sorts of generic messages with pairing). Apple support can arrange a mail in software support case and send it back free if it doesn’t work