How to Pair Your Apple Watch to a New iPhone

It's easy to pair an Apple Watch with your iPhone—nearly as simple as connecting any other Bluetooth-enabled device. But what if you’ve bought a new phone? You need to know how to unpair the Apple Watch from your original device, and then how to pair the Apple Watch to the new phone in order to begin using it. 

Jump to:

• Unpair Apple Watch from Old Phone
• Pair Apple Watch to New Phone

How to Unpair an Apple Watch from a Previous Phone

First, using your old iPhone, you need to back up and unpair the Apple Watch. Here's how:

1. Open the Watch app on your iPhone.
2. Tap the My Watch tab at the bottom of the screen.
   
   
    
3. Select All Watches in the upper-left corner.
4. Tap on the info icon (the letter "i" with a circle around it).
   
   
    
5. Tap Unpair Apple Watch.
6. Confirm by tapping Unpair [Your] Apple Watch at the bottom. When you unpair the watch, the data automatically backs up to your iPhone.
   
   

Next, create an iCloud backup of your old iPhone then transfer that content to your new iPhone. If you decide to use an iTunes backup instead, make sure to encrypt it so your Health and Activity data is saved and transferred. If you are interested in more tips on iPhone settings, iCloud backups, Apple Watch use, and more, you'll enjoy our Tip of the Day Newsletter.

Related: 12 Ways to Save Apple Watch Battery Life (Updated for WatchOS 7)

How to Pair an Apple Watch to a New Phone

Now, just as before, pair your Apple Watch with your new iPhone. Here's how to pair the Apple Watch:

1. Open the Watch app on your new iPhone and follow the on-screen directions.
   
   
    
2. When asked, make sure to select Restore from Backup and select the most recent backup to transfer your content back to Apple Watch.

Ta-da! You’ve paired your Apple Watch with a new iPhone! Did you know you can even answer and then transfer phone calls on your Apple Watch to your iPhone? Such a cool feature.