Display Brightness & Ambient Light Sensor

I can no longer control the display brightness on my Apple Watch Series 4. The display appears to be on maximum brightness despite lowering the setting manually. (Open the Settings app  on your Apple Watch, then tap Display & Brightness to adjust the following: Brightness: Tap the Brightness controls to adjust, or tap the slider, then turn the Digital Crown.)

Previous troubleshooting: I unpaired apple watch and erased all content and settings. Restored from a 1 yr old back-up once and repeated the unpair erase content and set up as a new watch twice. All efforts have failed. The watch is constantly on max brightness which sequentially drains the battery much quicker. (This just started on Thursday 6/25/2020)

Suspecting damage to the ambient light sensor?? Both Apple Watch (6.2.6) and iPhone (13.5.1) are up to date with latest software. Any advise, tips, or recommendations other than disabling wake screen on wrist raise?