Apple 4 Watch: How do you eject water/ unlock the watch IF the digital crown is not working/ responding as it should?

Question: How do you eject water/ unlock the watch IF the digital crown is not working/ responding as it should?

My watch is currently in locked mode and I would like to eject the water and unlock the watch as I usually do after working out. However, because my digital crown randomly stopped responding to my normal previous actions (ie spinning the crown to unlock the watch, spinning the crown to change the alarm I want to set etc, in addition to pinching/ pressing into the watch to get out of the screen I am viewing etc) I am now unable to eject water, unlock OR reset my Apple Watch.

I have also spent a few hours researching "how to's" with anything related to the Digital Crown not working, being stuck, becoming unstock etc etc. Yes, I have turned my watch off and ran it under warm water for the recommended 10-15 seconds and dried it off accordingly to apple's process. Unpaired, repaired, turned the watch off for several hours, manually reset the watch ---- I'm looking for more information as NOTHING has helped even a little bit.

I love my watch, everything works GREAT except the digital crown, it was an amazing (and very expensive) Christmas gift -- however, I never thought that I would have to get it repaired for the price of previous generation brand new watch ($430.00) or that I would need to purchase a new watch before being used for less than TWO years.

Any help/ successful times would be appreciated- thanks!