Rjstrand wrote:
My wife has an iPhone, Apple Watch SE, and Sony Bluetooth noise cancelling earbuds. She has not set up the cell connection on the watch. Instead she has been using it through the connection to the iPhone.
1) is the watch capable of a direct WiFi connection to the iPhone? (Away from any known or usable WiFi access)
No. Ad-hoc WiFi connections is not possible. If Both the iPhone and Apple Watch are on the same WiFi network, they can use WiFi if they are out of Bluetooth range. But if away from WiFi, and the iPhone is nearby, the Apple Watch will use Bluetooth. The Apple Watch actually prefers using Bluetooth, as it is the lowest power demand radio, which is important to extend the life of the Apple Watch battery during the day.
2) if not, then it must rely on Bluetooth?
When away from shared WiFi, yes, Bluetooth is how the Apple Watch and iPhone keep in communication.
3) if it is already connected to the iPhone via Bluetooth, then how can the watch also make a Bluetooth connection to the earbuds? Doesn’t seem possible.
The most difficult thing most people run into with Bluetooth headphones/earbuds is putting them into "Discovery" mode.
I've successfully paired 4 different Bluetooth devices to my Apple Watch. Sony over ear noise cancelling Bluetooth headphones, two 16 year old Bluetooth headphones, and my Apple AirPods.
In all but the AirPods, my hardest task was finding the instructions to put them into Discovery mode. Especially the 16 year old headphones (lots of Google searching).
Once I got the headphones into Disovery mode, the Apple Watch saw the devices and paired via Apple Watch -> Settings -> Bluetooth.
So either find the instructions that came with the Sony Bluetooth noise cancelling earbuds, or start Googling for the user's manual
