Series 7 watch can’t locate Bluetooth ear buds

I’ve been trying to connect my watch to my sony wireless ear buds so I can listen to the audio workouts in Apple fitness +

Every time I try to use my watch to search for and connect to the ear buds, it cannot locate them. Bluetooth is turned on on the watch, and on the ear buds. I can listen to music on my phone through the ear buds, so I know that connection is ok.

ive followed the steps here Apple Watch won’t detect Bluetooth headph… - Apple Community

they didn’t work. My watch has been searching for five minutes & still can’t locate anything. Is it possibly a Bluetooth problem?