Watch Series 5 Unable to Pair to iPhone 12 Pro Max

The above series of screenshots shows the general series of events. Regardless of which of the option trees I follow, the same “Update Apple Watch” box appears, and then begins to input before I can even select an option on the box.

Thanks for the reply,

The update message does not remain on the screen long enough for me to press an option. It flashes on the screen and then disappears within a second or two. Even if I wait for the message to appear (like I said it appears at regular intervals, so I can anticipate it), and tap my finger where the options will be, my phone appears to not register my touch at that moment, so I cannot pick either option.

I have also looked at that article, but was unable to use any of the solutions effectively. I have to reset the watch to factory everytime I try to pair.

As far as the apple watch screen itself, once I am past the initial pairing screen, it remains on the below image until pairing fails on the iphone.

All of the steps in that tutorial have been followed - except for updating Watch OS to the most recent version, as indicated by the phone's inability to pair because of a pending update. As far as I know, there is not a way to load an update on the watch until it has been successfully paired. The watch has been unpaired, and factory reset multiple times. It has also been powered off and on multiple times. Step 4 of "Set up your Apple Watch - Apple Support" is where the process breaks down, I am unable to either get the update to download and install, or skip the update and pair anyway.

The iphone is at the latest version possible (15.6.1), and has no beta seed or update files downloaded. The iphone has been restarted multiple times, has had its network settings reset, and has been fully reset and restored by backup. The previous watch paired to the phone and icloud account has been unpaired, reset, and removed the icloud account.