iphone 14 wont pair with apple watch

I had a similar situation with my iPhone 14 Pro and Apple Watch. The iPhone 14 Pro simply did not recognize the Apple Watch's animation.

I solved the issue by choosing "Pair Manually" as indicated in step 3 here.

Set up your Apple Watch - Apple Support

See the section in this link on If you don't have your old phone or your erased it and follow the directions there --> How to pair your Apple Watch with a new iPhone - Apple Support

Thank you. That’s exactly what I did. I had to wipe my watch clean and reset it. That finally worked.

I can’t even get to the point of pairing manually. It states my watch is not on or still connected to my old phone which has been wiped clean. Now what do I do?

I am also having this issue but with my Series 3/watch OS 8. Will start pairing both with animation and manual pairing options but after triggering either restoring from previous backup or starting out new it eventually gets to a "unpairing from watch" screen and tells me to start over. No other indication what is wrong. Have tried multiple ways and tips like clearing network settings, etc etc.

Tried to pair with an iPhone X on OS 15 and same issue...

I’m having the same issue too. This 14max is not as great as I hoped.

The "Get help" section of the article I linked above explains exactly how to proceed.

Thank you. It’s the latest version iPhone. Just bought it. I turned off everything and turned back on. Still won’t work.

You're welcome. Glad to help.