Apple Watch Series 2 pairs but disconnects during setup

I have an iPhone 12 mini with the latest iOS. My watch suddenly unpaired from my phone one day and will not reconnect.

I tried to pair it again and it goes through the loop of "connecting to your watch"... to "unpairing watch."

I reset the watch to factory defaults and that hasn't changed the outcome. I've tried all the different options from "restoring from backup", "setup as new", "updating before", and "skipping update". I've also reset my network settings on my phone.

I've talked to apple support and they wanted me to send the watch in for a $200 service which would be a waste... the watch will power, charge and reset but will just not interface with the phone.

I also tried from a different phone altogether and get the same result.

Please help