Apple Pay on Apple Watch NOT Working After Updating to WatchOS 10

It works now!! I could not activate my new updated apple watch 8 with my updated iphone 11. I unpaired and re-paired as suggested by this thread and Apple Pay is now all set up on my apple watch 8 just like it was before on my Apple watch 5. Thank you for the advice.

Unpair and erase your Apple Watch - Apple Support

Apple Support

How to unpair and erase your Apple Watch if you have your iPhone

1. Keep your Apple Watch and iPhone close together as you unpair them.
2. Open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone.
3. Go to the My Watch tab and tap All Watches.
4. Tap the info button next to the watch that you want to unpair.
5. Tap Unpair Apple Watch.

So just an update on this issue:

My Series 8 Watch was returned with no action taken as they could not find the problem.

The issue of course is the assistive touch features that have a bug. Be aware that you MUST turn off all the sub-menu features of assisted touch also when you no longer want to use this feature. If you don't Apple Pay will no longer work normally. Things like the gestures etc., which are all configured under this menu.

Apple could of course not diagnose it as when sending off for repair you have to unpair and reset the watch - so when they got it, the issue was no longer there!

Also, because I backed up my watch before sending it in for service you MUST NOT later restore from a backup that would have still had the assistive touch options settings included in the backup, otherwise you are back to where you started and would just restore the bug.

I have decided not to re-enable this feature as it's more bl*ody hassle than it's worth to be honest.

I was experiencing the same issue. After contacting Apple support they had me un-pair and re-pair the watch to my phone. After that, Apple Pay on my watch has been working correctly. Also, there is an update to iOS 17 (iOS 17.0.2) on the phone.

Problem with Apple Pay on my Apple Watch Ultra started after updating to WatchOS 10. Uninstalling the bank app on the iPhone, removing the cards from Wallet on iPhone and Apple Watch, re-installing the bank app and configure Apple Pay from scratch on did not work. A restart of the Apple Watch also didn’t solve the issue. Just like Garden-Ed said: unpairing the watch and re-pair the watch via the phone app finally fixed the problem.

Are you near an Apple Retail Store? They can check if your NFC is working properly.

Have you done a forced restart of your Apple Watch since upgrading?

>>Force Apple Watch to restart

To force restart, hold down the side button and the Digital Crown at the same time for at least ten seconds, until the Apple logo appears.<<

Restart Apple Watch - Apple Support

Installed watch OS 10.1 today and my issues with Apple Pay: card flashing for 1 sec and app crashing are now resolved. If anyone also has Ultra gen1 and same problem: I tried pairing and unpairing, delete/re-add cards and multiple restarts. None of these helped. Finally this update today did something to resolve the problem.

I had this issue. I contacted Apple support. After trying various things such as restarting the watch. etc. they asked me to unpair and re-pair the watch.

That solved it. So apparently to repair the problem you've got to repair the watch (heh).

Have you tried to unpair/re-pair your watch? After unpairing/re-pairing the watch you will have to add your cards to Apple Pay again, this procedure fixed the problem on my watch.

So today I unpaired and re-paired my watch. One of the cards worked. I haven’t checked all of them yet, but assuming they will work too. But I remember that my watch used to vibrate and make a sound when the card was accepted. That didn’t happen today. However the payment went through on the first attempt. Is there some setting I need to change to enable sound and vibration again?

So I am having the same issue as all of you have been having with my AW series 8 on 10.0.1 and also my iPhone 15 Pro Max on iOS 17. I have made 3 calls to Apple Pay support Tier 2 reps. The 1st and 2nd call they had me do many different things - 1st call - (un-pair watch, delete watch app from iPhone, remove all cards from wallet on iPhone, delete wallet app, re-add wallet app and all cards, reinstall watch app and re-pair watch from new) and - 2nd call - (reset network settings on iPhone). Both of which did no good for the issue. Apple Pay with my default debit card not working at any POS location. But the strange thing is that the Apple Card works with Apple Pay 🤔. Now Im leaning toward it being a communication issue that might have something to do with having to enter a PIN number. Same default card (debit) on iPhone works seamlessly and prompts for PIN code on POS system.

[Edited by Moderator] 

I've just had to send my Series 8 Watch back to Apple after 2 engineers couldn't even run the remote diagnostic on my Watch for this Apple Pay Issue.

2 separate stores, 3 cards and Apple Watch would not work - declined on the terminal (all cards have zero balances) and even debit cards with thousands in funds would not work.

Sometimes the card reader would beep like normal and other times it would not beep. Had to travel all the way home to get my wallet with the same cards and these worked instantly with contactless.

So Apple engineers have said it may be the Apple Pay sensor and after failing to run a diagnostic 2-3 times decided it needed returning.

So back to my trusty Series 2 Watch now as a backup that has worked flawlessly until I get mine back.

I should also mention that I tried out the assistive touch options, but turned this setting OFF and still had the issues. But with even Apple not being able to diagnose it, I think there may of been an issue. But reading about this assistive touch issues reported here and the failure of Apple Pay to work when the main feature is turned off on the latest official software version is really poor. This is what I use my watch for 90% of the time - and yet this bug can cripple it

seems ridiculous not to have been picked up.

With update WatchOS 10.2 the issue with my watch is resolved. Works like a charm again. just updated my watch and it kept working.

Sorry, I just reread your post and see the update is a possible issue. Sorry about that. Is your iPhone updated to the latest iOS, paired devices almost always need to be on equivalent OS.

If you remove the watch from your wrist does it lock, as it’s supposed to?

If you have assisted touch turned on. Turn it off, it fixed my watch problem with Apple Pay.