Pairing series 3 Apple Watch with iPhone 15

watchOS 10 is required to pair with an iPhone 15 that comes with iOS 17. A series 3 watch is incapable of updating to watchOS 10. So, you cannot pair a series 3 watch with iPhone 15.

Would it be retrofitting? General Support and the Apple specialist both told me, that it does not work because IOS 17 checks the watchOS-Version before pairing and expects at least 10 for updates, they did not mention any hardware issues. Which makes kind of sense, pairing is a matter of software-protocols and bluetooth on the hardware side. Watch 3 has bluetooth 4.2, iphone 15 has bluetooth 5.3, 5.3 is at least on paper backwards compatible to bluetooth 4.2.

But perhaps i miss somethig here, i would like to believe that it is an offer to the future. Greetings!

Thank you so much for your help! My son unpaired and deleted his watch, making it as if it was a brand new watch his iphone15 had never seen before. When he tried to pair it from his phone as a new watch it worked! He had previously been trying to pair it from the watch to the phone since that was the prompt he was being given. I guess when the new phone was copied to mirror the old phone it was trying to remember an old watch that will not pair due to an insufficient operating system. Pairing from the phone down to the old watch operating system though worked like a charm and you just saved me a little over $200. Not sure how much longer we will get out of the Series 3 watch, but if it buys us even 6 months that is better than nothing.

I was just in the store, hands on with a 15 pro max, when the store stuff told me this sad news, which the general support confirmed. It is not a general problem of ios 17, because i actually use an iphone XR with ios 17 and a watch 3, which was paired with an earlier ios version, but works flawlessly under ios 17. So it has to be the process of newly pairing, not a technical issue when paired. Now my watch 3 is 6 years old, but battery health is 97%! It feels bad to be forced to throw that away, and i decided to hold on to my actual configuration and think again what i am going to do. It was a users experience, too, i give you that.

There is some confusion here.

A newer iPhone iOS can pair to an older Watch OS, but not the other way round.

Make sure the Watch is completely erased (https://icloud.com/find)

Then pair as New Watch, not with backup.

Ok guys, the problem maybe related to your Bluetooth connection. Just perform network reset on your iPhone.

Please go to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset [Device] > Reset > Reset Network Settings. This also resets Wi-Fi networks and passwords, cellular settings, and VPN and APN settings that you've used before.

i have Apple Watch 3 and latest 15 pro with 17.2 ios.

All works like charm now!

Watches have always paired with same or newer iOS so if anything changed it is in iOS17

There were problems with iOS16.0 but it was fixed in 16.1.4 as I remember it.

I know people with iOS17 and OS9

I don’t know what courage you need if the Series 3 is not paired currently.

Unpair and erase your Apple Watch – Apple Support

Thanks for this info! I reset my 3 watch from the watch itself and was able to pair after that with my 15! Saved me a few hundred bucks after already selling my kidney to buy the 15 pro

So, i bought the new iphone 15 pro max today, unpaired the watch 3 from my old phone (XR), set the new phone up to copy the old phone, and it asked me by itself to be paired with the watch. Which worked like a charm, as LD150 said. Happy end for me and good to know, if someone has a similar problem. Thanks again.

I didn’t have the same experience as Polybotes. I unpaired the watch from my iPhone 8 with some degree of success, it still said I should reset and erase the watch. After resetting and erasing, it updated watch iOS, and paired with my iPhone 15. Calls, some notifications, and settings aren’t working. Might try erasing and repairing again.

Thanks to all who gave me confidence that I would manage to pair my Apple Watch 3 with my new iPhone 15 Pro Max. I tried first to unpair it from the old iPhone X but it said the unpairing didn't work. I couldn't erase it either using the iPhone X so I erased it using the other method, directly on the watch, necessary when you don't have the iPhone anymore.

I then paired it with the new iPhone. It took a while but it worked.

You can pair an old watch OS with a newer iPhone iOS but not the other way round.

Do not restore any backup and ensure the Watch is totally wiped.

Series 2 are officially vintage/obsolete.

Update to my question. Using the suggestion from a few other replies of erasing, and resetting the watch, & unpairing it from the previous phone. I have been able to pair it with the new I 15. Thus far notifications and other apps are working have not tried to call yet, thank you for those that responded with some options. It was helpful.

Other option:

Please open the Health app on your iPhone or iPad. Tap your profile , then tap Devices. Tap your Apple Watch. Tap Privacy Settings and make sure Fitness Tracking is turned on. If it is also reset fitness calibration data

It’s a matter of hardware. Apple cannot retrofit new hardware to old devices.