How do I get my Apple Watch to play Music on my earbuds rather than my iPhone?

I have a similar setup: AW Ultra, iPhone 14 Pro Max, and 3rd party earbuds/headphones. Doesn't matter what I connect to headphone-wise, the default "speaker" is my phone... which is absolutely a broken system.

EVERY time I want to use my watch for music, I have to tap the morphing icon in the top right corner that *always* looks like a phone. That opens up the "airplay" options, of which my watch is *never* an option until I "select other airplay device" or whatever. THEN I have to select my watch to play music, which... I'm sorry--this is just stupid. Apple, FIX THIS. It worked fine before; you can make it work fine again.... you're just not. So please get on this.

I have the same problem and it started when I updated the Watch OS to version 10. I was outside ready to go running with AirPods in my ears and the apple watch. The AirPods were connected to the apple watch. On the apple watch I turned on the music and the watch defaults to playing the iPhone speakers waking up my wife in the house. Totally silly default behavior.

I fixed it by turning off the wifi on the watch. Later when messing with it I learned it can also be changed by going through airplay and selecting the headphones.

But as default behavior this is broken. Why would I pair headphones then try to play music through my iPhone speakers. Bad apple. The apple watch also shows music I have not downloaded to the watch...and I cannot find a feature to disable that except by turning off the wifi. I wish the watch would assume it is stand alone rather than assume I want to use it as a tiny remote for the iPhone which is annoying.

Apple Watch Ultra 1

Apple iPhone iPhone 14 Pro

Apple AirPods pro 1

Same problem still in May of ‘24. It’s infuriating, and most times i can’t get it to work no matter what i do.

Shouldn’t have to go thru so many steps to play on the device that the source is initiated from.

This should help. Once you’ve connected them to your watch all you need to do is leave the phone at home open Bluetooth and select your buds. I use mine like this all the time. If you have apple earbuds it’s automatic if you use non apple its as above and as per guide in link.

Connect Apple Watch to Bluetooth headphones or speakers – Apple Support (UK)

Yeah it's ultra broken. i experienced it more broken than y'all reported, today, because even toggling the wifi AND bluetooth off in the phone control center doesn't actually work on the watch, the watch is an "exception" to those toggles, which might be convenient in the day to day when what you really mean by toggling that is to disconnect bluetooths that arent your watch...

Only once i went to bluetooth settings proper in my phone to toggle it off did the watch actually enter "no phone connection" mode (w the red no phone icon in the dot area up top). and then it would play from itself and properly pair to my airpods. My phone musta started playing the song 5x while i fumbled with it for 20 mins. unreal.

I don't think Apple intended to be half-baked functionality. It's just broken.

To leave my phone behind to get it to work the way the documentation says is both untenable and undesirable in my case. For instance I'd like to be able to listen to music while in the bed without needing to light up the entire room and wake the wife by turning on the phone to adjust what I'm listening to.

In it's non-working current state, that's impossible.

better to just leave the house with your watch and airpods and set it up while you begin your run, maybe that is how apple intended it, but it's the only way to avoid the fumble.