Apple Pay does not work Watch Series 3

With my new Apple Watch Series 3 w/WatchOS 4.3.1, I cannot get any point of sale ApplePay readers to 'see' my watch. I double tap the side button, select a verified credit or debit card and move the watch to the receiving area of the reader at a retail establishment, but I never receive a haptic or other response from the watch. When I use the same credit or debit card on my iPhone X at the same terminal, the payment is read and all is well.

1. Yes, the cards were added to the Watch Series 3 via the Apple Watch app on my iPhone X and verified by the card issuer

2. Yes, the point of sale readers work with Apple Pay in general and specifically with my iPhone X

3. Multiple retail locations consistently did not work with Apple Pay with my Watch Series 3, but all of them worked fine with my iPhone X.

Support asked me a lot of questions and their suggestion was to completely reset the Watch Series 3 to factory defaults and start over. I think the hardware Near Field Communications transponder in the Watch is defective. I have had the watch for 5 days and although it Apple Pay is set up and verified for 1 debit and 3 credit cards, it has never worked with an Apple Pay compatible point of sale reader.

The major difficulty in troubleshooting this problem is that it's not something that I can reproduce at home (no NFC reader) and the nearest Apple Store is almost 2 hours away. I bought the watch at AT&T and it was activated as a new device on my AT&T cell account. Any suggestions, other than not trying to use Apple Pay on my watch until I can make the trip to an Apple Store?