does iOS 12 work with a apple watch 1st generation ?

Then provide an answer to the original post about how to pair the phone and watch, I'd be interested as well. All I can relay is what 3 Apple Support technicians have told me and what my own attempts to pair an iOS 12 phone with a 1st gen (series 0) watch have shown me. It's not possible.

When I try to pair my series 0 watch it forces a download of watchOS 5, which is incompatible with the watch. The update fails and the pairing fails.

I have been on a couple of different calls with Apple Support. I believe your Series 0 watch is bricked. It is not compatible with iOS 12. Apparently it's in the "iOS 12" terms and conditions, as I kept hearing.

As an addendum and possible clarification - my watch did work after my update to iOS 12. However, I noticed a few functions not working (like pinging my phone), so I attempted to re-pair the watch and phone. It is only after that that they became incompatible. So it did continue to work after iOS, but it does not appear there's a way to pair a series 0 watch with an iOS 12 phone.

There shouldn't be anything special about getting it to work. As is evidenced by the fact that both my original Apple Watch, and my wife's original Apple Watch work just fine with our phones running iOS 12.1.

Figured I'd provide an update that I did eventually get my 1st gen watch to work with iOS 12. No idea what the issue was before...maybe a corrupted download for the watchOS update? Either way...not a great look that 3 people at Apple Support couldn't provide more help (and indeed, provided incredibly incorrect information).

arch14 wrote:

It is not compatible with iOS 12. Apparently it's in the "iOS 12" terms and conditions, as I kept hearing.

Sorry. That's just flat out wrong. It works just fine.

Mine works just fine.