Pair Apple Watch again without erasing I have accidentally unpaired my Apple Watch on my iPhone. I need to pair my watch with the same iPhone again.

(But I think the same problem can probably be faced if one gets a new iPhone with an already paired watch.)

The Apple Watch is fully working. I can open the apps, see my clock-face and so on. But in the menu bar, there is a red strikethrough iPhone icon.

If I open the Apple Watch app on my iPhone and tap on start pairing, my Apple Watch does not show the pairing image as it did first after unboxing it.

Do I need to completely erase my watch or is there somehow an option to start pairing my watch again?

According to my space usage on my iPhone (Settings > General > Usage > Manage Storage), I do have a backup on my iPhone. But this is some days ago and I do not want to lose my (activity) data – so erasing my watch is really my last choice.

To put it in a nutshell: How do I pair my iPhone with my watch again without erasing it?
I was experiencing this problem when i had my phone on my desk and I would walk away from it. When I came back I found that the watch would refuse to re-pair with my phone again.

I found a quick way to force the watch to re-pair with my phone:


Flick up on the watch face to get to the "Glances" menu
Tap the airplane button to turn on Airplane mode
Tap the airplane button again to turn off airplane mode
Within a few seconds the watch will re-pair with the phone