How to pair a new or existing Apple Watch with your new iPhone [New process]

December 26, 2022

4 min read

Ready to switch from your Apple Watch Series 7 to the new Series 8, Ultra, or SE? Or maybe you just need to transfer your existing Apple Watch with your new iPhone? Follow along for how to seamlessly pair a new or existing Apple Watch with iPhone without losing data – including a new process in iOS 16.

Apple Watch backups happen automatically and are saved on the iPhone your Apple Watch is paired with. However, there’s no place in Settings to manually back up your Apple Watch or see when the last automatic backup was.

Read on for how to make sure your Apple Watch is backed up and you’re all set to upgrade to your new one.

If you’re upgrading to a new iPhone 14 (or any other new model), you’ll need to take care of that first.

How to upgrade to your iPhone 14 without losing data

Apple notes that these items are not included with Apple Watch backups: Bluetooth pairings, credit or debit cards used for Apple Pay, Apple Watch passcode, and Messages.

How to pair Apple Watch with a new iPhone

New with iOS 16 – automatic transfer for existing Apple Watch

A fresh and seamless new process should show up with iOS 16 to move an existing Apple Watch from your old iPhone to your new one.

Make sure to set up your new iPhone and restore with a backup or complete the Quick Transfer option from your old iPhone
After setting up your new iPhone, make sure your Apple Watch is on your wrist (and passcode entered)
Look for a message on your watch to Pair Watch with new iPhone?
Choose OK
You can leave your watch on your wrist as the transfer happens – even workouts/Ring progress from earlier in the day remains after transfer

If this process doesn’t show up for you, follow the steps below…

Use an Apple Watch backup to pair a new or existing watch

If you’re upgrading to a new iPhone, make sure to set that up first (restore from fresh backup)
Open the Watch app on your new iPhone to start the pairing process (you can choose to add your new Apple Watch before removing your existing one too: All Watches > Add Watch if the auto pair screen doesn’t pop up)
Power on your Apple Watch and look for the pairing sphere code, follow the prompts
When asked, choose to restore your new Apple Watch from a backup and choose the most recent one
If you’re not seeing a backup available from your most recent iPhone backup, follow along below for how to force an Apple Watch backup

Pair new Apple Watch with new iPhone

If you need or want to pair a new Apple Watch with your iPhone or pair an existing watch as a new one:

Open the Watch app on your iPhone
Tap All Watches in the top left corner
Choose Add Watch
Follow the prompts
You should see an option to restore the backup from your previous watch to your new watch

Force an Apple Watch backup

If you’re not seeing an available backup to restore, you might need to force a backup.

Since Apple Watch backups don’t happen with every iCloud or Mac/PC backup with your iPhone, this is how Apple says to do force them:

Keep your paired Apple Watch and old iPhone close together
Open the Watch app on your iPhone
Tap All Watches at the top, pick your watch, then tap the “i” on the right side
Tap Unpair Apple Watch (during the unpairing process your Apple Watch will do a fresh backup to your iPhone)
Follow the prompts to unpair your current Watch
Make a fresh backup of your old iPhone, restore that backup to your new iPhone
Open the Watch app on your new iPhone to start the pairing process of your new Watch
Power on your new Apple Watch and look for the pairing sphere code, follow the prompts
When asked, choose to restore your new Apple Watch from a backup and choose the most recent one