The Fastest Way to Recover a Locked Apple Watch
As many Apple Watch users have discovered, there is no way to connect a bricked watch to a Mac to manually restore the software, as you can with an iPhone or iPad. Your only hope was to take it to the nearest Apple Store (or send it to Apple for a reset) if it failed during an update or due to a software bug. But now , if your Apple Watch is updated to watchOS 8.5 and your iPhone is running iOS 15.4 or higher, you can use your iPhone to wirelessly reset your watch.
How to manually reset your Apple Watch
Put your Apple Watch on the charger and bring your iPhone to it. If the watch displays a red exclamation mark, press the Digital Crown button twice so it can start searching for nearby iPhones.
Make sure your iPhone is unlocked, Bluetooth is turned on, and Wi-Fi is connected to your local network. Double-click the side button on your Apple Watch and the Apple Watch pairing popup will appear on your iPhone, but with the option to restore the watch instead. Click ” Continue ” and follow the instructions to restore factory settings.
If you don’t see the popup on your iPhone, try using the 2.4GHz network instead of the 5GHz network. Also, make sure you’re not on a restricted or 802.1X network and try again.