If you’re selling your Apple Watch, switching iPhones, or just resetting it for a fresh start, unpairing is the cleanest way to preserve your data and disable Activation Lock. Before you begin, keep your iPhone and Apple Watch close together and connected to Wi-Fi or cellular.
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On your iPhone, open the Apple Watch app.
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Go to the My Watch tab, then tap All Watches at the top.
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Tap the small “i” (info) icon next to the watch you want to unpair.
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Tap Unpair Apple Watch, then confirm when prompted.
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If your watch has a cellular plan (GPS + Cellular model), choose whether to keep or remove the plan. If you’re not going to pair it again, you may want to remove the plan.
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Enter your Apple ID password when asked. This disables Activation Lock and starts the unpairing process.
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Your iPhone will back up your watch’s data, erase the watch, and remove its pairing. After the process finishes, the watch shows the “Start Pairing” screen.
If you no longer have access to the paired iPhone (for example, you sold it or it’s lost):
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On the Apple Watch, go to Settings → General → Reset, then tap Erase All Content and Settings.
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If your watch has a cellular plan, choose whether to keep or remove it.
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After the watch is erased, go to iCloud.com on a computer, open “Find My”, select your watch in the list of devices, and choose Remove from Account to disable Activation Lock.
