you can’t.
That’s the short answer anyway. But no, you can’t switch to a new phone and bring your Google Pixel Watch with you without doing a factory reset. I wish I could explain the reasoning behind it. All I know is that Wear OS has been this way since the beginning and it’s always been annoying. I wrote about not being able to pair two phones at once in 2018 because it frustrated me that I had to constantly factory reset my watches. We’re in 2023 and a whole new version of Wear OS later and still can’t get things to work that easily.
I bring this up today because Google previously shared “The Google Pixel Watch Minute” community post and this question appeared to be a trending topic that they felt was a necessary share. In other words, many people want to know how they can move their Pixel Watch to a new phone and factory wipe it.
Google is clear in their answer that “to connect your Pixel watch to a new phone you need to factory reset it.”
How do you factory reset your Pixel Watch to connect to a new phone?
It’s super easy. From the Pixel Watch app, you scroll down and tap on “System” and then tap on “Reset and unpair watch” option. Once you tap “Reset” on the pop-up that appears, you’ll see your Pixel watch restarting before it boots up and starts the factory reset. It should say “delete” after it starts booting.
If you want to factory reset your watch, you can do it. Simply swipe the Quick Settings panel, tap the Settings icon, scroll down to System, and tap the “Disconnect and Reset” option. From there, the next screen will tell you that you’re about to do a factory reset, and that you should actually perform this step from the Pixel Watch app.
Hey, maybe Wear OS 4 will let us easily move watches from phone to phone