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If you are giving or selling your Apple Watch, make sure that it has been unpaired from your iPhone before handing it over as this will prevent Activation Lock from taking effect and prevent someone else from pairing it with their own iPhone.
1. Go to Settings
Before giving away or selling an Apple Watch to charity or someone else, it's essential that it is unpaired and reset first. You can do this either through the Watch app on your iPhone, or directly on the device itself; either way it should be quick and simple.
On your iPhone's Home Screen, select "My Watch." Here, you will see all of the Apple watches paired to it; select the one you'd like to unpair and reset before tapping "Unpair Apple Watch."
If it is a cellular-model Apple Watch, you will be asked whether to keep or cancel its cellular plan. Once unpaired, its settings will be reset so it can pair with either another iCloud account or iPhone in no time at all.
Once on the Watch, locate and tap on the Gear-shaped Settings app, and follow its on-screen instructions to factory reset. Alternately, the Watch app on your iPhone can also perform this step but this won't create a backup and leave Activation Lock intact; these steps will completely wipe all media, data, and settings from it while leaving Activation Lock intact - to unlock this, use either your iPhone or iCloud to accomplish that goal.
2. Erase all content & settings
If you plan on selling, giving away, or otherwise disposing of your Apple Watch it is wise to remove all media, data and settings first. This can be accomplished either using its connected iPhone or Apple Watch itself by following these simple steps - this removes Activation Lock for safe pairing by future users and prevents accidental pairing with their phones.
First, ensure the watch is powered off. Next, open the Watch app on your iPhone and choose "All Watches" as its primary page. From here, find and select your Apple Watch that you're unpairing from by pressing its orange "i" button; this will provide some options, including "Erase all content and settings."
Tap this option and follow the on-screen instructions to factory reset your Apple Watch. It will backup any newly added information, remove Bluetooth accessory pairings and erase your passcode before restoring to factory settings. This process could take several minutes while restarting occurs during this period - although your Watch may appear nonresponsive during resetting as this process completes; once complete though, your Apple Watch will be completely erased ready to be paired with an iPhone again.
3. Reset
Before selling or recycling an Apple Watch, it's advisable to clear its data. Failing to do this could allow someone else to pair your Watch to another iPhone, giving them access to your iCloud account and your text messages. One fast way of doing this is through iCloud by selecting My Devices > Remove; although this process takes several steps it is an efficient method that prevents your Watch being tracked if it goes missing. Activation Lock will also be disabled which prevents trackers from tracking its whereabouts if it goes missing!
Unpairing an Apple Watch resets it back to factory settings. This includes wiping all content and settings off the watch as well as unpairing any Bluetooth accessory pairings, deleting Apple Pay cards and wiping its passcode. To restore an Apple Watch from factory settings you can use previous backups on your iPhone.
As soon as you unpair your Apple Watch, a backup of its data is automatically created on your iPhone. You can also manually back up using iTunes, Finder or the Watch app on iPhone - and if setting up on another iPhone than initially anticipated you may choose that backup over that stored on an older phone.
