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AT&T Apple Watch paired with Verizon iPhone?

PabloHerrera

PabloHerrera

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 24, 2011
18
18
South Dakota
I purchased a series 4 Apple Watch on device payments through AT&T. I have Verizon and AT&T iPhones and would like to pair it to my Verizon iPhone, instead of the AT&T phone. Would I have any problem doing that? I understand I need to activate the cellular connection since I purchased the Watch on device payments. But would it make any difference which phone it’s connected to?
 
You are restricted in that your Watch must be paired to the same carrier and post-paid billing account of your paired iPhone. It would be best to just activate your Watch on AT&T to stay within your restrictions of activating your Watch on AT&T.

Dave
 
The watches aren't tied to a network. If you buy one at an AT&T store it will work with any iPhone regardless of carrier.
Otherwise, we would have had to specify our carrier when we ordered from Apple.
 
I've gotten different answers on it depending on who I ask. I spoke with an AT&T rep earlier today, who told me that I would be able to pair it with my Verizon phone. Others have said it has to be paired with my AT&T phone no matter what.
 
That makes no sense. They don’t sell different watches for each carrier. Every watch works with all 4 carriers.
[doublepost=1537493024][/doublepost]Just read that you’re making payments on it... maybe that affects things but still don’t know how it would.

The watch was boxed in China and shipped here. When it was built there was not a specific carrier in mind. When you open and start the pairing process with your Verizon phone, there can’t be anything in the watch that will not allow it...
 
Scott-n-Houston said:
The watches aren't tied to a network. If you buy one at an AT&T store it will work with any iPhone regardless of carrier.
Otherwise, we would have had to specify our carrier when we ordered from Apple.
Click to expand...
Ahh but there is the rub. The OP but it on a payment plan from AT&T so if it does not end up active on an AT&T Wearable plan, they are breaking the contract with AT&T.

Your comments are quite correct for a Watch purchased directly from Apple, however again the OP purchased from AT&T.

Dave
 
dave006 said:
Ahh but there is the rub. The OP but it on a payment plan from AT&T so if it does not end up active on an AT&T Wearable plan, they are breaking the contract with AT&T.

Your comments are quite correct for a Watch purchased directly from Apple, however again the OP purchased from AT&T.

Dave
Click to expand...

But again, how would AT&T know? How could they stop it?
The watch doesn't have anything in its hardware or software that would stop it from being paired with his Verizon phone... And if AT&T notices that it was never added to his plan, what can they do?? Nothing.

I think he's fine to buy from AT&T and use however he wants...

Think about it... if you bought from AT&T and decided you didn't want the watch and some idiot wanted to pay you $1000 for the watch to use on some other network, you could sell it and nothing would happen.
 
That's what I was thinking too. I wouldn't think they'd care if I were paying for the watch, which phone I had it paired to.
 
Scott-n-Houston said:
Why wouldn't it work? Apple didn't build a watch specifically for a network. The watch doesn't know what store it was sold from.... the network doesn't know where you bought your watch.
Click to expand...
Maybe since your watch has an AT&T phone number they could prevent it from forwarding to the Verizon iPhone number.
 
I was under the impression for the esim to work on the watch (and thus cellular service), the phone and the watch had to be on the same cellular network.
 
If it did work they would have different numbers since the watch normally has the same number as your phone.

You can pair it with your phone but cellular probably won’t work unless you also have a different phone plan that has the ability to add a wearable, and even then it’s probably a crapshoot.
 
I purchased my series 3 from Verizon last year and just recently switched to At&T. The cellular portion of my watch did not work once my Verizon service was terminated. I had to purchase the plan from AT&T for my watch to work. My watch DID work with the bluetooth connection to my AT&T phone, but cellular did not work until I purchased the plan.
 
Yes. Of course you need to purchase the plan. Once that is done, any new watch should work with any carrier.

If you switch a watch to a new carrier, there is some work to do, but it will work.
There’s no phone number tied to the watch or IMEI number.
 
They need to be on the same carrier since it's does number sharing. Here's the info from apple.com/support.
 

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PabloHerrera said:
That's what I was thinking too. I wouldn't think they'd care if I were paying for the watch, which phone I had it paired to.
Click to expand...
Here is what you agreed to with AT&T for your watch purchase on an installment plan.

*INSTALLMENT PLANS: For eligible feature phones, tablets, wearables & other smart devices only. Excludes smartphones. Divides device retail cost/price into monthly installments. Requires well-qualified credit & 20-month 0% APR installment agreement. Service: Eligible postpaid monthly service required (voice and/or data based on device type) and is extra.

If service is canceled, remaining installment agmt balance due. Activation/Upgrade Fee: up to $45/line. Restocking: If returned within 14 days, fee up to $45 applies. Example: Retail price of $300 will be $15 per month for 20 months. Limits: Purchase limits (as low as 2 installment agreements), eligibility, credit approval & other restr's apply (see your Retail Installment Agmt).

Dave
 
Zexel said:
They need to be on the same carrier since it's does number sharing. Here's the info from apple.com/support.
Click to expand...

The watch will use whatever carrier you set it up for out of the box and it has to be the same as your phone, yes.

So, just because he bought the watch from AT&T, doesn't mean he can't set it up on the Verizon network with his Verizon phone, by adding it and paying for it on his Verizon plan.
There is NOTHING in the watch telling it that it has to be on an AT&T network when you take it out of the box. So just because it was bought through AT&T, it can now be associated with any carrier. So if you have a T Mobile phone, this watch could be on T Mobile along with that phone...

This post from apple is specifying that you can't have a phone on Verizon and sign up the watch on AT&T... That's not what he's asking to do though. The OP is simply paying for the hardware of the watch on AT&T, but not trying to put the watch on AT&T's network.
 
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