Best Phone upgrade process - with watches paired?

[dmccombs]

I have 2 watches paired to my current iphone. I am getting a new iphone this year. I'd like to know the best process for upgrading the phone and end up with the 2 watches connected with their same setup/configurations.

1) I know I can unpair both watches, then upgrade the phone, then reinstall the 2 watches from their backups. If I do it this way, I probably have to re-pair bluetooth devices and some apps.

2) Is there an easier way of just upgrading the phone without unpairing and repairing the watches? I thought I read somewhere that with the recent IOS and WatchOS this could be done.

 

[deeddawg]

dunno about with two watches paired, but when I swapped phones last year I seem to remember the old-to-new phone process asked if I wanted to pull the watch pairing over as well.

 

[Jackbequickly]

You do not need to unpair your watches.

Just move the new phone close to the old one and let them do their thing.