Delete Apple Watch apps to free space for update

Launch the iOS Watch app on your iPhone.

Tap My Watch in the bottom-left corner of the screen.

Scroll down to the "Installed on Apple Watch" list and tap the app that you want to uninstall.

Toggle the switch next to Show App on Apple Watch to the OFF position.

Here are some other ways to Free-Up Storage:

For songs, see the "Remove music from Apple Watch" section in:

Add music to Apple Watch - Apple Support

and for pictures, see the "Limit photo storage on Apple Watch section in:

Choose a photo album and manage storage on Apple Watch - Apple Support

Also, try unpairing and pairing your watch again and restoring from the backup just created in the unpairing process. This deletes all temp and corrupted files and re-indexes the file system. This should result in no loss of data and in some cases can free a lot of storage.

Unpair and erase your Apple Watch - Apple Support

Set up your Apple Watch - Apple Support

Also see:

If you don’t have enough space to update your Apple Watch - Apple Support

Screen time enabled and no “show app” switch available on any of the apps. I could eliminate most of the apps that were installed on my watch because I don’t use them on the watch, only my phone. There doesn’t seem to be any way to delete the photos app, which would free up plenty of space for this update.

Unpairing and restoring as a new watch seems to have worked. The download completed and it is now “preparing” which has been in the same spot for about 30 minutes but, at least it seems to be working for the security update. Many thanks for your quick and helpful responses!

The show app switch does not exist any more. What has replaced it?

It's still there,do you have screen time enabled?.

Try this;

Unpair your Apple Watch via the Watch app on your iPhone.

Then Re-pair your Apple Watch again,this usually frees up

enough storage space to update your watch.And without any loss of data.