Can’t set 24-Hour time on Watch Series 3 anymore

I have an iPhone 12 iOS 17.0.2 and a Watch Series 3 watchOS 8.8.1 that I recently had to reset and re-pair.

Now my Watch will not change to the 24-Hour format even though I change the toggle on my iPhone > Watch app > Clock > 24-Hour Time to ON.

I have tried unpairing and re-pairing; erasing the Watch and removing it from my Apple account; turning both devices off and on again and nothing seems to make it work!

I know Apple stopped pushing watchOS updates for the Series 3 devices but now my iPhone can’t set this particular configuration to my Watch. Configuring other settings works as expected.

As a last note, on my Watch in the Clock app settings, there’s no 24-Hour Time option - I can only find it in the iPhone Watch app.