How do I stop my iPhone from trying to pair with my Apple Watch?

Have had this problem too ( iPhone XPro Max - from new ), and have never owned an Apple Watch, no one anywhere near me has one. Very frustrating and exceedingly annoying!

Asking for help at an Apple Store was useless. Dismissed as “the MUST be an Apple Watch near you!”

Something I noticed though, I have an iPad Pro, and it’s when my iPhone is within a few meters of it that the problem occurs! When I’m away from my iPad, the issue doesn’t happen?

(iPhone XS Max: iOS 17.6.2 - iPad Pro (12.9-inch) (3rd generation): iPadOS 17.6.1)

Not seen any other posts mentioning this connection.

To reiterate; an Apple Watch has never been installed on the iPhone. I don’t own one, never have, and no-one anywhere near me has one! This behaviour only started happening after an update ( I think iOS 16.x.x)

I'm experiencing the same issue. During the day at work, I don’t get any 'Connect Apple Watch' notifications. But when I’m home and using my iPad, the notification repeatedly pops up on my iPhone. This started right after I updated to iOS 18.1. Hopefully, Apple will notice this issue and fix it soon.

I got an iPhone 16 Pro Max two days ago and a day after I got it and set it up, I started getting this annoying notification all the time. I don't own an Apple Watch. While I was checking things simultaneously with my old phone (iPhone XS), I came to the idea that my new iPhone was somehow thinking my old iPhone was an Apple Watch, so I tested it. I turned off my old iPhone and the notifications stopped... after some time, I turned on the old iPhone again, and the notifications to pair an Apple Watch started to come again. I've kept that phone off and haven't had the notifications since then. Maybe I should have just disabled the bluetooth but I don't need that phone anymore for now. I have an iPad Pro too (with bluetooth on), but somehow this device wasn't messing things up.

No watch listed... never had one... still getting the message - over and over...

Of course that’s apples. Typical go to move. Reboot reset , redo just make us nuts .

Anyway thank you Jeff Donald your suggestion worked for me if only as a temporary work around until the issue is resolved

Same thing over here!

I don’t see Jeff Donald’s response or recommendation what did he tell you to do!!?

Have you reported the issue to Apple?

I did a force restart on my iPad, and the notification on my iPhone stopped. I've observed it for a few days now, and it hasn't happened again.

Option "Watch" does not appear in the huge list of apps. I do not have the watch apps in my system

getting the same and desperate with Apple.