INTRO
I’m sure everyone has run into this: for some reason (eSIM, say) you bought a China-region Galaxy Watch, and once it arrived you found it wouldn’t connect to your Hong Kong (or other region) phone. When you try, you get this error:
This phone doesn’t support this watch.
Most of the solutions out there amount to flashing the phone/watch to another region’s firmware so they can connect, but that’s fairly difficult to pull off (and has its limits)
This article will show you how to connect a Samsung watch across regions (China–Hong Kong interoperability)
PREPARATION
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Galaxy Watch (here I’ll use a China-region Watch6 as the example)
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A Samsung phone (here I’ll use a Hong Kong One UI 5.1 device as the example)
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Samsung 智能穿戴 App (version 2.2.29.20012861) you can download it here
LET’S GO!
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Set your Samsung Galaxy Watch to the pairing-ready state (factory reset it)
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Uninstall Samsung 智能穿戴 and its related components from the phone (such as watch6manager, Wear OS by Google)
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Install the older version of Samsung 智能穿戴 (.20012861)
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Disconnect all internet connections (WLAN/cellular data), open the phone’s Bluetooth screen, and tap your Galaxy Watch to pair.
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Install the latest version of Samsung 智能穿戴 by any means; once you open it, you’ll find your Galaxy Watch under 已配对的设备 — just tap it to set it up.
TIPS
Because the China-region Galaxy Watch has Google services stripped out, you may get an error when copying your Google account. Just skip it.
HOW IT WORKS?
The principle is very simple: older versions of the wearable app have no pairing verification. We pair the watch using the older version, then connect to it with the newer version, and the watch and phone are interoperable between China and Hong Kong.
This is Chongxi, looking forward to seeing you next time.
Thanks for watching.
—Chongxi 2025-08-19
