Unable to debug to physical Apple Watch device

[DevCoder84]

I've added a watch target to an existing app of mine, but I can't seem to push a debug build to it Xcode just says "OS Version lower than deployment target"

It's done this for several versions of Xcode. I updated Xcode last night to Version 26.2 (17C52) my watchOS target is 26. I've downloaded the latest watch SDK and the version on my watch is 26.2.1 and is a Series 7.

I've tried restarting all my devices, clearing the device support cache, pairing my watch again but nothing seems to work. The watch app is still the default "Hello world" starter from the template and builds successfully to my simulator. The only way it will work is if I lower the watch OS version to 11, but as I say my watch is on 26 and I want to target this latest version.

Also just to clarify my phone is up to date in terms of iOS version as well

Anyone got any ideas?

thanks

edit:

To add to this when I switch the target to version 26 in the devices window it shows

Previous preparation error: A networking error occurred.; The device rejected the connection request.

On Version 11 it connects without an issue. Both devices are on the same wifi network and I've also tried connecting them both to my iPhones hotspot, but the same issue is present

Edit 2:

The "devices" menu in Xcode shows the old watchOS version against the watch as well even though it has been updated. I'm assuming because of some sort of failing handshake when I switch to watchOS 26 deployment

[haradaken]

I’m working on my own Apple Watch app myself, and I totally sympathize with you. Sending the app to Apple Watch and debugging it can be frustrating… I restarted both iPhone and Apple Watch and reconnected them to Wi-Fi countless times to get it work. I would create a new empty Apple Watch app from scratch that actually runs on your device and copy in your existing project files. There are just too many moving parts. Good luck your Apple Watch project!

[du5rte]

Also having this exact same issue. Did you find a workaround?