Xcode 27.0, watchOS 27.2, macOS 27.2. Re-pairing an Apple Watch Ultra 2 via Device Hub (File ▸ Pair Nearby Device…) completes successfully — remotepairingd logs setupManualPairing succeeded — but the watch never reconnects afterward: no verifyManualPairing, no _remotepairing._tcp Bonjour advertisement, and CoreDevice never creates a device record for it. devicectl shows the watch as unavailable, then it disappears from the list entirely.
Compare: pairing an iPhone the same way also closes the setup channel within ~40 ms, but the iPhone reconnects ~1.3 s later via verifyManualPairing and becomes available. The watch never does.
Interesting finding: if the Mac's pairing listener is kept open past the point where Device Hub's sheet would normally close it, the watch does come back — but it requests a brand-new pair-setup instead of verifying the one it just completed. It loops: setup → close → setup.
Already tried without success: restarting the watch/iPhone, Developer Mode off/on, Bluetooth on/off, Wi-Fi toggles, iPhone on USB, restarting CoreDeviceService and remotepairingd, Reset Location & Privacy on the iPhone, updating watchOS (27.0 → 27.2, same behavior).
Full write-up with sanitized logs, timeline and everything tried: https://github.com/kisnner26/watchos27-pairing-bug
Filed as Feedback Assistant FB24924229. If anyone else hits this exact symptom (pairing succeeds, watch never reconnects — different from the PIN never appearing, or the watch never showing up at all, which are other variants reported elsewhere), please share your report ID here so Apple can link them.