Trouble connecting the iphone and apple watch after a phone version update

Hello, I need some help with my Apple watch. I recently updated my iphone model 12 to version 27.01. This resulted in the requirement to update my Apple Watch version (it is a model 8). When I tried to do that, the phone responded that it could not establish communications with the watch. I tried several times (also turning both on & off) to no avail. I decided to unpair the two, but now I cannot even connect to the watch because it wants to the update first and cannot communicate with it. So, at this point, my Apple Watch is not connected and will not work unless it is paired to the phone, which I cannot do. Any suggestions?, thanks!