I haven't had an issue like this so I wanted to try a couple of things because I had an idea that I thought I might be able to test while reading your post. I don't have my watch with me, but my first thought was, it sounds like behavior you might see if the watch wasn't connected to the phone. I opened my Wearable app and tried to refresh my Galaxy Watch 4 without it being on or connected. Everything works for a long time, showing a spinning busy indicator, and for a minute I thought it would just go on and on, but it finally failed with a message, Try Again. This sounds a little like what you describe but I think we need more information.
A couple of questions.
Are you using the Samsung Wearable app, one of the watch face apps from the Play Store or something else?
What device and what watch do you have?
Does the app say/show connected or recently synced when you go to your watch tab in the app?
If you wait, do you eventually get any kind of failed notification, or it just sits on that mostly blank screen until you close the app?
Have you found any work around? Restarting the watch, restarting the phone, standing on one leg looking east at the top of the hour?
The only other thing I can think would be needing to clear the cache on the watch. Gemini says you can follow these instructions to complete that task.
To clear your Galaxy Watch cache, open Settings > Apps > App list, select the app, then choose Storage > Clear cache to clear a specific app's cache, or swipe up to open the recent apps, and tap the "Close all" icon to close all recently opened apps and clear their cache. For older models, you may also find "Memory > Clean now" under Battery and device care in the Settings app to clear the watch's system memory.
Clear individual app cache
This method is useful if a specific app is causing problems.
- On your Galaxy Watch, open the Settings app.
- Navigate to Apps.
- Find and select the app you want to clear the cache for.
Clear recent app cache (for models that support it)
This method can help if your watch is slow or lagging.
- From your watch's Home screen, swipe up to open the Recent apps screen.
- Tap the Close all icon (often looks like two overlapping squares or a broom) to close all recently opened apps and clear their cache.
Clear memory/system cache (for older models or for overall performance)
Some models offer a way to clear the watch's overall memory.
- Open the Settings app on your watch.
- Go to Battery and device care.
- Tap on Memory.
- Tap the Clean now button.
Let us know what you find and we'll have more advice.