Apple Watch Activity distance dispute

[Thisonepotato]

Afternoon all.

I am a keen runner and log runs with my Apple Watch 6, it is perfect. My wife (and son) came out for their first run with me today to break them in. A nice (and confirmed 2km) loop. My wife is logging with my older Apple Watch 4 (factory reset etc).

When looking at the data my watch shows I ran 2km spot on as usual. Hers shows she ran 2.5km.

Whats going on? When I ran using her Series 4 this particular loop recorded as 2km.

Any hints on what is going on?

[wibble cb]

It’s counting steps, hers are smaller, so it thinks the distance travelled is greater?

[tim0409]

The steps shouldn't impact on the distance as it will use GPS to measure distance. I've found that if you carry your phone with you it adds in additional steps for some reason. It's particularly annoying when I cycle and I take my phone with me, it records steps even though it knows I am cycling. Apparently it's a known fault.

[thebraketester]

Have you compared the GPS maps?

[anonymous-user]

My Apple Watch 5 (simcard type) is pretty accurate in the open.
But is hopelessly inaccurate under trees or on twisty terrain.
When doing park runs in the good old days, my Garmin is spot on. Whereas the Apple Watch is all over the place. My old Apple Watch 3 was the same..

[Thisonepotato]

Thanks for the repsonses.

Neither of us had our phones. The maps are identical. I am stumped.

Will go out again tomorrow and compare again.

[dickymint]

Thisonepotato said:

Thanks for the repsonses.

Neither of us had our phones. The maps are identical. I am stumped.

Will go out again tomorrow and compare again.

Take her with you but swap watches?

[bigandclever]

Reset the calibration (which may have happened already since you said ‘factory reset’) and then calibrate it again, which very broadly means doing a 20 minute walk/run in the open.

[Alucidnation]

Interesting topic.

We do an early morning walk thats around 2km.

My wife has an Apple Watch 5, but i just have my iphone in my back pocket.

Her watch normally shows a greater distance covered, even though we walk the same path.

I put it down to the differences in tech, but it appears it could be the watch GPS?

[wibble cb]

tim0409 said:

The steps shouldn't impact on the distance as it will use GPS to measure distance. I've found that if you carry your phone with you it adds in additional steps for some reason. It's particularly annoying when I cycle and I take my phone with me, it records steps even though it knows I am cycling. Apparently it's a known fault.

My observation was based on my wife and I, we both carry iPhones when out walking together, yet her step count and distance are usually greater than mine, she is 5ft 1 , I am 6ft 5....we put it down to I the iphone health app being a bit cr@p!

[arnie12]

I run 40 miles a week and used an Apple Watch 4 for the first year, it was pretty obvious the GPS was hit and miss. Many races coming in short and inaccurate. Bought a cheap garmin 235 for £20 and it’s a huge improvement.

The Apple Watch is great for most things and if you are not that worried about data accuracy I would just accept that. If you are really interested in the stats behind your run I would grab a cheap garmin (or other gps branded watch) specifically for running.

All that said I have heard the GPS+Cell versions of the Apple Watch are meant to be slightly more accurate.