Apple Watch underestimating distance walking and running after recalibrating

Hey - just for a test I tried using the Workoutdoors app and testing it with the Apple Watch and against the garmin. I have the Workoutdoors set to use the GPS data only. The results were crazy but I won't post them all here but just one from last night - the Workoutdoors with apple is wildly off (the top photo) and the Garmin is representative of what I acutally did.

According to Workoutdoors and Apple I walked further but had only .59km, Garmin has me at 0.64km which is very close to the actual distance I walked. My dog is afraid of walking in the dark so the walk was short, lol. I definitely think that we are both right in that there is an issue with the GPS.

Thank you for the reply. As I stated I have recalibrated and my data is up to date. I spoke with customer service, they could not resolve the issue during our phone conversation but I have an appointment in store.

I appreciate your time and again thank you for trying to help.

Cheers.

I always have my phone with me and the watch just has GPS. You should work for apple, these are all the questions the amazing service provider asked lol. I had re-calibrated, checked all of my settings to ensure that everything that was to be toggled on was before contacting anyone. The GPS is a little off when comparing it to other devices (Garmin Forerunner 265) but not significantly when overlapping the mapping routes. I have tested both on an oval track and get the same distance deviation with the Apple Watch - consistently off by at least .50km over 5km and almost a whole 1km over 10km. The Garmin was a little off, less than .05km on the track over 5km and 0.09 over 10km. I don't expect any device to be perfect but close would be nice. It seems that there is a real issue within the watch.

Unfortunately I can't, most folks I know are Garmin fans (or were until the new Connect update). I like you have suggested, think it might be an issue with the GPS on the watch. I will know for sure after the Genius Bar appointment. I do thank you for all of your insights though. I might not be so disappointed if it was over-estimating my runs - might boost my ego a bit with better pace times, but seriously I do appreciate your time.

I can appreciate that but they with the exception of one none are higher than 3 stories, most being 2 stories, if they were all highrise apartment buildings I could understand the variation but they aren't, the track I run on is in a rural area with very few buildings and the distance is still way off. I will see what the Apple folks say on Wednesday and report back - maybe it's time for an upgrade.

Thank you for responding, I do appreciate your time and consideration.

That was the first thing I went to see if I could fix the issue before coming on here or contacting apple. It did nothing to solve the problem.

You are making huge assumption that I limit accuracy - running/walking with Workoutdoors was just a test, it is not something that I use on a daily basis. I normally run and walk with my phone and use the native workout app.

I still have a significant discrepancy in my track runs when using the workout app and carrying my phone of around 1km in a 5km and at least 2km in a 10km.

Looking other online forums it seems that there are others with this issue as well.

I spoken with apple support about all of this and all was done properly, I have done everything I could to ensure that the data was being collected accurately and the watch was calibrated in a wide-open space in clear skies. This is why I have an appointment in store, they could not find or fix the issue remotely. I have been wearing an Apple Watch since the very first version came out. I am now on my third, the series 8, my previous 5 was great.

It was an issue with the watch and I was able to get a new upgrade and it is working great. I love apple customer service.