Proximity of iPhone to watch

Hello,

for a lot of apps you don’t need to be close to your iPhone, the activity app is one of them. If you have an Apple Watch with cellular more apps will be supported when you are away from your iPhone.

-Drake

If you have a GPS only Apple Watch, then the Apple Watch mostly needs internet access, which when you are at home can be your home WiFi network.

But some things, such as SMS/MMS texting requires the iPhone. Phone calls, IF YOU HAVE WiFi Calling enabled, can also happen connected to your home WiFi, but away from home, you need your iPhone.

The Bluetooth range between your iPhone and your Apple Watch is such that you should be able to maintain a Bluetooth connection within a moderately sized woodframed home.

If you wish to get accurate information on your activities, for example the distance or time walked, then you will want to carry your phone with you. Otherwise the watch appears to provide inaccurate and/or inconsistent information on activities. Even when carrying the iPhone, the data can be somewhat off but it is worse without it. You will likely find that over time the data collected may also cause the activity related data to be incorrect. For some reason Apple developers thought it would be helpful to count only the data during 'brisk' walks. Data will not be counted as Exercise if the Watch thinks you are not walking briskly - whatever that means. To fix that issue temporarily, the 'calibration' can be reset under the Watch app on the iPhone. In the app look for the entry for Privacy.....Reset Fitness Calibration Data. I walk several miles every day over a measured course and find I need to reset the calibration about once per week. To help those of us who wish to measure consistent and accurate data regarding their activity, Apple needs to allow users to disable the Brisk walk functionality. You may also see differences in your data after software updates. I generally find it useful to power the watch and phone devices down and back up after those events. For a cross check on the accuracy I often carry a pedometer which can be purchased for about 20 dollars or so to compare the data.

No problem! I’m here to help.

Use your Apple Watch when your iPhone is not nearby – Apple Support