I ran with my watch (and my phone) yesterday for the first time. I also had my Nike + app running at the same time for comparison. The watch was WAY OFF BASE. Calculations for distance and pace weren't even close. Will this be calibrated over time??

I went through 2 Fuel bands. I run the same router 3 times a week. It was never very accurate for me.

I don't have an apple watch so I cannot speak on that.

I'd advise doing the same. Run the same route 3 - 5 times. If the watch is in the same ball park every time it may be accurate? If your fuel band was like mine it will deviate enough that you will know it's not a very precise tool.

A perhaps better test might be using the Watch in workout mode and the phone as a pedometer. I have read that the phone in your pocket will approximate steps and distance better than a wrist worn device. As I understand it, the complex sensors in the phone (and in the watch minus the magnetometer) are able to accurately estimate your stride length which will obviously impact the distance you cover with each step. The wrist devices are not as accurate even with same hardware. SUPPOSEDLY Apple is taking advantage of the integration with the phone to use GPS (and perhaps even the comotion data int he phone???) to compare the watch calcs with the GPS calcs for distance. This would then allow the accelerometer to better approximate how much distance you cover in a step. And by choosing walk vs run in workout, again, its probably giving it a better calc of stride length and hence distance for you. To get accurate data here, considering how you might swing your arm differently for various walks and runs, I could easily see taking many workouts.

And i think it could also be the case that the reason the GPS apps on the iPhone report different distances than the watch initially is because the watch isn't reporting GPS data. Its just using GPS data to calibrate the accelerometer but distance calcs presented are still based not he accelerometer. And without many runs/walks, its hard to imagine it coming very very close to GPS unless you run on a flat track with avg strides.

In regards to the indoor runs, such as treadmill, when i use my iPhone it reads perfectly the mileage through Nike run app and very accurate with the mileage on the treadmill so why is it that the Iwatch doesn't do the same?. There is no GPS here and it should act as a pedometer right? The main reason I bought the Iwatch was for sports in general so I don't have to have my phone on view all the time. If thats not working properly then I rather just keep using my phone apps.Is there any indication of this changing? I too, really want to keep my Iwatch.

Glad someone else mentioned that 10% number. When I run with my iPhone and my Apple Watch my watch is always approximately 10% low on mileage. I wear a Garmin on courses with very well known distances. I've now done 35 miles and the watch doesn't seem to be improving.

On the very first run I did (without my iPhone) the value was 10% above the actual mileage.

I really wish there was a way to tell the watch "this was a 5 mile run" and it would also learn from that information. I'll keep running with my watch and hope it gets a bit more accurate before marathon season gets here in the fall.

My watch was way off yesterday, so I brought my phone (again) today and within 5 minutes it had my heart rate at 170 and no pace registered for the first mile. So I turned on the Nike Run app which worked fine. The watch never registered heart rate or pace during my run. When I finished, the watch app reflected the 3.5 miles, a 10.35 pace ( a minute faster than the Nike), a similar heart rate, but only 27 calories and recorded no activity on the exercise ring. I've also had problems with it dropping the paired headphones. There seems to be quite a few bugs. Can't wait to hear what you learn.

This is exactly what my question is. How come the Nike+ App on my phone can relatively accurately measure my runs on a treadmill, but no other apps are capable of coming close. I would have thought that was the first thing they got right on the Watch as it is ideally suited to that kind of tracking without GPS.

I guess the second question is, how come the latest Nike+ Running App, which does have Apple Watch support and recently added heart rate monitoring to the mix, does not implement that same "calculated pedometer" in the Watch directly? A few days ago I put the phone down on the treadmill and ran with the app on my Watch, but it recorded ZERO activity until I picked up the phone and placed it in my pocket.

Just my two cents worth to this thread. This spring with my iphone (no watch yet) my accuracy on my walking measurements on the iPhone health app dropped about the time I went to iOS 9.x, previously with iOS 8.x it was fairly accurate and with the update I was loosing .2 per mile walked in precise known distances of walking around mile or one mile increments out on street.

Fast forward with my purchased of apple watch a few days ago. After wearing for first walk the combination of the two had my accuracy back to close for distances I knew about. So it seems iOS 9.x and your data on iPhone were linked to one having to have a watch paired to phone, not sure what they changed from 8.x to 9.x but there was a change. Needless to say happy numbers are good again for me (not the issues above). Also I am using watch OS 2.01 for the record.

russ jacobson

Report your issues to Apple. This may help speed up a fix(es).

https://www.apple.com/feedback/watch.html

George

My experience with the Nike app, compared to multiple Garmin GPS watches, is that the Nike app is way off. However, as I understand it, both the Apple Watch and the Nike+ app use the iPhone's GPS.

Check that the pace was not in miles rather than kilometres

Something weird going on then - mine is spot on for pace, distance etc.