my apple watch distance is way off

I still have the inaccuracy issue. My cross country ski distances are way off. I use watch only mode and leave the iPhone behind. I use run mode on the watch using Runkeeper app. The told distance recorded on the watch and subsequently synced with my phone is the same but way off. Should be 9.3km and recorded was 6.5km. On my phone when I open the Runkeeper app. Even though the total distance was 6.5km when I see the map of the route it is totally accurate. Also my splits are fine. Aka the splits show the full 9.3km broken down per km. It is clear to me the GPS in the watch is working fine but the Apple Watch build in function that Runkeeper uses is not.

I tried the native Apple Watch activity app and got the same results. From this very long discussion it appears this issue has been going on a long time. I just got my watch in December 2016 and is a series 2 version.

Has has anyone heard anything from Apple acknowledging the issue and when a fix is coming?

What you are saying doesn't make sense. The watch uses the GPS on the phone to determine distance, so it should be the same whether you read it from the watch or the phone.

It's your phone that is measuring the distance not the watch, unless you are in an area where there is a problem with location services the phone should read the right distance regardless of what app you are using, your watch has nothing to do with it, it's just telling you what your phone has measured.

If distances are wrong pace will be wrong too, that's how it is, it can't be changed.

I use Strava, my distances are identical.

I don't run, I cycle and walk, I don't live in a city. I often cycle down tree lined roads.

But oddly enough I went for a walk the other day with my son and my wife. I heard the ping announcing the completion of the first mile from all 3 watches with no more than a second between them all.

The watch doesn't get the GPS your phone does, are you sticking your phone somewhere you didn't before because you no longer think it's important.

A software bug would affect everyone equally I suspect. Is the watch tight enough on your wrist, do you get the same inaccuracies is you walk.

I've seen a few, but rumour has it they may have sold 2 million watches, if there was an inherent issue I'd expect more than the few who have reported this.

Look around, you'll find many reports of inconsistent distances... they all can't be user error.

And I'm pretty sure out of the millions of watches they've sold, a very very insignificant few are here reporting problems.

1. The Watch can only measure distance in one of two ways: it via GPS from the phone, or by estimating from your stride length and number of steps

2. If it uses the GPS on the phone, the the phone and the watch have the same data

3. It may be that the Workout app uses a different formal from (say) Runkeeper, and so comes up with different distances. In my case, the two apps are very close to each other but not identical

4. If, for some reason, the watch has no GPS data to work with (your phone isn't with you; there is no GPS reception because of buildings or trees), the watch will attempt to calculate your distance from your stride length and number of steps. Your stride length may vary quite substantially for different reasons (changing gradient, changing terrain underfoot, fatigue, injury, time of day ...) and so the watch calculation my be quite wrong

5. And, finally, the watch software is at version 1.0, and so may well need to be refined. Having said all that, mine seems pretty OK, but that might be luck

Please report your concerns at the Apple feedback pages (link below) - the more of us that do, the more likely Apple is to respond.

http://www.apple.com/feedback/