Apple Watch accuracy of distance & pace?

Apple uses a high-resolution display, which drains the battery faster. In order to keep battery life reasonable, they reduce the frequency of taking GPS fixes. Most watches on the market are 1-second intervals while Apple's frequency "varies." The definition of that isn't specified anywhere, but it seems that it's usually about 10 seconds (maybe it increases when it thinks it needs to). It probably uses the accelerometer to interpolate in between fixes. This is inherent to the watch, and all of the apps work roughly the same on it. I tried the native workouts app, Nike Run Club, Strava, and one other on mine.

The end result is that the Apple Watch does okay if you run a constant speed in a straight line. It smooths over turns too much (throws off pace and distance), and reacts really slowly to pace changes.

I bought an Apple Watch 5 a couple months ago and wore it at the same time as a Garmin, and they'd agree after several minutes of a constant pace (sometimes). I also tried wearing it around a parking lot near my house. The Garmin was consistently 0.22 mi each lap. The Apple Watch was anywhere between 0.2 and 0.3 for each lap.

My opinion is that the Apple Watch is the nicest cell phone extension smart watch on the market, but for running, it's really more a fitness tracker than a running watch.

I’ve got an Apple Watch 3. I’ll probably go with a garmin music or something next but it’s not bad. I actually have the opposite issue. It consistently measures runs slightly long compared to garmins. After measuring runs on map my run it appears the garmins consistently measure runs slightly short and the Apple Watch slightly long. But both are within 1-1.5% of the actual distance.

So I’ve started running again, my father is and always has been a solid runner (done many half & full marathons) and can definitely run faster & for longer than I can. We’ve been running together a bit, either side by side or one in front, he uses a Garmin watch to track his runs while I’m using Nike run club through my Apple Watch (connected to my iPhone) and we always have different results, mine is always less distance and at a slower pace.

Eg. Tonight NRC said 6km at 5’15” average while his Garmin said 6.2km at 5’06 average

While I know he can run faster & further it doesn’t make sense if we run together & start and stop at the same spots

Anyone else use an Apple Watch & encounter this? Are there other Apple Watch apps that are more accurate?

https://trackeasy.fun/usps/

https://showbox.tools/

https://speedtest.vet/

Check the GPS path, one of the watches will have some strange route (going through a building or cutting corners).