Altimeter 1st Gen VS. Always On Altimeter 2nd Gen?

[HappyDude20]

The latest AW 6th Gen and SE both state they have an Always On Altimeter.

The S3 just lists an Altimeter.

Aside from the sassy answer of it always being on, I’m wondering what differences there are and just how much more accurate the Always on Altimeter is.

I’m the guy that takes the stairs instead of the elevator so this alone may motivate me to upgrade, even though the S3 I have is no slouch and works wonderfully.

 

[wilberforce]

I asked about this with the thought of upgrading from S5 to S6, and the consensus seems to be that it is not very accurate and not worth it:

[Series 6] What is up with the altimeter, too many hits & misses

Come on Apple, really? -7m +/- 100m....LOL what's most annoying is that this is AFTER a resumed outdoor walk activity which was paused 15min before. During the first part it did ok with elevation: 89m +/- 5m which is spot on for that location. Pause and resume were performed in the same spot...

forums.macrumors.com

Series 6 Altimeter - real world experiences

I am contemplating upgrading from the S5 to S6, maybe for the brighter AOD outside, but perhaps also for the improved altimeter. I do a lot of hiking and mountain biking, and elevation gain is an important metric for me. I use various tracking apps, including Workoutdoors (first class app)...

forums.macrumors.com

I would love to hear from someone that thinks it is great.

 

[HappyDude20]

I asked about this with the thought of upgrading from S5 to S6, and the consensus seems to be that it is not very accurate and not worth it:

[Series 6] What is up with the altimeter, too many hits & misses

Come on Apple, really? -7m +/- 100m....LOL what's most annoying is that this is AFTER a resumed outdoor walk activity which was paused 15min before. During the first part it did ok with elevation: 89m +/- 5m which is spot on for that location. Pause and resume were performed in the same spot...

forums.macrumors.com

Series 6 Altimeter - real world experiences

I am contemplating upgrading from the S5 to S6, maybe for the brighter AOD outside, but perhaps also for the improved altimeter. I do a lot of hiking and mountain biking, and elevation gain is an important metric for me. I use various tracking apps, including Workoutdoors (first class app)...

forums.macrumors.com

I would love to hear from someone that thinks it is great.

Thank you for taking the time to find these posts.

Stair climbing is a big deal for me. I was hoping the new Altimeter would be revolutionary.

I’ll begin reading these links/threads now.

 

[gollum]

This is not directed at OP but after skimming threads in links its typical of some Apple fans and their expectations.
I just bought a AW6 last week and put the altimeter on my watch face at work as a professional pilot and was amazed at how accurate it was. At first I thought is just going on GPS but it's also going on actual pressure and correcting for it, meaning it takes into account pressure being higher or lower than standard. It was within 10 feet of published airport elevation taking into account that published number is only valid at a very specific location on airport called the Airport Reference Point (ARP). Another surprise was when I was descending from cruise, this thing at times was within 20 feet of the cabin altitude descending which is the only thing it could sense.
So if people are looking for this to keep track for every foot riding a bike or climbing stairs it may not meet their unreasonable expectations but for one of many features on something strapped to their wrist for $400, it's amazing and pretty damn accurate.

 

[StumpyBloke]

It is absolute garbage. When the weather is grey cold and wet where I live invariably it can be 90 or so meters out.

 

[wilberforce]

This is not directed at OP but after skimming threads in links its typical of some Apple fans and their expectations.
I just bought a AW6 last week and put the altimeter on my watch face at work as a professional pilot and was amazed at how accurate it was. At first I thought is just going on GPS but it's also going on actual pressure and correcting for it, meaning it takes into account pressure being higher or lower than standard. It was within 10 feet of published airport elevation taking into account that published number is only valid at a very specific location on airport called the Airport Reference Point (ARP). Another surprise was when I was descending from cruise, this thing at times was within 20 feet of the cabin altitude descending which is the only thing it could sense.
So if people are looking for this to keep track for every foot riding a bike or climbing stairs it may not meet their unreasonable expectations but for one of many features on something strapped to their wrist for $400, it's amazing and pretty damn accurate.

I assume this is in an aircraft without a pressurized cabin? Sorry if an ignorant question; I assume it needs to read the actual external air barometric pressure.
Many thanks for the positive report. (Also thanks to others for negative reports).

 

[gollum]

I assume this is in an aircraft without a pressurized cabin? Sorry if an ignorant question; I assume it needs to read the actual external air barometric pressure.
Many thanks for the positive report. (Also thanks to others for negative reports).

No pressurized. It would read what it actually sensed for example 4,000 ft inside cabin while the A/C was say 25,000.

 

[EugW]

This is not directed at OP but after skimming threads in links its typical of some Apple fans and their expectations.
I just bought a AW6 last week and put the altimeter on my watch face at work as a professional pilot and was amazed at how accurate it was. At first I thought is just going on GPS but it's also going on actual pressure and correcting for it, meaning it takes into account pressure being higher or lower than standard. It was within 10 feet of published airport elevation taking into account that published number is only valid at a very specific location on airport called the Airport Reference Point (ARP). Another surprise was when I was descending from cruise, this thing at times was within 20 feet of the cabin altitude descending which is the only thing it could sense.
So if people are looking for this to keep track for every foot riding a bike or climbing stairs it may not meet their unreasonable expectations but for one of many features on something strapped to their wrist for $400, it's amazing and pretty damn accurate.

The question for a lot of people though is how much better it is than the Series 5. Looking around at various threads the Series 5 was already OK in comparison to Series 6, at least when talking about beginning and ending elevations of a hike. How often is the Series 5 measuring altitude? How much more fine grained is the Series 6? Does it really matter?

It's not necessary for most hikers to know the exact elevation within 1 metre every second. And even if they did need that information, the Apple Watch isn't going to be able to accurately provide that data anyway, whether it's a Series 6 or a 5 or a 4 or an SE.

Regarding this question, the problem is that there seems to be very little out there in terms of in-depth Watch altimeter reviews, and even fewer directly comparing the 6 vs the 5.

Personally I find the altimeter to be a much more interesting feature than the O2 sensor all the reviewers are focusing on. It appears the O2 sensor is too unreliable to be used for anything where O2 readings would actually provide useful information, even as a "wellness" measure, whereas hikers and bikers can most definitely make use of altimeter information even when the elevation readings are off by say 35 metres at the end of a workout. What's also important to note is altimeter readings can be "corrected" using third party databases to match up with your GPS/altimeter data. You can't correct O2 readings from a third party database.

 

[michaelb5000]

I am guessing I posted in those previous threads. I think the always on altimeter is a great and a major upgrade from how the S3 worked. Both being able to put elevation as a complication on the watch face if you want, to significantly better tracking of elevation gained ie "floors climbed" as an health metric. I continue to believe that most of those complaints that say it doesn't work that well seem to be related to "initial" position error, and not tracking of elevation changes. So not necessarily an error with the always on altimeter. I have seen the issue of initial position or my home elevation being off, and there isn't an obvious way to calibrate or reset that (I have a working theory that changing your initial position by a few miles, or maybe your elevation by 100+/- feet; will cause that reset, but have only done this once so far since this error is rare for me).

As an example, like the OP, I track floors climbed every day. I have a 46 day streak of doing at least 25 floors a day. I could never manage to maintain these streaks with the S3 because it would inconsistently measure floors in ways I could never fully solve. So running up and down stairs with the S3 didn't always track those floors gained. I basically never see that with the S6 (I did have this problem once out of the 80 or so days with the S6 when I was traveling out of state); so if I climb stairs or hills with the S6 I get credit. As an example, I just came in from outside and I walked up and down my hill 7 times, and got credit for 21 floors, which is exactly right (I tracked this using Workoutdoors so I can even see how WOD is measuring each hill climb in terms of the top and the bottom).

As a large complication (worth the price of admission IMO):

 

[EugW]

I am guessing I posted in those previous threads. I think the always on altimeter is a great and a major upgrade from how the S3 worked. Both being able to put elevation as a complication on the watch face if you want, to significantly better tracking of elevation gained ie "floors climbed" as an health metric. I continue to believe that most of those complaints that say it doesn't work that well seem to be related to "initial" position error, and not tracking of elevation changes. So not necessarily an error with the always on altimeter. I have seen the issue of initial position or my home elevation being off, and there isn't an obvious way to calibrate or reset that (I have a working theory that changing your initial position by a few miles, or maybe your elevation by 100+/- feet; will cause that reset, but have only done this once so far since this error is rare for me).

As an example, like the OP, I track floors climbed every day. I have a 46 day streak of doing at least 25 floors a day. I could never manage to maintain these streaks with the S3 because it would inconsistently measure floors in ways I could never fully solve. So running up and down stairs with the S3 didn't always track those floors gained. I basically never see that with the S6 (I did have this problem once out of the 80 or so days with the S6 when I was traveling out of state); so if I climb stairs or hills with the S6 I get credit. As an example, I just came in from outside and I walked up and down my hill 7 times, and got credit for 21 floors, which is exactly right (I tracked this using Workoutdoors so I can even see how WOD is measuring each hill climb in terms of the top and the bottom).

OK but is there a difference in the altimeter between Series 3 and Series 5? Apple provides no details.

 

[jzuena]

This is not directed at OP but after skimming threads in links its typical of some Apple fans and their expectations.
I just bought a AW6 last week and put the altimeter on my watch face at work as a professional pilot and was amazed at how accurate it was. At first I thought is just going on GPS but it's also going on actual pressure and correcting for it, meaning it takes into account pressure being higher or lower than standard. It was within 10 feet of published airport elevation taking into account that published number is only valid at a very specific location on airport called the Airport Reference Point (ARP). Another surprise was when I was descending from cruise, this thing at times was within 20 feet of the cabin altitude descending which is the only thing it could sense.
So if people are looking for this to keep track for every foot riding a bike or climbing stairs it may not meet their unreasonable expectations but for one of many features on something strapped to their wrist for $400, it's amazing and pretty damn accurate.

How do you calibrate the altimeter? For laughs I downloaded Altimeter for Aviators (for an extra fee, it will also act as a VSI!) and went to the NOAA METAR site and put in our local airport and set the app to match the current conditions there. It was already pretty close, so maybe it gets a fix from GPS to start and then measures the changes from there? Or maybe it got lucky since the airport was at 29.90 and standard is 29.92 anyway.