Flights climbed variance

[Gatnus]

Two people about the same height - both wearing Apple Watch 4s with iPhones in pocket. We take a 12 mile hike with a lot of climbing - probably 2000-2500 ft elevation gain. At the end of the day, one watch reads about 150 floors climbed. The other about 250. Any idea why there is such a variance?
How does the watch / phone calculate "floors climbed"? Arm motion? Pressure changes? GPS? Combination???

I just looked at my sources....
AW4 shows 276 flights climbed
iPhone XS shows 183 flights climbed
...my hiking partner shows
AW4 153 flights climbed
iPhone X 140 flights

There may be a very small variance pre-hike, each of us walking around, but that would be no more than 5 flights done at home.

Thanks in advance

 

[Newtons Apple]

Flights are recorded per barometric pressure and movement/activity.

It can vary and is seldom exact. Gained over 150 flights when a hurricane came through my neighborhood.

 

[Gatnus]

Flights are recorded per barometric pressure and movement/activity.

It can vary and is seldom exact. Gained over 150 flights when a hurricane came through my neighborhood.

I can understand it being "off" from reality, but two users, both wearing AW4 doing the same hike. One shows 153 and the other shows 276 - We're both in the same barometric conditions....and my phone showed 183 while the watch showed 276 - not even close and both were on me the entire day.

 

[Newtons Apple]

I can understand it being "off" from reality, but two users, both wearing AW4 doing the same hike. One shows 153 and the other shows 276 - We're both in the same barometric conditions....and my phone showed 183 while the watch showed 276 - not even close and both were on me the entire day.

Every Apple watch I have owned has recorded differently from the previous one. I am enjoying a move streak like no other time on my current series 4 where my series 3 and 2 did not credit me once or twice a week, all on the same settings.

I do agree that your case is excessive with out a doubt. Maybe drop by the Apple store and have them take a look.

 

[Gatnus]

Every Apple watch I have owned has recorded differently from the previous one. I am enjoying a move streak like no other time on my current series 4 where my series 3 and 2 did not credit me once or twice a week, all on the same settings.

I do agree that your case is excessive with out a doubt. Maybe drop by the Apple store and have them take a look.

Good idea to stop by a store. Not sure what they can do about it. I have had days with 30k+ steps and only about 5 floors for the entire day when I go on long runs in an extremely flat area, so I know it's not just glitching....but maybe it's overly sensitive or something. I definitely did not do over 2500 feet of climbing...but then we definitely did more than ~1500 the second watch showed.

 

[Newtons Apple]

Good idea to stop by a store. Not sure what they can do about it. I have had days with 30k+ steps and only about 5 floors for the entire day when I go on long runs in an extremely flat area, so I know it's not just glitching....but maybe it's overly sensitive or something. I definitely did not do over 2500 feet of climbing...but then we definitely did more than ~1500 the second watch showed.

Let us know if you get it resolved.