The watch can do it, but you’ll get better gps on the phone. I’m using Cyclemeter, generally pretty happy with it. It will work with on the watch, or on the phone using the watch for HRM.
It’s not really useful for checking while riding though, it’s more along the lines of a data logger. Might be a bit different with a mount for the phone, but I avoid having visible elevtronics while riding.
Careful though - the phone GPS can be significantly worse than a watch. I don’t cycle, but run a lot (I average ~135 miles a month). Anytime I’m on a long run where I care to know what my actual distance or path was (like a marathon), I have to turn off the Bluetooth connection between my phone and watch. If I don’t, then the GPS in my phone is used. That GPS signal is susceptible to fluctuations based upon which tower is “visible” (A-GPS). I’ve had it happen where I go through tunnel and the phones GPS thinks I’ve magically run a mile in the opposite direction. Some of my Strava traces look like they are all scribbles. I’ve had this happen with multiple phones over the years.
Also, over the course of a marathon, with my phone GPS, the distance has been up to a mile off. For my last marathon, my watch (w/o Bluetooth on) was only 0.1 miles off.
I’m not sure how much of a problem this is for cycling, given the differences in speed and distance, but for running, it can be quite the problem.
Note: I have the cellular Apple Watch, but I don’t think it uses A-GPS.
I’ve got a series 6 non-cell watch, and a 6s plus. (And an iPad mini 2 with cell)
The phone and iPad will generally show the path I take relatively accurately, including side of the road, and In some cases lane positioning.
The few times I’ve used the watch on its own(for walks), it’s been significantly worse, with paths going off through nearby houses. Either the frequency of locations is lower, or the accuracy is worse.
I probably wouldn’t get another watch after living with one for a few months. The heart rate is interesting, the apple pay is nice but not that much better than the phone, and sleep tracking is iffy.
This may change if I can get good haptic way finding working, but that’s going to be a Project.
I definitely think there is a difference in the GPS quality between the generation of chipsets used. My older Apple Watch (3, non-cell) had worse GPS than my newer (5 cell).
I didn’t really notice the difference and accepted the low GPS quality from my phone until I got the newer watch with the cellular chip. Then I could go for runs with music and GPS without my phone. The difference was amazing. The newer generations of watch are much better. And cellular was better then GPS only, ironically. YMMV - I think a lot depends on where you are and the towers that are nearby.
That said — I’ve also considered just flipping to a Garmin watch. The battery life in my Apple watch isn’t enough to get me through a marathon, tracking GPS while also listening to music (I’m not fast, so ~ 4 hours).
> That GPS signal is susceptible to fluctuations based upon which tower is “visible” (A-GPS). I’ve had it happen where I go through tunnel and the phones GPS thinks I’ve magically run a mile in the opposite direction. Some of my Strava traces look like they are all scribbles.
That might explain one of my rides having a spurious "cliff climb" where the altitude went bonkers.
That being said, I lost interest in Strava when they killed the Bluetooth integration with my Wahoo TICKR. That was just another of the incessant reminders of why I can't trust tech companies anymore.
I believe if the phone is in range the watch will use the phone's GPS. I record all my rides on my watch but my phone is always on my handlebars or in a backpack and I'm pretty sure it uses it.
It’s not really useful for checking while riding though, it’s more along the lines of a data logger. Might be a bit different with a mount for the phone, but I avoid having visible elevtronics while riding.