Apple Watch Ultra 2 vs Garmin Epix Pro vs Apple Watch Series 9 vs Garmin Venu 3: New York City GPS Test

Introduction

GPS accuracy is one of those specs that looks identical on paper and completely different in real life. To find out how four popular sports watches actually perform, we put the Apple Watch Ultra 2, Garmin Epix Pro, Apple Watch Series 9, and Garmin Venu 3 through a city run across Manhattan, including overpasses, building-lined avenues, Central Park, and a full descent down Broadway to Times Square.

The test splits naturally into two tiers: two multiband watches with dual-frequency GPS, and two mid-range watches without it. That distinction matters most in a dense urban environment, so the route was designed to stress exactly that.

The Test Route: Manhattan From Overpass to Times Square

The run starts along the Hudson River, passes directly underneath an elevated highway overpass, then climbs into the city and works its way along increasingly tall building blocks toward Central Park. From there it continues south, ending with the toughest section of all: running straight down Broadway through Times Square, a genuine canyon of glass and steel.

An important note on methodology: comparing total distance between devices is the worst way to judge GPS accuracy. A watch can undershoot, cut through a building, or overshoot and still end up with the same distance. Instead, the value here is in the GPS tracks themselves, checking whether each watch stayed on the correct side of the road and followed the actual path taken.

Early Sections: Overpasses and Central Park

The first stretch sets the tone. As the route approaches and passes under the overpass, all four watches deliver very strong performance, essentially spot on. That is impressive for any wrist device running underneath an actual highway structure for that long.

Small wobbles do appear. The Apple Watch Series 9 drifts slightly to the left near the end of the overpass, and the Garmin Venu 3 cuts a corner on the opposite side. Neither is a serious error given the conditions.

In Central Park, the results are excellent across the board. Every unit stays on the correct side of the road virtually the entire time on the running path along the left-hand side of the loop. The cheaper watches and the premium watches behave nearly identically here. As buildings grow taller around the park, some wobbling shows up on the Venu 3, the Epix Pro, and even the Series 9, but all of them remain on the roadway for the whole section.

The Broadway Challenge: Results Under the Tallest Buildings

Times Square is where the watches separate. Running down the middle of Broadway keeps conditions equal for both wrists, and this is the most demanding GPS environment of the entire route.

At the start of the section, all four tracks hold together on the road. Then things unravel for three of them. The Garmin Epix Pro drifts off onto the buildings, only about half a block away, but clearly off the roadway. The Garmin Venu 3 and the Apple Watch Series 9 are also lost during this stretch. The Apple Watch Ultra 2, by contrast, sticks the landing and stays right on the route for the entire run through Times Square. Apple uses Apple Maps data to correlate and improve GPS accuracy in cities, which likely contributes here.

On raw distance figures, the top three watches finish close together, with the Venu 3 measuring a bit further out. As noted earlier, though, distance alone can be misleading since very different tracks can produce the same total.

Premium Picks: Apple Watch Ultra 2 and Garmin Epix Pro

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 is the standout performer of the test. Its dual-frequency GPS plus Apple Maps city correlation produced the most consistent track, holding the roadway even where every other watch drifted. If urban GPS accuracy is your top priority and you are invested in the Apple ecosystem, it is the strongest option here.

The Garmin Epix Pro is a premium multisport watch with multiband GPS and a rich feature set for serious training. Its city performance is generally solid and it wobbled only slightly through the tall-building sections, but it was the first watch to drift off the roadway in the Times Square canyon. For trail, mountain, and long-endurance use, it remains a compelling choice.

Mid-Range Picks: Apple Watch Series 9 and Garmin Venu 3

The Apple Watch Series 9 lacks dual-frequency GPS, and that shows in small ways: a slight drift at the overpass and a loss of the track in Times Square. Still, its overall city performance is respectable, and it stayed on the correct side of the road through the Central Park loop. For most everyday runners and general smartwatch users, it delivers dependable accuracy.

The Garmin Venu 3 had the roughest run of the four. It cut a corner early, wobbled noticeably as buildings grew taller, and finished with the largest distance deviation in Times Square. It remains a solid health-focused smartwatch, but runners who care about precise city tracks should keep its limitations in mind.

Overall Buying Advice

Across the whole route, all four watches performed impressively through the overpass and Central Park sections, staying on the correct side of the running path. The differences only emerged in the most extreme environment, the Times Square canyon, where dual-frequency GPS and map correlation gave the Apple Watch Ultra 2 a clear edge.

If you run primarily in cities with tall buildings, prioritize a watch with dual-frequency GPS. If your routes are mostly parks, riversides, and open roads, the mid-range options deliver accuracy that is hard to fault for the money.

Conclusion

In this Manhattan GPS showdown, every watch earned credit for strong performance in ordinary conditions, and only the Apple Watch Ultra 2 survived the toughest section without drifting. The Garmin Epix Pro and Apple Watch Series 9 sit close behind, while the Garmin Venu 3 trails in dense urban accuracy but remains a reasonable pick for general fitness tracking.