Pressure Altimeter vs Pro Altimeter for Watch
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Pressure Altimeter
This app uses your device's barometric pressure sensor to display your current altitude above sea level in real time. It also tracks vertical speed, allowing you to monitor ascent and descent rates, and saves your maximum and minimum altitudes.
- Real-time altitude display
- Vertical speed monitoring
- Saves max/min altitudes
- Airplane mode compatible
- Apple Watch support
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Pressure Altimeter converts your device's barometric pressure sensor reading to an altitude above sea level. Requires iPad Air 2, iPhone 6, or Apple Watch Series 3 or newer for pressure sensor capability. Now you can monitor your elevation or cabin altitude accurately and in real time. Works in airplane mode. No GPS required. We have also included a vertical speed display so you can see the rate that you are climbing or descending. Features: - Altimeter setting (inHg or hPa/millibars.) - Altitude display in either feet or meters. - Vertical speed in feet per minute or meters per second. - Vertical speed direction (up/down) and warning if excessive rate detected. - Saves Maximum and Minimum altitudes reached. - Includes Apple Watch support. Note: A current altimeter setting for your location is required in order to convert the pressure reading into an accurate altitude.
Pro Altimeter for Watch
This app provides precise altitude readings using your Apple Watch's barometric pressure sensor. It offers multiple calibration methods, including GPS, manual entry, and airport data, ensuring accurate measurements for outdoor activities. The interface is designed for easy readability with customizable color schemes.
- Barometric pressure sensor utilization
- GPS altitude display
- Multiple calibration methods (GPS, manual, airport data)
- Real-time accuracy estimates
- Customizable color schemes
- Calibration reminders
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Pro Altimeter for Watch is the newest Watch app from Hunter Research, developer of the popular outdoors app Theodolite. Pro Altimeter uses the high-fidelity barometric pressure sensor in the Apple Watch to measure and compute altitude. Although this is a Watch app, it has the same features, capabilities, and accuracy as the Pro Altimeter app for iPhone and iPad, just in a smaller form factor on your wrist! Pro Altimeter has a dead simple interface. Barometric altitude and GPS altitude are displayed in large easy to read numbers, with available units of feet or meters, and realtime accuracy estimates from the hardware. At bottom are calibration and settings buttons. The display offers highly-readable color schemes of luminescent green on black, white on black, and midnight red on black. Proper calibration is necessary to measure altitude from barometric pressure (this is why a pilot "dials in" the cockpit altimeter before taking off). Pro Altimeter offers numerous methods for calibration -- choose the easiest and most convenient: 1. Use GPS altitude. This method correlates the measured local barometric pressure with the altitude measured by GPS. This method can be used when your device has a clear line of sight to the sky and a reliable GPS fix with good accuracy that you trust. 2. Manually enter altitude in feet or meters. This method correlates the measured local barometric pressure with known altitude from landmarks, elevation benchmarks, trail markers, topo maps, land surveys, etc. 3. Manually enter pressure. If you have a weather station, weather report, or METAR report with equivalent sea level pressure for a nearby location, this can be used to correlate local barometric pressure to altitude. Pressure can be entered with units of inches Hg, kPa, or mb. 4. Check local airports. With the tap of a button, Pro Altimeter will locate the five closest airports within 100 miles (160km) of your present location anywhere in the world, and pull in METAR data. From that list of five, pick the airport of your choice and Pro Altimeter will import pressure data for calibration. Once calibrated, Pro Altimeter keeps track of the time since its last calibration. Because weather and local barometric pressure change over time, the app will warn you when 6 hours have elapsed since the last calibration by flashing the "CAL" button. You should calibrate as frequently as practical -- for example, on a hike, calibrate whenever you pass a trail marker or elevation benchmark, or hourly. But at a minimum, calibrate at least every 6 hours or whenever weather changes in your area. Pro Altimeter runs on all Apple Watch models running watchOS 9.6 or later.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Pro Altimeter for Watch at 4.3 against Pressure Altimeter's 2.3. Pressure Altimeter's advantage is review sentiment (67% vs 38%) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.6). On price, ratings volume, update cadence and ads there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Pressure Altimeter costs $0.99 and Pro Altimeter for Watch $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Pro Altimeter for Watch holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 2.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 4 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 67% of Pressure Altimeter's written reviews are positive against 38% of Pro Altimeter for Watch's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Pressure Altimeter ships an update every 9 months, Pro Altimeter for Watch every 6 months. The most recent releases landed on September 11, 2026 and September 21, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Pressure Altimeter | Pro Altimeter for Watch |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0.99 | $0.99 |
| Rating | 2.3 (3 ratings) | 4.3 (4 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 66.7% of reviews — better | 37.5% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 3 | 4 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 9 months | Every 6 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPod, Apple Watch |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 15.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 5 MB | 1 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Lonnie Ganz | Craig Hunter |
Customer experience
Pressure Altimeter
Pro Altimeter for Watch
In-app purchases
Pressure Altimeter
No in-app purchases
Pro Altimeter for Watch
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Pressure Altimeter free?
Is Pro Altimeter for Watch free?
Which has better reviews, Pressure Altimeter or Pro Altimeter for Watch?
Do Pressure Altimeter or Pro Altimeter for Watch have ads?
Which is updated more often, Pressure Altimeter or Pro Altimeter for Watch?
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