I started using an Apple Watch about two months ago. In my personal experience, my distances have been increased by 30-40 percent using the watch, as opposed to the adventure sync on the phone. I am not sure if that is attributed to the fact that I constantly have a watch on and I occasionally don’t have a phone in my pocket, or if the step tracking is that much better. But since I began using the watch I hit the weekly 50 km bonus pretty easily.
Just a reminder though, you still need to have the adventure sync enabled in the game settings, even if you are using a watch.