Swim watch

Does anyone have a recommendation (or a warning) to share about a swim watch? I'm looking for something to help me count distance and/or strokes. I'm thinking about the Garmin Swim. I have the Garmin Forerunner (for running) and am pretty happy with it.Maybe I didn't think through what I actually wanted out of this watch, but I found the Garmin Swim to be nothing more than a glorified waterproof watch. You might be seeking different things, but here's what I found. The stroke counting mechanism works fine enough for fly and ***, but not for free or back since it can only count strokes for one arm. So, if I was swimming free and had the watch on, the watch might read "5" at the end of a length, but that could mean I took 9, 10 or 11 single arm strokes. That data for free and back, therefore, is meaningless to me. The lap counting mechanism works fine, but I don't ever do long straight swims where I would lose count and, if I did lose count, glancing at the pace clock while pushing off the wall is easier and less disruptive to my swim than trying to read the small watch face. The "which stroke was I swimming" identification was suspect The downloaded data (and I am a data geek) was less useful than my memory or, if I was going to do something complex, a pencil and an $11 diving slate by the side of the pool. The one place it came in handy was on the odd times when I dropped into lap swim at a pool without a pace clock. But, then it really just turned into a small pace clock I wrapped around my water bottle.

I got Swimovate's poolmate as a Father's day present 4 years ago. I honestly loved it and actually would pull all the data by hand. Last year I bought the poolmate HR and it's even better. I love the feature that it vibrates based on how many laps or time so i can use it for long distance sets by going off every 100 or by pace to go off on my 100 SI. One feature I didn't know of is the software will convert everything to what your base course is when it's downloaded in the software. This was great over the summer when I kept switching from LCM to SCY based on the pool I was swimming in. I could compare workouts between the two pools. The HR function doesn't work well for me because I'm a guy and the band would move as I swam. I found wearing a surfing rash guard keeps it in place, so I only use it when I taper so I can make sure my sprints are hitting target HR.

I like my Garmin Swim. I especially like that I can sync with swim.com and monitor my mileage, average pace and personal best times. Helps me monitor my progress. Before getting the Garmin, I had the Finis watch. Actually I had 3 Finis watches over time because the strap kept breaking. The Finis is better in only one way - it will automatically determine when you stop so you don't have to start and stop for each interval. With the Garmin, you do have to start and stop which took some getting used to and I still mess it up every once in awhile. But, in all other ways, I think the Garmin is better than the Finis. By far.

I got Swimovate's poolmate as a Father's day present 4 years ago. I honestly loved it and actually would pull all the data by hand. Last year I bought the poolmate HR and it's even better. I love the feature that it vibrates based on how many laps or time so i can use it for long distance sets by going off every 100 or by pace to go off on my 100 SI. One feature I didn't know of is the software will convert everything to what your base course is when it's downloaded in the software. This was great over the summer when I kept switching from LCM to SCY based on the pool I was swimming in. I could compare workouts between the two pools. The HR function doesn't work well for me because I'm a guy and the band would move as I swam. I found wearing a surfing rash guard keeps it in place, so I only use it when I taper so I can make sure my sprints are hitting target HR. Poolmate have just recently released the Poolmate Pro 2. - Looks like they've redesigned it a bit and added a few extra features. Has anyone tried it out?

I just got a Garmin Swim. I spent two hours in the pool yesterday playing with it. What I LOVE about it is that I get splits for every length of the pool without hitting a button. Apparently I can negative split like nobody's business, no matter the length of the interval, no matter how fast the sprint or how steady the distance. This doesn't entirely suprise me but it's interesting to see. This feature has me a little puzzled as to why I have to hit the button at the end of the interval to get the timer to stop. I might play with that today and see if it's necessary or if it will pick up the rest. The free/back SPL data is fairly useless but I had figured that. I tend not to focus on SPL in those though and care much more about how many strokes in ***. As far as stroke detection, its a bit of a mess. In a 3,000 yard workout, it got all my free lengths fine, it logged my measly 100 yards of fly as free, and my paltry 100 yards back as back. But out of 1,000 yards of ***, it only correctly got 200 yards, the rest were marked as back. :-/ I did all of those as 25s or 50s in an attempt to see what what was throwing it off, with no real rhyme or reason. I started to get better accuracy when I decided it might be the positioning of the watch throwing it off (needing to be closer to the wrist, better centered and more snug) but eventually that started failing the detection as well. I tried playing with the width of my outsweep, the direction of my inscull, elbow position, etc. When I decided to try a length doing a recreational-style breaststroke with a slow, wide circular path and it finally logged as breaststroke, I almost wanted to smash the watch on the pool deck. I had read you could change the stroke in the final log but this is not the case. You can export the log to a 3rd party, edit the log and then import it back in. Humph. The statistics are fun but the ones garmin gives are largely useless. If I'm swimming 1/3 of my workout ***, my average pace is NOT going to be comparable to a workout that I do mostly free or entirely IM. Also average SPL is a joke when you are doing mixed strokes. It was neat to go into the detail log and see the SPL overlapped with the pace of the length. But the Garmin stats are largely geared towards the triathlete who mostly swims freestyle. They do not bother giving you statistics for any individual stroke at all. But, in a couple clicks you can import this into swim.com for free and get useful information. Like minutes, yards, SPL, average pace per stroke. Anyways, I gotta go swim (yay, more watch playing) but I was curious, too, to see what others had found with this watch and others.

Wife gave me the Garmin vivoactive for Xmas. It's activity functions are swimming (pool only), cycling, running, walking, and sleep tracking. Through the use of bluetooth attached sensors it's also capable of working on the treadmill, stationary bike, and heart rate monitor. I haven't had a chance to use it yet, but I've been reading through the operator's manual on how the functions work. It comes loaded with several different pool sizes...including 33.33 yards, and 33.33 meters. But you can also enter a customized length. Like 'gobears' I won't be using it in the pool beyond using the stopwatch. But, I do wish it had a swim function for open water. There are GPS watches that work in open water but are much more expensive. I've read in serval places that placing the watch in the back of your swim cap, or in a drag bag that it'll work. They just don't work under water. So I'll give that a try in the spring. Dan

This probably just means I'm old, but swim watches bother me as a coach. I feel like the swimmers who have them rely too much on their watches (constantly punching buttons and watching their wrist instead of the pace clock) instead of relying on their own brains. I think there is great value in paying attention to what you are doing - knowing how far you swam and how fast because you kept track in your head - and watched the clock. Knowing how to read a pace clock, find your times and pace yourself according to your internal clock are valuable tools. It seems like many swimmers with the watches don't know how to do any of this. They often don't have any idea how far they've swum or what they've done at the end of a practice unless they look at their data. That says a lot to me about how engaged their brains were while they were swimming... Again - maybe I'm just a curmudgeon...

I am a 62 year old fitness swimmer. I was considering buying a swim watch for quite awhile and recently I purchased the Garmin Swim for a good price at E Bay. So far these are my problems with the watch: 1. The face is a bit small. As most folks my age, I am far sighted so it's sometimes not easy to see the data. 2. Distance is measured by arm stroke. I do a lot of kick sets so the watch doesn't count them. 3. Several times I counted laps in my head and the distance wasn't the same as the watch (and I'm sure I was correct). 4. The watch is not meant for open water swimming. 5. If this matters to anybody - the design of the watch is very simple and it looks like a cheap digital watch, so I don't like continuing with it to work.

After all my initial annoyances about the Garmin Swim, they don't bother me anymore. The one that really gets my goat is on the watch face, after you hit stop, it shows your interval time in full seconds. If you scroll through the display to see the last interval split, it's still only shown in full seconds. They couldn't be bothered to show even tenths. When you upload it has to the hundredths, so the data is there and no way to set the watch display to show it. Clearly for long distance folks...except it's not made for open water. :shakeshead:

The one place it came in handy was on the odd times when I dropped into lap swim at a pool without a pace clock. But, then it really just turned into a small pace clock I wrapped around my water bottle. I used a kitchen timer at the end of the lane today for my intervals, attached to an inverse 2x4 T on nail heads for the magnet. The timer is much easier to see than my watch, and I've since ordered 2 more from Ebay. 10442