Poolmate watch

Here's an update, prompted by my first open-water swim with the PoolMate watch. Even though the instructions claim the watch "will not work in Open Water", it did great at counting my strokes. It was able to tell me that I took 812 strokes out, and 898 strokes back for my loop in the local lake yesterday. It can't count laps, of course (and detected a few phantom laps), so it can't give pace or swim golf info. But all I was after was a stroke count, and that seems to be quite accurate.

Last week, I ordered a Poolmate lap counter and tried it yesterday. While the timer and clock appears to work, it never counted my laps. I figured that I must be doing something wrong and took it home that night to re-read the short instructions. Nope, I seem to be doing everything rights. It really is simple to operate. I went to the swimovate.com website and viewed their short demo video which demonstrates the lap counting function with a simple repeated wrist motion. Mine watch did not count laps like the unit in the video. I have sent an email to their support and will provide feedback based upon my experience. I am thinking that I must have a defective watch and need to simply get a replacement, but I will get confirmation from them first before returning it.

Ok, sent in the defective counter/watch and received a replacement. Had to wait until after returning from a trip to try it out. The new one works great! It accurately counts lengths swum. I am really going to enjoy this. In the past, I have relied upon a small manual lap counter on my finger that I never felt was reliable enough to push the button under water after a flip turn and had to stop push the button and continue. Now, I can swim lap after lap, flip turning all the way, my mind on whatever, and only need to stop occasionally to check my progress.

A month or so ago, Swimovate announced the Pool-Mate Pro watch. As an owner of the standard Pool-Mate, I was given the opportunity to either purchase the new watch at a discounted rate, or trade in my old one and pay a nominal upgrade price. I chose to purchase the watch. It has some new features, the main one being the ability to upload your workouts and process it using their free software. I'll be using it during tonight's workout and will upload the data once I get home. I love this kind of technology.

I should give an update from my post in June. About two weeks into using the replacement poolmate, the watch became unusable. The LCD display would go blank about two laps into my swim and I could only get it to display briefly if I hit a button. Two strikes means out in my book. I will wait to see if the technology improves, but I will not go for another replacement . . . Sorry you've had such bad luck with your watches. :badday: I know there is a warning about pushing the buttons while the watch is underwater. If you did, this could be your problem. For what it's worth, I've not had any problems with either of my watches. Of course, I've only had my newer one for a couple of days, but so far so good. I used it in the pool on Monday and uploaded my workout to my PC. The free software that comes with the watch has some nice features.

I should give an update from my post in June. About two weeks into using the replacement poolmate, the watch became unusable. The LCD display would go blank about two laps into my swim and I could only get it to display briefly if I hit a button. Two strikes means out in my book. I will wait to see if the technology improves, but I will not go for another replacement . . .

I see that FINIS has just introduced the Swimsense watch that appears to use similar technology. It will reportedly be available mid Dec. Here's the url. www.finisinc.com/.../Swimsense I'm curious to hear how the two compare.

Thanks for your input Debaru, I am a techno geek and love this kind of stuff and am dissapointed that it did not work out. Being a tech guy, I am one of those strange people that actually read manuals thoroughly and saw the warnings about being very careful not to use the buttons under water. I was VERY careful not to do that. I have seen similar reactions in other LCD displays when exposed to direct sunlight. My 2008 Kawasaki Concours has an LCD display that is fully exposed to the sun and sometimes it has difficulty, albeit, the problem only appears on rare ocassion. If I see enough good reports on this item, I am likely to roll the dice again, but would be more comfortable if a more established company offered something like this (e.g., Timex and the like). Your results may differ (hopefully!).

Being a tech guy, I am one of those strange people that actually read manuals thoroughly ... LOL!! I'm a technical writer and I wish there were more people out there like you. :applaud:

O K ? A swim watch that does not let you use buttons when under water seems as if it's going to fail !!:badday: Not really. The owner's manual for a Timex Ironman 1440 watch states "to maintain water resistance, do not press any buttons underwater". The Pool-Mate is water-resistant, not water-proof. I've owned several water-resistant watches that have performed well when wet, including my two Pool-Mates.