It also has automatic stroke detection, automatic detection of rest time, i.e. The reviews generally take a lot of hours to put together, so itâs a fair bit of work (and labor of love). At the end of the day, Iâm an athlete just like you looking for the most detail possible on a new purchase â so my review is written from the standpoint of how I used the device. Of course, itâs totally possible the buoy has moved slightly. As a side note, my 10 year old beat-up Timex Ironman watch that is scratched and has lost the plastic bezel is still waterproof after 3 or 4 battery changes…So, it irks me that Garmin could not/would not use a better cover plate design and/or at least provide new O rings to reseal the watch. Just putting this out there as it may be useful for others to know. Memet. You can see the breakdown of your intervals in the web version of garmin connect. i have the 735 and it is not good for swimming if you want a good one with a good price try the garnin fenix 3hr i have it for 3 years twice a week in the pool 1100m each time and it very good tracking distance (25m and most of the time it recognize the swim that i swim even butterfly or backstroke even that i am not stopping at all between laps!) That was crazy lady not once in less than 30 seconds managing to be on the wrong side of the line. Either way, pretty darn accurate. Required fields are marked.If you would like a profile picture, simply register at Gravatar, which works here on DCR and across the web. Garmin is essentially saying “Swimming customers are less important than all-around fitness customers”. Features. Yeah, no pool swimmer I know tracks their pool swims as miles. For the first try, beta 2.33 seems to be correct with OW distance, or at least close to correct. In this one, the swim2 measured 1786 yards and the 920XT 1921 yards (7% more). Are there any more specific tests that people want me to conduct? Other? @gabor can you share the steps required to do what you mentioned? Look, Iâd put things in the mostly plausible camps. Super convenient to get instant feedback I think we need to agree to disagree here. Iâm interested myself as despite having just got an AW5, Iâm deeply paranoid about smashing it on a lane rope or someone elseâs wrist in a congested pool. Yes, the Swim2 will recognize your swim stroke. They are recorded in km during the workout but once I press Save, the total distance is shown in miles on the watch, but in km in the app. I couldnât understand why my pace was so slow till I realised the watch had once again randomly reverted from km to miles. Have you reviewed the Samsung Gear Fit 2 Professional for swimming? As I understand from DCR both the 945 and Fenix 6 series recently got those! But you should thank to Garmin, I only shared the information. And it can even track your run, ride, or gym workout. Hereâs that data set: The swim track of the Garmin Swim 2 can be a bit hard to see, being the constant wobbles and misdirection of the Polar Vantage Mâs swim track. Now that many Garmin watches support Swimming Personal Records it is time to start campaigning for a decent set of distances. I do have the swim heart strap; I could compare it to the swim2 hrm…. I got up this AM, put it on, and started to run. Simple Heart jim_m_58 jim_m_58. I mainly do pool swimming and cycling, occasionally openwater swimming and hiking. Pity this watch does not give tidal information nor water temperature !! Garmin chose to keep all raw heartrate data, but aggregated all laps and stroke data …. I suspect that if there is a congestion in computing resources the ded reckoning can not work optimal, what caused my problems. All visible on a 1.04" Full Chroma Garmin Display and in sunlight thanks to Garmin's technology. Probably Ray would know this too though, not sure who’s quicker to reply. Might be able to get it with my thumb as my hands come together? link to phlexswim.com. As for HR accuracy, well…my swim from yesterday didn’t fare well for the Vantage M there (and that’s ignoring the fact that it didn’t record anything for distance somehow). Oh, wait â whatâs that? At Monday I will call the importer, and hopefully they will offer a new watch. Garmin Swim 2, GPS Swimming Smartwatch for Pool and Open Water, Underwater Heart Rate, Records Distance, Pace, Stroke Count and Type, Slate Gray 4.3 out of 5 ⦠Regards. Or it refuses to show a 24-hour clock despite the system settings. Or simply use any waterproof device under your swim cap. I have a Garmin vivosport (2017) which I wear in the water sometimes.which gives appauling GPS data in the water, it’s useless. I also found that putting the watch on my other wrist makes stroke style detection much better. Thanks. Which weâll get to in a second. Every company from Polar to Suunto to Garmin and probably even Apple, if you get them drunk enough, will tell you that measuring optical HR underwater is at best an iffy proposition. >.<, Hello Well, just over 30 days into owning my Garmin Swim 2, and the screen has cracked! Actually it is again some highly advertised bullshit. Hereâs how that looks on Garmin Connect, creating a structured workout: On the watch, thereâs actually a single custom workout already, which is the CSS Test. I suppose you mean backstroke. I am not sure whether I will go on for rowing, but I might go on. In my experience, swimmers are much more likely to actually lift than runners. Just my 2cent, for me this definition war causing headache…, Hi Jen’s – In the United States most competitive swimmers use the term “Lap” and “length” interchangeably, instead of Lap meaning “there and back”. Just checked on one of my old pool swims. These add up to a surprising amount (overage). Did anyone try that? Or was it a default smart recording? Essentially though itâs a metric to track your lactate threshold swim speed. $9 for a two-pack of these puck Garmin chargers that stay put and stay connected. C) Per entire workout (self-explanatory), I think some of it might actually come from the wording. How bright is the light?, the 735 isnât that bright but the 935 is but the pool ruins the barometer function so i use the 735. I find the best time to see the watch is a very slight wrist twist just after pushing off the wall on any given length, which I can easily and clearly make out the numbers on the watch. The tracks are 50% too long and have little to do with the real route. Hereâs what it looks like on Garmin Connect (you can click this link to dig into my swim): (One minor bug Iâve seen: It seems to put roughly the last known openwater swim GPS location on Garmin Connect for your indoor pool swims. I really like the auto-pause function on the Polar Vantage V, but that watch more often than not got the distance awfully wrong for me during pool swims. Hi Ray, great review as always. It would be great if you could update the HR section comparing the Swim 2 to a Garmin-Swim or Garmin-TRI chest strap. Here’s a screenshot of the same session I posted above, but in this website: I don’t know why the software from Garmin does not currently show them, it’s a very easy thing to do. Regarding pool accuracy, did you do any high-speed tests? And of course â you can always sign-up to be a DCR Supporter! I’d congratulate them on the GPS tracks too if they hadn’t previously had good ones and broke them in newew firmwares! Having owned the Swim 2 for 30 days, I was not entirely happy with it, especially since I wanted it just for for swimming in a pool. So the features presented was very informative, Just got the swim 2 as my 1st Garmin for my regular sea swims. It does not work Hovering the mouse over any of them shows info about that lap. Comparing the Swim 2 to a chest strap would really complete an otherwise excellent review. So it was all over the place, but didn’t really make any sense, didn’t track with the TICKR, and didn’t track with my effort at all. In one interval, my heartrate was already for minutes around 158, while the swim2 heartrate was lowering and showed 98 at the end of the interval (so a 60 beats!!! Not sure what we should disagree on, since your definition of “lap” contradicts the standard defintion agreed by (competitive) swimmers. If you wear the watch always and sync with phone, yours should be able to track correctly. By default this is on, but if youâre like me (a lowly triathlete who only swims freestyle), then you could consider turning it off. which the original swim allowed and made no mention of. I didn’t try and customize any CIQ watch faces, beyond just enabling/disabling them. XLarge Watch Navicom Navicom. Nothing about (automatic) laps. I’d say the turning point was roughly early August. even my u$s25 Xiaomi Miband can use my phone GPS for tracking distance…. Not even the app shows lap times unfortunately. I get that nobody needs HR to swim well, just like nobody needs a power meter to cycle well, but that for many people access to data helps with improving performance. I’ll be returning the Swim 2 and going back to my accurate and reliable 920XT. I bought a swim 2 based on this review. Both of those support downloading data from the chest strap to your watch after the swim set is done. To compare distance accuracy, I’ve performed six open water swims with both watches strapped to my left wrist. Which GPS settings is the most accurate for open water swim? Fitbit has been a big player in the wearable market for a while now, with ⦠Now, after reading a lot, I am between two options: Garmin Swim 2 and Suunto Spartan Trainer. Or, as the internet would say: âYou had one job.â And thankfully, it appears that it nails that single job. Supper annoying. Yup, just about to add in the unboxing section here in a moment, so will add in the comparison shots too. They both use the same exact optical HR sensor setup. I am a relatively new freestyle swimmer but make sure the hand is always above water and then everything will be fine. Great! This just shows how important competition is and how we need to support the smaller players like Polar. are you planning a review of Phlex swim training device? Thoughts on why the FR245 is more? Swim workouts can be built in GC, but getting these to other users is pretty much impossible. Your conclusion that âI canât really get any agreement on which one is actually correct.â is not what I expected form a DCR review. Guys, what swim style are you using when getting bad results? Ok, with all those features explained, letâs head back to the main screen and press start: Once you do that you should start swimming, and with that, youâll start seeing data on the data pages youâve configured. I made an overlay of the two watches’ maps from my last swim, using phone screenshots. Poolmate 2 is a very cheap basic watch that would be perfect as a starting point to measure laps, strokes, pace, sets and rest times but will also track some metrics in the open water (a new addition that came with the second version of the watch). Good – baro altimeter. Oh, and if you go to the bathroom mid-set (in the restroom, not the pool, ideally), then pause your watch. Thank you. 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