Login required to started new threads

Login required to post replies

Thin/light/accurate GPS watch for Open Water Swimming
Quote | Reply
I have a Fenix3, but not only is it a bit huge for swimming, the open water mode is completely useless (it keeps counting distance after I stop). In any case, I'd like to get feedback on which watches you all like or swimming. Light and accurate and just measuring time and distance are sufficient and pace and split pace would be a bonus (instantaneous is useless). If the thing beeps at me underwater every 100m that' may be useful for interval stops. I don't need a watch for in the pool. Bonus if I can use for running, walking, cycling. Daily step count would be nice too.

Normally I do all my swimming at the pool other than tri races or training camp weekends when I hit outdoors, but this year with all the restrictions on pools, I may just keep swimming outdoors where I don't have to deal with other humans, temperature checks, reserving lanes etc etc.

Dev
Quote Reply
Re: Thin/light/accurate GPS watch for Open Water Swimming [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
devashish_paul wrote:
I'd like to get feedback on which watches you all like or swimming... Bonus if I can use for running, walking, cycling. Daily step count would be nice too.
The two leaders here are the Apple Watch and Garmin 945. I have both. In general, I do not use my AW for anything athletic, but it feels relatively light and comfortable. According to DCR, the AW's OWS distance tracking is very good. My 945 has been fantastic. Both do HR during swims, which is pretty cool. Once a swim starts, I do not notice either one on my wrist.

AW does running, walking, cycling, step count, etc. But it is kind of mediocre at those things. Garmin is much better there.
Quote Reply
Re: Thin/light/accurate GPS watch for Open Water Swimming [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
You could get the Fenix 6S - its a lot slimmer of a form factor than your current Fenix with a lot more techie goodness inside...

Functionally that one and the 945 are pretty identical, I think they are just targeted towards ever so slightly different audiences (with a lot of overlap in the middle when it comes to the triathletes)

Clubs/Affiliations: The Rippers / Charles River Wheelers / Cambridge Sports Union
Quote Reply
Re: Thin/light/accurate GPS watch for Open Water Swimming [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
Do you wish to be able to see it while swimming? If that is not a prerequisite you can copy what I do, having a simple running watch (a Garmin Forerunner 25 in my case) in the swim cap. Easy to start/stop while on ones head with the buttons, measures distance/gps very correctly as it never really goes under water much but has clear view to the sky all the time. Possibly an odd solution, but works for me.
Quote Reply
Re: Thin/light/accurate GPS watch for Open Water Swimming [adoucett] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
Can any of you guys comment on the Garmin 735XT. Looks like I can get it for $307 CAD:

https://www.amazon.ca/...ZPSN4ETXQVDRFEXZE7V6
Quote Reply
Re: Thin/light/accurate GPS watch for Open Water Swimming [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
I did the stupid DC Rainmaker swim test with my Fenix 5x (Where he attaches it to a buoy instead of his wrist)...zero meters recorded. Think I'll keep it on my wrist.

Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.
Quote Reply
Re: Thin/light/accurate GPS watch for Open Water Swimming [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
devashish_paul wrote:
Can any of you guys comment on the Garmin 735XT. Looks like I can get it for $307 CAD:

https://www.amazon.ca/...ZPSN4ETXQVDRFEXZE7V6

No Optical HR during the swim, but otherwise I found mine to be pretty decent for OWS tracking. I've got the 945 now and the 735 is even smaller. You can probably pick up a used one for really cheap at this point.
Quote Reply
Re: Thin/light/accurate GPS watch for Open Water Swimming [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
I use the 735 in open water A LOT. I have it on an Edgegear Shift band so I can see it pretty easily. I have had it 3 or maybe 4 years now.
It is great, accurate, when I am actually swimming. In ocean, it loses signal if there’s a long break that requires multiple dives, or if there is a buoy cafe or other reason you stop stroking for a while and tread or scull with hands under water for longer than a stroke, and then it has to be reset or else it stops recording distance so I end up with an hour in the water and 300 meters, but the stroke count is right. It is fine in the lake or if I wait to start it till I am through the surf. It was accurate in the two ocean 5ks I did last summer.
Quote Reply
Re: Thin/light/accurate GPS watch for Open Water Swimming [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
devashish_paul wrote:
I have a Fenix3, but not only is it a bit huge for swimming, the open water mode is completely useless (it keeps counting distance after I stop). In any case, I'd like to get feedback on which watches you all like or swimming. Light and accurate and just measuring time and distance are sufficient and pace and split pace would be a bonus (instantaneous is useless). If the thing beeps at me underwater every 100m that' may be useful for interval stops. I don't need a watch for in the pool. Bonus if I can use for running, walking, cycling. Daily step count would be nice too.

Normally I do all my swimming at the pool other than tri races or training camp weekends when I hit outdoors, but this year with all the restrictions on pools, I may just keep swimming outdoors where I don't have to deal with other humans, temperature checks, reserving lanes etc etc.

Dev

I used to have the Garmin Swim watch which was excellent for the pool ... looks like the new version has a GPS function which you can use for open water swimming. Sorry I don't have the new version but might be worth a look. I was also looking at something similar years ago but the only watches that could record open water swims was a multi-sport watch ... before I got one, I used to put a Vivoactive under my swim cap (as someone here suggested) and worked if you're after the basics only like distance, time and route. I've also stopped pool swimming due to the restrictions but use my Suunto watch to record my open water swims (doesn't fit your criteria as it's big and clunky).
Quote Reply
Re: Thin/light/accurate GPS watch for Open Water Swimming [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
I have a 920 XT and it works great. I don't think they are made anymore, but you can probably still get one on the Garmin Outlet store. Its a solid reliable watch that's accurate and dependable. I'd move up to it.
Quote Reply
Re: Thin/light/accurate GPS watch for Open Water Swimming [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
devashish_paul wrote:
Can any of you guys comment on the Garmin 735XT.
I had one before my 945. It was basically perfect in my 3 years of use. It is pretty good on OWS, but maybe not quite as good as the 945. I don’t have nearly as many OWS swims on the 945 to compare. And as others noted, the 735XT is feather light and thin. It feels invisible on your wrist.
Quote Reply
Re: Thin/light/accurate GPS watch for Open Water Swimming [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
Anyone tried the Coros Pace in OW? If any good, seems like a good deal at $199.
Quote Reply
Re: Thin/light/accurate GPS watch for Open Water Swimming [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
I don’t know if it’s a problem with every single Garmin device, but it was a problem with every single mine. And a lot of complaints on the Internet as well.

If your watch has an altimeter and you swim in it, the altimeter will die. Which makes it pretty annoying. It stops detecting skiing and floors, your rides show everesting every time, etc.

I’m thinking I’m not going to use my next main Tri watch in water much, instead I’ll keep the old one for swim-only.

If you have a fancy 945 or new Fenix, may be it with buying something like 920-935 for swims only.
Quote Reply
Re: Thin/light/accurate GPS watch for Open Water Swimming [ask77nl] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
My Fenix5 is awesome in the pool and stinks in open water (GPS is horrible OW). My wife’s Apple Watch is OK in the pool and is pretty dang good in OW.
Quote Reply
Re: Thin/light/accurate GPS watch for Open Water Swimming [Gee] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
That Edgegear Shift looks interesting. How do you find it?

Do you wear it as a daily watch like that or just for workouts? How’s the optical HR?
Quote Reply
Re: Thin/light/accurate GPS watch for Open Water Swimming [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
The Garmin 935 and 945 are so light you barely know you are wearing a watch (esp compared to the Fenix).
Accuracy is always an issue with OWS unfortunately.
Apple Watch not really going to do what you need in terms of lap intervals.
Garmin will do lap intervals but honestly the margin of error for 100m in the open water is massive so I set mine to buzz every 500m.
I have one of these for the pool, the GPS version is supposed to be good for OWS: https://www.platysens.com/marlin/
The FORM goggles are getting GPS ability apparently for OWS as well, main trouble is though that you are locked into their goggles and if they don't work for you then you have wasted some serious money.
Quote Reply
Re: Thin/light/accurate GPS watch for Open Water Swimming [JerseyBigfoot] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
JerseyBigfoot wrote:
That Edgegear Shift looks interesting. How do you find it?

Do you wear it as a daily watch like that or just for workouts? How’s the optical HR?

I love it. It was weird at first but I got used to it right away. The optical HR is as accurate there as on my wrist, and the times I have worn one in each place, they have matched. It doesn’t of course work over gloves, and it is hard to wear it under tight cycling gloves.

I don’t wear it as a daily watch; I have an antique Lady Elgin bracelet watch from my grandmother that is more my style. But the Shift is great for sports and is always a conversation starter.
Quote Reply
Re: Thin/light/accurate GPS watch for Open Water Swimming [Amnesia] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
Disclaimer: I work for FORM


Yup, FORM goggles will be getting an open-water mode later this summer. They won't have an on-board GPS, but rather connect to compatible watches (select Garmin (945, Fenix 5 plus, Fenix 6 pro) and Apple devices (Apple watch 3, 4, 5)) and be able to display your distance-based metrics within the goggles (eg. distance travelled, average pace/100m, etc.).

In terms of your concern about the fit - this is exactly why we offer a 45-day fit guarantee with them. We totally understand some goggles just don't work for some people, and if you aren't able to get our goggles to work for you (we also have 7 different nose bridges to attempt to fit as many people as possible), you can send them back for a full refund, no questions asked (and no money wasted)!
Quote Reply
Re: Thin/light/accurate GPS watch for Open Water Swimming [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
I know that this is from left field, but what about the Amazfit Bip S? This is a new version waterproofed to 5 atm. Includes GPS, OHR and pool + outdoor swimming modes. Automatic upload to Strava and manual creation of GPX files for import where ever you like. It is super small, super light, awesome battery life. Oh, and did I mention that it's practically an impulse purchase at $70 USD. I just got one. I have not been swimming with it yet, so no experiencial report there. And, I've only had it for a couple of days. The screen is small and the text is tiny, definite negatives for me. But in limited running testing, the track and distance were impressive relative to my FR920XT. OHR looked really good, too, compared to a HR strap on the Garmin. Thin enough to sleep with easily, so I get sleep data (which seems good) and continuous OHR, including overnight. Battery life is also awesome. This would not be good enough for my primary GPS watch - the screen and text is just too small for me - and there is no multisport mode. Still, for everyday wear it seems pretty nice and for travel (are we eer going to do that again?) it might be ideal.
Quote Reply
Re: Thin/light/accurate GPS watch for Open Water Swimming [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
I have the 735XT and it works great in open water and the pool. It will record your splits including T1/2 in a triathlon.
Quote Reply
Re: Thin/light/accurate GPS watch for Open Water Swimming [soslow1387] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
soslow1387 wrote:
Anyone tried the Coros Pace in OW? If any good, seems like a good deal at $199.

I am going on two years with Coros Apex and it has been absolute money for every activity. Love it for OWS and pool swimming. It was dead on Stand Up Paddleboarding today using GPS Cardio mode. Crazy good battery life. Risking jinxing it but it has been best electronic gadget Ive bought. Does what its supposed to. Garmin for me has been mostly really good or really bad...no rhyme or reason why one thing works and another doesn't.
Quote Reply
Re: Thin/light/accurate GPS watch for Open Water Swimming [soslow1387] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
soslow1387 wrote:
Anyone tried the Coros Pace in OW? If any good, seems like a good deal at $199.

Works fine, but it's basically the same size as a 945, so probably not what the OP wants.
Quote Reply
Re: Thin/light/accurate GPS watch for Open Water Swimming [snail] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
snail wrote:

I used to have the Garmin Swim watch which was excellent for the pool ... looks like the new version has a GPS function which you can use for open water swimming

Swim 2 is super thin and light. Sounds perfect for the OP.
Quote Reply
Re: Thin/light/accurate GPS watch for Open Water Swimming [sathomasga] [ In reply to ]
Quote | Reply
General reply to this thread. I ended up getting the Garmin 735XT, because people were reporting it measures swim well and it can be used as a basic multi sport watch. I also did not like my Fenix3 for running. I found it too heavy (I am not a fan of doing anything that causes assymmetry and to test this, mid run I would switch it from left to right wrist and you can really see the delta).

I used the 735XT for a run this morning and I set up a custom "brick" as bike + swim + bike which is what I do when I go to swim open water.

The 735XT was pretty well bang on when I was swimming freestyle, back stroke and fly. As we would expect, it was useless on breast stroke and it was useless doing some drills. I think the math would be easy for a software engineer to add the distance that the watch re emerges, but I don't know how calculation are done to account for slip in our strokes (hand leaves water behind where it enters, so in the GPS world it would be like the watch moving forward, then slightly backwards, then back forwards again. If the GPS math has to only add the delta forward, not the full track of where the arm goes measuring forward and backward motion....so I would think breast stroke would simply count as forward motion....no GPS signal say for 50m, and then the iunit emerges and the math could count it as a giant single stroke.

Anyway, I think this meets my needs. Its pretty light and barely noticeable unlike my old Fenix3.
Quote Reply