Purchased Form goggles last year and just opening up the package and getting them setup with my Garmin watch. Have yet to use them in open water. Has anyone actually raced in them and what are your thoughts. Are they too distracting for sighting?? Any feedback would be appreciated.
Only used them in the pool so far. Looks like I need a new watch to use them in open water (Garmin 935 not supported).
I dont believe the pace measurements work in open water, only in pools
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I have swam twice in the pool with them and once in the open water. I normally use Roka goggles, so the Form goggles take a bit of getting used to in regards to the depth of the lenses. I do not think they are too distracting for sighting but I have not raced in them yet but plan to at an Olympic race here in a few weeks. They are pretty nice!
Pace measurement works in open water; at least it did when I paired it with my Apple watch (series 6).
Only used them in the pool so far. Looks like I need a new watch to use them in open water (Garmin 935 not supported).
Guess I need a new watch too, I have the 935 as well.
If I remember right, Bluetooth Low Energy is the required feature.
You’ll obviously need the FORM goggles, but in order to pair it up to your watch you need a Garmin Fenix 6 Pro, FR945, or Fenix 5 Plus series watch. Or, on the Apple Side an AW3, AW4, or AW5. In case you’re wondering, the reason it’ll work on a Fenix 6 Pro but not a Fenix 6 regular is that the Pro has more memory space for Connect IQ apps, which FORM leverages. And it doesn’t support older watches because FORM makes the connection to Connect IQ via Bluetooth Smart, not ANT+. And that’s only available on newer devices.
The Fenix 5 series has BTLE (that’s how it syncs with phones). Originally it did not support BTLE peripherals, but that changed with a firmware update a while back. However the watch won’t broadcast data on BTLE, because…Garmin. It could (the chipset supports it), they just won’t update the firmware as of now.
Interested in how accurate the OWS pace is. Running GPS realtime pacing is all over the place, and that should (in theory) be easier/more stable than swimming (speed is higher so the gps error is a smaller % of the distance covered between pings, and the watch doesn’t lose satellite contact due to being submerged).
I’ve used them now for 2 races and the pace was dead accurate. I worked perfectly for the half ironman where I wanted to reel in my effort and keep a pace of 1:26/100yds. Practice with a couple of open water swims. It takes about 5 minutes to get your actual pace (it starts out much slower). The goggles only show you average pace. I’ve been trying to get them to give us an option for a rolling average pace every 100-200 yards.
I thought the FORM goggles in “open water” mode with a Garmin just display the data from the watch? So those data fields are not adjustable from the watch?
I thought the FORM goggles in “open water” mode with a Garmin just display the data from the watch? So those data fields are not adjustable from the watch?
You are correct that it’s getting the data from the watch, but the data fields are configured through the FORM app. The only current fields are Distance, Pace, and Heart Rate.
I thought the FORM goggles in “open water” mode with a Garmin just display the data from the watch? So those data fields are not adjustable from the watch?
You are correct that it’s getting the data from the watch, but the data fields are configured through the FORM app. The only current fields are Distance, Pace, and Heart Rate.
The distance and HR are live measurements, and Pace can only be displayed as average for the workout?
I’ve used them now for 2 races and the pace was dead accurate. I worked perfectly for the half ironman where I wanted to reel in my effort and keep a pace of 1:26/100yds. Practice with a couple of open water swims. It takes about 5 minutes to get your actual pace (it starts out much slower). The goggles only show you average pace. I’ve been trying to get them to give us an option for a rolling average pace every 100-200 yards.
Since GPS error is static (not cumulative) it makes sense that the pace would get more accurate as the distance increases. As you mentioned, the rolling ave. pace would be more useful, since the further you get into the swim leg the less a pace change will impact the average (ex. I could slow down 20sec./100m in the last 1/4 of an IM swim and the ave pace would only drop by 5sec.).
Hi Everyone,
I work for FORM so I can help officially answer some of the questions! I’m replying to this first post, but will cover the basics for our open-water modes. There are two modes:
- Open water with GPS (Compatible watches only) - when connected with a compatible watch (Garmin 745/945, Fenix 5 Plus/Fenix 6 Pro, Apple 3/4/5/6/SE, see here for the full detailed list) you can see the total time on the top line of your goggles, then GPS distance and/or GPS Average Pace/100 and/or Heart Rate on the bottom line of your goggles. The goggles simply relay the information from your watch directly - so it’ll be exactly like you stopping and physically checking your watch (within your goggles, no stopping required!).
The pace/100 is averaged over the course of your swim, and is perfect for pacing yourself in a race!
- Open water (Goggles Only) - without a compatible watch, you can still see the total time on the top line of your goggles, then real-time stroke rate and/or real-time heart rate (connected to a Polar HR Monitor) along the bottom line. This is still great for pacing, as you can find a stroke rate you know you can hold in training, and know exactly how long you’ve been swimming for.
Let me know if you have any other questions, or feel free to PM me!
Hi Everyone,
I work for FORM so I can help officially answer some of the questions! I’m replying to this first post, but will cover the basics for our open-water modes. There are two modes:
- Open water with GPS (Compatible watches only) - when connected with a compatible watch (Garmin 745/945, Fenix 5 Plus/Fenix 6 Pro, Apple 3/4/5/6/SE, see here for the full detailed list) you can see the total time on the top line of your goggles, then GPS distance and/or GPS Average Pace/100 and/or Heart Rate on the bottom line of your goggles. The goggles simply relay the information from your watch directly - so it’ll be exactly like you stopping and physically checking your watch (within your goggles, no stopping required!).
The pace/100 is averaged over the course of your swim, and is perfect for pacing yourself in a race!
- Open water (Goggles Only) - without a compatible watch, you can still see the total time on the top line of your goggles, then real-time stroke rate and/or real-time heart rate (connected to a Polar HR Monitor) along the bottom line. This is still great for pacing, as you can find a stroke rate you know you can hold in training, and know exactly how long you’ve been swimming for.
Let me know if you have any other questions, or feel free to PM me!
Love the goggles in the pool. Swear by them and I’m basically a product pusher even for people without the right watches. That said, is there any shred of hope for Garmin 935 OWS compatibility in the future?
The pace/100 is averaged over the course of your swim, and is perfect for pacing yourself in a race!
As noted earlier, pace/100 averaged over the whole swim is decidedly NOT useful for pacing yourself during a long swim. A rolling pace over the prior 100 (or some other reasonably short distance) is what WOULD be useful for pacing. In the 26.2 run do you only care about average pace over the whole run when you check your watch or do you pay attention to mile splits to know how you are actually doing? Hopefully that metric can be updated- I just got some FORM goggles as a gift and was hoping they would be useful in open water.
Thanks so much, that’s awesome to hear!
Honestly for my own training I’ve actually started exclusively using the goggles-only mode for open water - the real-time stroke rate on it is dead-accurate, and really helps when my coach sends me on different length intervals (say this buoy to that buoy, etc.). I’ve gotten a sense what my tempo, threshold, and fast rates are, and that shows when I’m on track. I have a Garmin 945, but just start that separately to track distance (mostly so I have a map to upload on Strava…)
And you nailed it - the pool swim mode is the most important part, regardless of what watch you have. We (triathletes) end up doing most of our swimming in the pool anyways, right?
As for the Garmin 935… unfortunately I don’t see that ever having compatibility in the future… and it’s not for our lack of trying… we’d love to have it work, as so many people have the 935! It’s a limitation on Garmin’s side. They do allow Connect IQ data fields on the 935 (which is how we connect), but with the older watches, we can’t access the BLE connection. And from Garmin’s point of view, it makes sense to have newer watches have more features to encourage upgrades.
The pace/100 is averaged over the course of your swim, and is perfect for pacing yourself in a race!
As noted earlier, pace/100 averaged over the whole swim is decidedly NOT useful for pacing yourself during a long swim. A rolling pace over the prior 100 (or some other reasonably short distance) is what WOULD be useful for pacing. In the 26.2 run do you only care about average pace over the whole run when you check your watch or do you pay attention to mile splits to know how you are actually doing? Hopefully that metric can be updated- I just got some FORM goggles as a gift and was hoping they would be useful in open water.
It would be nice to have both a rolling average AND total average pace. I’d argue that average pace is MORE important over a long distance as that is what will calculate your final time. A rolling average would be more useful in training for sure.
Even over a marathon, it’s great to know each mile pace, but as things progress (and possibly fall apart) mile splits may not help you (especially if you’re not good a math). Like I said before average pace is useful and definitely better than nothing.
During the 1/2 Ironman it worked great as I started out too hot and was averaging 1:21 pace for the 1st 5 minutes and was able to back off. I let the pace average drift up and started putting more effort in as I approached my goal pace.
They do take some time to get used to as the lens shape is not the best for wide angle visibility, but you get used to it. Once you do, they work great until your lap button gets pushed by accident from the foot or arm of another swimmer, they they become useless. At least it auto powers down so you don’t have to stare at the result screen.
Only major gripe is the need to wear the watch and Form screen on the same side that you breathe to connect. Most where their watch on the left wrist and I would guess right side breathing is most common (Could be wrong). I understand why, but having a BLE antenna that could route along the strap or across the nose Bridge would be awesome. Maybe on v2…