Anyone got one? I’m not in to gadgets, more a speedo and goggle kinda swimmer. But, I’m curious about this device since I tend to do loooong swims. How bulky is it? Noticeable in the pool? Accurate?
It’s bulky, noticeable in the pool if you’re not use to swimming with one on. However, it’s pretty cool for checking out splits and all that fun stuff. When I do my testing I wear it just so I have the data recorded. I also wear it when I do open water swims.
Thanks for the feedback. The bulk is my biggest concern. I quit swimming with the watch a few years ago when I figured out it was easy to keep track of my splits on the deck clock. Whenever I wear one now, I always feel like its slowing me down. I’m guessing that’s probably mental. This thing seems kinda cool though. So does it have a sat capability outdoors for open water?
No GPS, so won’t give you that data.
Check out Ray’s review here: http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2012/06/garmin-swim-watch-in-depth-review.html
Check out Rays review and pics. The Garmin Swim is the LEAST bulky of any of the swim capable watches.
It’s bulky, noticeable in the pool if you’re not use to swimming with one on. However, it’s pretty cool for checking out splits and all that fun stuff. When I do my testing I wear it just so I have the data recorded. I also wear it when I do open water swims.
I think you’re thinking of the FR910XT.
The Garmin Swim is a different unit. In fact, I’d guess (off hand), it’s the slimmest watch Garmin has ever made.
Though, as noted, it only does pool swimming (plus usual date/time/alarm watch functions). No GPS means no outdoor swimming, since it uses an accelerometer to measure distance in the pool.
It’s bulkyMaybe if you are a 10 year old girl 
Anything but bulky. 310 is bulky. The swim is not.
I like mine, a lot.
Two thumbs up on the Swim. Kinda a Speedo and goggles type myself and this device isn’t the least bit bulky. As a DC Rainmaker loyal follower I purchased the Swim after reading his review. Nice for any pool workout but especially the longer sets. Far from a data geek but I have also enjoyed reviewing my swims in GC. The Drill Log feature is nice and I have not experienced a single accuracy issue that wasn’t user (me!) induced!
Anyone got one? I’m not in to gadgets, more a speedo and goggle kinda swimmer. But, I’m curious about this device since I tend to do loooong swims. How bulky is it? Noticeable in the pool? Accurate?
Bought one and returned it, screen unreadable due to fogging.
I got one after reading DC Rainmaker’s review as well…Not bulky at all and very useful for lap swimming since I would always lose count of how many laps I had done.
Got mine this week, compared to my 319 not bulky at all
Keeps track of distance really good, did add 25 on Monday for no reason
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My bad. I thought he was referring to the 910xt. I wasn’t aware there is a Garmin “Swim”…doh
I got one last also but only have one swim with it so far. I also have a Swimsense and that worked just fine also. I’m switching the Garmin Swim so I can get ride of the Finis cradle and just use the Ant stick to upload. Its more of a convenience thing then performance.
I’ve been swimming with the Garmin Swim for 3 months. Having a lot of accuracy problems in the past 2 months. Is typically accurate until I hit the 1/2 mile mark in the pool. Then, starts losing track of swim lengths. Is usually 75-100 meters short for every mile I swim in the pool.
Thanks everyone for the replies. Sounds like the concensus is that its not bulky but some are experiencing accuracy issues. The difference between a good day and a bad day on a long swim (5k or so) is less than a minute. If this thing misses laps, that’s not any more accurate than keeping track via the clock. Seems like its better suited for intervals or shorter sets.
The other thing I wanted to use it for was counting strokes. That way I can go back and see where I start to deteriorate during a long swim. I guess it would likely still work for that.
Like I stated above, I’ve only used it once thus far but have a couple hundred miles worth of swimming with a Swimsense. I’ve found that when the watch screws up and misses a length, its pretty much something I did wrong. I’ve read before that a strong push off the wall is important and I think that in longer sets its easy to push off a little light due to fatigue. I’ve also messed up the length if I glide too much as it also uses no moving time to indicate a turn.
Your interval time will still be accurate so you should be able to tell if the lap count is off and can be corrected, at least in SportTracks anyway.
modified to fix my dislexia
Have one, love it more every time I use it. Like the split info, average / 100m & stroke count. No accuracy issues other than user caused.
I read dcrainmakers review and bought one today. cant wait to give it a try!!
I have been wishing a product like this existed, unfortunately I now must have one.
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I swim with the Garmin 910XT for every swim workout and love it. Is it a touch bulky? Yes, but you forget about it after a while. Are there a few quirks? Yes, the 910xt does not record kick intervals at all, it can record some weird things during drill sets, and it does tend to miss turns on some sprint sets. Overall though I and may coach love to have the hard data that isn’t effected by my warped memory during Vo2 max intervals and distance verification on the longer boring distance intervals where my mind tends to wander. I’ve heard good things about the Garmin Swim though primarily from DCRainmakers website and would love to try it out to see if it corrects some of the issues I have. Good Luck.