I am interested to know which of the two primary swimming trackers, Garmin and Apple watch, you use and why? What are pros and cons of each? If you use neither of those, what do you use and why?
Thanks for your help!
Gary Sr.
I have both and use my Garmin almost exclusively for swimming. I have only used my AW when my Garmin was unavailable (like forgot to charge, or just forgot it). For pool swims, the Garmin is vastly superior because the screen is easier to read and the UI is easier to start and end. You can get the exact fields you want on a Garmin. And, it is way easier to get your Garmin event synced to other platforms for analysis. (AW has no platform, so you need a 3rd party app to capture a swim or sync to whatever else you want.)
I have never done an OWS swim with my AW, but reading DCR’s analysis, the AW is the accuracy king. That said, my Garmin is the second best, and given all the other user experience advantages of the Garmin, I would also choose that for OWS.
I have used Garmin exclusively for pool and OW swimming since the Fenix line was introduced. Since I have never used the Apple watch, I cannot speak to that. As the previous poster mentioned, the Garmin is easy to read, easy to use during some pretty strenuous pool sessions and has always given me the proper yardage in the pool unless it was a user error inputting the yardage for a drill. Seamless integration to TrainingPeaks, Strava, etc. is bulletproof.
I recently did an OW swim with the Fenix6 on my wrist and a Fenix5 in my swim buoy to see how it tracked. At the end of the swim, the watches were within 30m of each other.
This could be the next user poll that Dan sets up (-:
I have used several different Garmins for open water swimming. The lane clock gives plenty of feedback for pool swimming. My personal experience is that the Gps readings are suboptimal at best. Time is not an issue but all the units I have owned have lost signal consistently. Therefore distance and all the metrics can be used as an index at best. I would put it in my swim cap if I wanted accurate distance readings.
Steve
I have used Garmin for bike and run for a number of years.
Recently I acquired a 735XT and a Swim HR.
After 50 + years of swimming I can finally see my HR during a set, not just trying to count beats at the end of one.
I care not a whit that it thinks it can tell what stroke I did.
Seeing some of the metrics are just a bit interesting; though it would be good to see it truly broken down by repeat.
I have tried to plan some workouts via Garmin, but managing them during a workout always had something go wrong for me.
Now, I just hit start and stop for each set.
I know what workout I did.
I used an Apple Watch for swim tracking for a while and it did ok, but was a bit of a pain to start and stop with the touchscreen. It seemed to record everything accurately.
I recently got a Coros Pace 2 and use it and like having the physical buttons to press.
thanks!! huge help.
Form Goggles - no button pushing except at start/finis of the workout and I can see my pace during the swim without looking at my wrist as well as customize what metrics I want to see.
Form Goggles - no button pushing except at start/finis of the workout and I can see my pace during the swim without looking at my wrist as well as customize what metrics I want to see.
+1 Awesome device. Would love to see a lower profile version but that’s me being picky.
Garmin Fenix is my preference. Apple Watch is fine if all you want to do is record total distance and time. It isnt very good at recording individual efforts (100s, 400s etc.). Garmin is just built specific and thus functions much better.
I’m not in the Apple ecosystem, so I have no experience there, but I do use my Garmin to track all my swims.
Pros: customizable screens, pool length, drill mode (can be used to correct missing distance), get heart rate from your wrist on the 945 or from a strap if you can wear one.
Cons: wish I could turn down or off the shrill chirping anytime I hit the lap button, often the watch will miscount the distance when going really fast (like sub 1:00/100y pace, a fast flip turn is too fast for it to register), wish I could get some more detailed metrics from it like distance off the wall, actual stroke length for every stroke, auto-split every 100 without actually creating a new interval, etc.
In general though, since Garmin/Training Peaks/Strava/etc tries to apply the same pace-focused metrics to calculate fatigue from swim sessions, you just have to trust that it all evens out when drills, kicking, pulling, and cords don’t match up with a critical swim speed-effort approach.
Started swimming again in 2016 (stopped in 1974) with a Garmin 920xt. It worked fine until the buttons started sticking. I got a Garmin 945 2 years ago and liked it even more. Once they got the heart rate working without using the chest strap it’s been great! Like others have said, easy to download to training peaks & Garmin. I hope Garmin enhances some of the programming around using workouts. They seem to have it an ok level for running like even suggesting what type of workout you should be doing that day. Tempo/anaerobic/distance… They have a few personal coaches you can select from to guide the training to hit a race goal and training plan. I used it for both a 10k and 1/2 marathon and it worked pretty well. Something like that for swimming would be awesome!
Thank you for your continued support and expertise.
Garmin, because the company’s background in running and multisport means I’ve been using Garmin products reliably for longer than Apple has had it watch out. The range of prices of Garmin products is far wider than Apple, and there’s an entire universe of apps and widgets that play well with Garmin, and Garmin Connect. So I can do a rowing workout and it shows up on Training Peaks. Do a lap swim and it goes to Garmin Connect and Training Peaks. I’ve lost nothing sidestepping the Apple Watch world, and the Garmin products work fine with my iPhone.
thanks, Sharon!
Thanks for your great feedback. I am working on it!!
Yeah, same here - I’m hoping that is coming in the next few years.
Their customer support has been awesome too.
Vivoactive HR → Vivoactive 3 → Vivoactive 4
always within 25 yards on pool swims – you didn’t specify pool or open water.
Inexpensive as you can get a refurbished 3 for less than $100. My used 4 was under $200.
It works the batter life is great.
Form Goggles - no button pushing except at start/finis of the workout and I can see my pace during the swim without looking at my wrist as well as customize what metrics I want to see.
I have always swam with garmin watches for tracking everything, but recently grabbed a pair of the Form goggles, and they’re great. They pick-up stuff where Garmin sometimes misses, and because there’s minimum button pushing, you’re less likely to double tap, or to miss starting an interval to collect the info, it just detects the motion and goes (especially helpful for drill sets, Garmin has drill mode, but it’s manual entry and a pain to scroll to). While the subscription price for the in goggle workouts is a bit obscene, I’m really enjoying the free trial right now, since I do swim solo mostly, so it’s nice to be able to load the workouts and go, and I get way more variety than I would programming my workouts myself, and having to remember or struggle to read a board with fogged goggles… I haven’t tried them for OWS yet, since the water is getting cooler here, and I haven’t upgraded to a supported Garmin model for pairing (still have a 935, which won’t pair with the goggles, since it’s only ANT+ for pairing, it can pair with a phone by bluetooth, but not bluetooth smart which is needed for pairing with the goggles), but I am upgrading soon, and will try them in open water next spring.