Garmin Swim 2 GPS 42mm Smartwatch, Swimming watch, Lightweight, Easy to use, Pool and Open Water Smartwatch, Records Distance, Pace, Stroke Count and more, Slate Grey

I have always used Garmin, my first GPS running watch was a Garmin- and when a knee operation stopped me running I took up cycling, a Garmin was fitted on my handlebars. I am now an open water swimmer who is in training for a swim from Alcatraz ( my biggest swimming challenge to date), Garmin Swim2 is essential to my training- when connected to Garmin connect app I can analyse distance, speed, stroke rate, Heart rate and Swolf. I will only trust Garmin to help me with my training and performance.

I was using my iWatch for my cold open water swims, but struggling when the water was very cold to get it to turn off / end, additionally sometimes the GPS didnt seem particularly accurate.No such problems with the Swim 2 - easy to use, the buttons mean it can be paused / splits taken / session ended with ease, additionally the GPS seems much more accurate.An added bonus is the battery life - so much better than my iWatch - it requires charging much less often.In Summary, great, easy to use product, perfect for pool or OW swimming - also able to track walks / runs /bike rides too.Recommended

I brought it because my GP is nagging me to provide 'fitness data', and selected this on specifically because I do a lot of pool swimming.I have had this watch for a few days now and here are my fist impressions.Aesthetics and screenAs a watch (I have analogue hands selected) I can easily read the time with our without the backlight turned on. The display is crisp and clear (although at my age I cant read any text without removing my glasses).This physical depth of the watch body is deeper than I would like, but this is one of the thinner watches on the market; I recognise what has to go inside and this is probably an area that gives engineers trouble for any watch let alone one with GPS receiver and optical sensors for heart rate etc... overall Garmin are probably pushing the boundaries for the state of the art in this area.ComfortFor me the watch strap is too short - I have the larger strap on order, but then I suspected that would be the case before placing my initial order so certainly won't hold that against them.What I am disappointed with though is that in order to have the strap tight enough that the watch doesn't move around on my wrist, then the clip digs in enough that it grazes my skin enough that it is painful. It is perhaps because the silicone strap is so compliment, and the buckle being solid is the bit that will dig in. (when I remove the watch there is a feint outline of the watch body, nothing for the strap and a big indentation, and red marks where the buckle joins the strap.)The smartsAs previously stated I didn't especially want a smart watch. I really hate the whole IOT / Cloud / big data trend and actively try to avoid it, but given that my GP wants the data, and that I don't have the time or patience to write my own data collection app to bypass the Garmin system (let alone reverse engineer the watch to phone comms) then this will have to do.I didn't realise that I needed a smart watch - I probably don't. But I do find the analytics applied to the data it collects really interesting. The sleep and stress monitoring is especially interesting.Now I am sceptical about accuracy, & inferences that are made from the measurements taken, after all this is all derived from a clock, multi-axis accelerometer and a the critical LEDs and Photo Diodes to measure sub-dermal optical scatter and reflection changes as blood pressure changes with each heart beat. I certainly wouldn't want to add Si units of measurement to any of this data, but it is probably enough to get trend analysis. Over time I will take comparative measurements and see just how good the watch is, but for now lets just say that what it is reporting to me has a very strong correlation to expectations and totally non-scientific observations :-)

Perfect for my sea swimming and cycling needs. If you breaststroke then its not for you as the watch needs to be mostly out of the water to keep the GPS connection.

Wanted a devise that did swim lap times and heart rate monitor - lap times are not the best, as often count incorrect lengths and times - heart rate monitor is good and battery life per charge is good - additional features have been a benefit but for the prime reason for purchasing was swim lap times, not very accurate.

Initially gave it a one star, had trouble setting the custom pool length, seemed only to go to 15m, put in the box ready to send back, then read the instructions 😂, actually goes from 0 - 150m, also had trouble initially with the miles when used in the bike mode, again set to uk miles and now me and the swim 2 are the best of buddies, inseparable, has also got a clock on it and an alarm clock etc😉. Modes; swim, cycle etc are really easy to use, swim and miles accurate and reliable, love it, good job I didn't take notice of any of the bad reviews, I always bear in the back on my mind they are written by people like me. 😁

A slight improvement on my Vivosmart+HR. Large clear face and very comfortable to wear.The down side is that I'm having to recharge the battery after every 2 (90 mins) swims. I don't wear it at other times during theday. It also fails to hold a full charge even when not in use.The distance log for pool swims is regularly almost 800m in excess of the actual distance covered in an hour. The "achievement record" is equally inaccurate and suggests my record for 100m frontcrawl is 1min 09sec, almost 20 secs quicker than I normally rep.........all very disappointing!The watch is over engineered with lots of useless data while getting the basics wrong. If this hadn't been a Christmas present I would have returned it.Update: 9 months on the distance calculator is still hopelessly inaccurate. Not suitable for serious swimmers but OK for jogging.Update: At a 2.2 KM swim today the watch recorded 3.2 KM. I also set a new world record 29.00 secs for 100m...........hopeless and continues to be so!This watch is not as advertised and certainly not appropriate for competitive swimmers.

I had a really good look through the reviews here and elsewhere before purchasing. It does what is says, it is a paired down version of the top end Garmin's but bespoke to swimming. Most critism here is it lacks the function of other Garmins, however it is very clearly purpose built for swimming so that doesn't matter. Lap counter is accurate...ish, sometimes adds an extra length on longer 1km+ swims than where I am up to but nothing to complain about. For shorter sprint sessions and interval work it doesn't miss a beat.