Best swimming watches for tracking your pool and open-water swim sessions in 2026

Keen to maximise your time in your swimsuit or triathlon wetsuit? Then analysing your training with one of the best swimming watches available is a good shout.

Whether you’re training in the pool, in the open water or both, a swim watch is a good investment to make sure you are getting the most out of your time and effort.

The best swimming smartwatches should offer accurate open-water GPS tracking, pool lap swimming, and biometric data.

Which one you go for will differ depending on what kind of training you’re doing, the metrics you’re looking for, and how much you can afford to spend.

Best swimming watches in 2026

1. Garmin Fenix 8

The Garmin Fenix 8 is a big win for swimmers and triathletes, finally bringing the bright, crisp AMOLED screen to the rugged Fenix series. Visibility in the water is excellent, even with quick glances mid-stroke, making it much easier to track splits, time, and heart rate without straining to read the display.

It retains all the multisport power the Fenix range is known for, but the improved screen really shines during pool and open-water sessions. GPS tracking is spot-on, and the swim metrics are detailed and easy to review post-session. For serious swim training or triathlons, it feels like the full package.

It’s still a bit chunky, so the smaller 43mm model is a smart pick for tighter wetsuits or smaller wrists. I tested the 43mm Sapphire version—lightweight but tough. Pricing starts at $999.99 / £869.99, with voice features and call handling now built-in for added convenience between swims.

Read my Fenix 8 first impressions here.

Review by Helen Webster

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2. Garmin Epix Gen 2

Since I reviewed the Garmin Epix Gen 2 and was seriously impressed by its swim performance, its massive price has dropped significantly.

The large, AMOLED display is easy to read in all water clarities, even dark lake water. It’s also waterproof to 10ATM (100m) which is double that of cheaper swim watches.

Its swim features include length, interval and stroke counting and SWOLF and Critical Swim Speed calculation.

Read my full Garmin Epix Gen 2 review.

Review by Helen Webster

3. Garmin Swim 2

Wanting to keep things simple and buy a watch that just focusses on your swimming? Then the Garmin Swim 2 could be the one to go for.

This smart watch has all the features you could possibly need for both pool and open water, with wrist-based heart rate and both a pool and open-water swim mode.

It will log lengths, distance, pace, stroke count, stroke type and SWOLF in the pool and, with built-in GPS, logs distance, pace, stroke count, SWOLF, stroke rate and stroke distance in open water.

It also allows you access post-swim analysis on the excellent Garmin Connect platform. The watch will also sync to your phone to allow message alerts.

For more info, read my full Garmin Swim 2 review.

Review by Jack Sexty

4. Suunto Race

The Suunto Race has a lot going for it and is arguably the brand’s best watch to date. It’s incredibly usable, thanks to the combination of a touchscreen and three buttons, and has an impressive feature list including swimming.

You can use Suunto Race for swimming in pools or open water. Metrics include distance; stroke rate, count and type; automatic intervals; and much more.

The feature list also includes heart rate variability, a useful metric that also steers many other training features such as sleep quality, training stress score and training load. Battery life is impressive at 40 hours in GPS mode.

Read my full Suunto Race review for more.

Review by James Witts

5. Garmin Forerunner 970

Although it’s better known for running, the Garmin Forerunner 970 has lots to interest swimmers and triathletes. The latest model has gained a bright and crisp AMOLED screen, which should be very easy to read in the pool and in murkier open water.

It particularly excels as a training tool. A full suite of high-tech swim metrics cover open water and pool swimming, and during rests it can read your heart rate from a chest strap.

Garmin’s AI-informed Triathlon Coach will suggest workouts as part of a structured training plan to help you reach peak swimming form.

Read my full Garmin Forerunner 970 review.

Review by James Witts

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6. Suunto Vertical 2

The Suunto Vertical 2 is aimed at long-distance adventurers mainly travelling on two feet, but has plenty of swimming features.

First and foremost, the Finnish brand claims the Vertical 2 is water-resistant to 100m, making it safe for prolonged and deep water immersion.

Pool and open-water swim modes number among its 120 activity profiles, and it can record swimming distance, speed and intervals. Its multi-band GNSS should ensure the reliability of its GPS signal during open-water swims.

Although not the largest, its clear AMOLED screen should be easy to read in most water conditions.

The absence of music storage and ANT+ is not a big problem for swimmers.

Read my full Suunto Vertical 2 review.

Review by James Witts

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7. Polar Vantage M3

The Polar Vantage M3 packs in the high-end features from its pricier siblings, the Vantage V3 and Grit X2 Pro, at a fraction of the cost.

While battery life (30 vs. 43 hours) and build quality take a hit, its lighter 1.9oz/53g frame is a plus. The 1.28″ AMOLED display is crisp, and upgrades include dual-band GPS and a blood oxygen sensor.

With solid multisport tracking for triathletes, the M3 also has pool swim tracking and open-water swimming activity options.

Read my full Polar Vantage M3 review for more. 

Review by James Witts

8. Polar Vantage V3

Polar’s AMOLED screen is perfect for clarity in the swim, especially outdoors when it’s dark and grey. As you’d expect for a $600/£500 training watch, it’s packed with all the sports modes you need including pool and open-water swimming.

Positively, it recognises swim styles beyond front crawl, which will be a boon for triathletes who favour breaststroke. This doesn’t transfer to open water, but its GPS is impressive when swimming outdoors.

You can also measure your skin temperature, which is useful in the heat; gauge sleep; see strain of workout; plan your fuelling; and a whole myriad other useful features.

Review by James Witts

9. Coros Pace 3

The third iteration of the Coros Pace range is impressive and good news for athletes that don’t want to spend hundreds on their kit.

Version three retains the same single button and dial, but also adds a touchscreen, which is a nice touch. The 1oz/30g weight and small form factor (1.2” display) ensures it’s hardly noticeable on the wrist, too.

The LCD screen is decent enough, while a battery life of 38 hours in GPS mode or 30 days in standard mode is pretty damn impressive.

There are 20 activity profiles to choose from, including swimming, where they provide a stroke rate data and a SWOLF score. You can upload training plans from the brand’s website.

Cleverly, it detects four stroke types in pool mode: freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke and butterfly.

Read my full Coros Pace 3 review for more.

Review by Matt Baird

10. Coros Pace Pro

The Pace Pro is the first Coros watch to get an AMOLED screen. Its clarity and definition makes it easy to read while wearing swimming goggles, which is a boon for swimming in open water and the pool.

What’s more, the Pace Pro is light at 1.7oz / 49g, undercuts many rivals on price while delivering similiar features and has a 5ATM (50m) waterproof rating.

For swim training, the Pace Pro has pool and open water modes. The former detects all four main swim strokes and can track your laps in different length pools. In open water, you have to swim freestyle to optimise GPS accuracy for distance recording.

Read my full Coros Pace Pro review.

Review by James Witts

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Frequently asked questions about swimming watches

How we tested

All of the watches featured here have been reviewed by 220 Triathlon‘s gear testing team. For this list of the best swimming watches, that includes open-water swim coach and 220 editor Helen Webster, plus experienced gear testers Matt Baird and James Witts. Between them, they have over 40 years of experience testing swimming and triathlon gear.

Before getting a score and appearing on this list, each watch has gone through a series of test swims both in the pool and in open-water. Each watch is tested against a range of criteria, which you can see explained in detail in the next section of this article.

Meet our testers

Qualified swim coach and 220 Triathlon editor Helen Webster has used her expertise and experience to test hundreds of swimming products.

Current BBC Countryfile Magazine editor Matt Baird remains a regular contributor to 220, having published a book on triathlon and completed most kinds of multisport event.

Endurance sport author James Witts is also a prolific gear tester for 220 Triathlon and elsewhere. The former 220 magazine editor uses his sports science knowledge to assess the performance of tri tech.

Former 220 Triathlon staffer and current road.cc editor Jack Sexty is an experienced triathlon racer who represented GB at age-group level.

Features to look for in a swimming watch

Buying a watch for swimming can really help your training and racing. They allow you to track your time in water and at the most basic level (for pool use) will count your lengths for you.

For pool training alone, a basic watch will count the number of lengths for you (a godsend if you struggle to keep count as you swim!), as well as the time swum and your splits, such as time per length.

The best swimming watches will feature a series of metrics for the pool. Then, once you get into open water functionality, adding GPS can open up a whole world of information.

Advanced features will allow you to count drills, will recognise and log different swim strokes (based on the type of movement your arms are doing) and allow you to group your swim sets. Here are a few things to look out for.

Waterproof rating

It goes without saying your chosen watch needs to be waterproof. Many watches will have a rating that allows them to be splashed or worn in the shower. But for swimming and extended periods in the water you’ll want something a little more robust.

ATM ratings are usually used and refer to the number of metres under water the watch can be used. For example, 50 ATM means you can use the watch up to five metres underwater (165 feet), so it would be suitable for swimming but not snorkelling or diving.

We would generally look for at least 10 ATM, which is recommended for extended swims plus diving into water. A watch rated to 20 ATM can withstand impact in water, too (handy if you do a lot of dive starts and/or are a surfer).

You will also want to check that the buttons on the watch can be safely used underwater and also whether the brand has any recommendations around salt water. For example, Garmin recommends rinsing its watches in fresh water after use in the sea.

Activity tracking

Think about what information you want (and will use) when choosing your swimming watch. If you only want to know your number of laps in the pool, then you can opt for a simpler (usually less expensive) watch.

Most of the multisport watches that include a pool swimming setting will also track many other metrics, though, such as time per length/lap, number of strokes, pace and SWOLF score.

In open water, you can set swimming watches to record your time and pace, and many will also give you a lap cue (such as vibrating every 500m).

GPS capabilities

Once you get into open water, you will want a watch with a separate ‘open-water’ swimming function as opposed to pool swimming.

These use the GPS functionality on your watch to measure your speed and also to give you metrics. While a pool watch will recognise when you turn at the end of each length, when outdoors a swimming watch uses GPS to track your speed.

The plus side is you can really measure your pace, which is helpful as conditions in open water can differ. Plus, wearing a wetsuit will change your swim speed.

It’s good to know your open-water pace before entering an event as pool pacing can be deceptive, as we gain speed from a good push-off at each end of the pool!

For the swim geeks amongst us, GPS also allows us to ‘play back’ our swims and look at maps, as well as 100m splits, to see how we performed in each swim.

Check the watch you’re buying has GPS that’s able to track you in your chosen water, though. Multi-band GPS gives a better chance, especially if you tend to swim in areas with sketchy GPS such as some more remote lakes and/or quarry venues.