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Best swimming watches to help you improve in 2024

Open-water swim coach and 220 Triathlon editor Helen Webster takes a look at six of the best swim watches on the market

Published: November 23, 2023 at 3:18 pm

Keen to maximise your time in pool or open water? Then analysing your training with one of the best swimming watches available is a good shout. Here are some to consider…

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

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 2024

Garmin Swim 2

Credit: Garmin
  • Price: £219 / $249.99
  • Weight: 36g
  • Display size: 26.3mm
  • Battery life: Up to 7 days in smartwatch mode and 13 hours in GPS mode

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 our full Garmin Swim 2 review.

Coros Pace 2

Credit: Coros
  • Price: £219 / $249.99
  • Weight: 35g
  • Display size: 30.5mm
  • Battery life: 20 days standard use, 30 hours GPS mode

Coros claim this is the lightest multisport watch on the market, weighing in at just 29g including the silicone strap.

Plus, it has a superb quoted battery life of 20 days with regular use and 30 hours in full GPS mode (so more than enough for all but the most hardcore of triathletes!).

As a multisport watch this one will appeal to triathletes as it also has running and cycling modes and the ‘training analysis’ feature allows you to monitor energy and recovery levels.

It's waterproof to 50m and offers metrics such as, pace, time, distance, stroke length, stroke rate and SWOLF, to name but a few.

See our full review of the Coros Pace 2 for more.

Wahoo Elemnt Rival

Credit: Wahoo
  • Price: £199 / $199
  • Weight: 53g
  • Display size: 30.4mm
  • Battery life: Up to 14 days in smartwatch mode and 24 hours in GPS mode

Designed to perform with Kickr and Elemnt bike computer integration, the Rival is a multisport watch which also includes a triathlon, open-water and pool swim mode.

Of most interest if investing in this option though, for most buyers, will be the integration with other Wahoo products and platforms. The ‘planned workouts’ feature also includes TrainingPeaks integration as well as 12 pre-built Wahoo Sports Science workouts.

The week's workouts will automatically sync, allowing you to manage swimming, cycling, and running workouts. Good for time-pushed triathletes!

See our full verdict in our Wahoo Elemnt Rival review.

Garmin Fenix 6X Pro

Credit: Garmin
  • Price: £649.99 / $699
  • Weight: 93g
  • Display size: 36.54mm
  • Battery life: Up to 21 days in smartwatch mode and 60 hours in GPS mode

The release earlier this year of the top-end Garmin Fenix 7 range means there are some good deals to be had on the previous Fenix 6 models.

With the 6X Pro you get a rugged but professional-looking watch with more features than we can possibly list here, including a heart-rate sensor with Pulse Ox capability, a colour screen including maps for running/cycling and a large, sunlight-readable screen.

Multisport logging allows you to monitor triathlon, duathlon and swimrun, while there are standalone pool and open-water swim activity functions, as well with all the stats and info you would expect from a premium multisport watch.

Swim-specific metrics include distance, pace, stroke count/rate, lengths and swim efficiency (SWOLF), plus drill logging, pool swim workouts and pacing alerts for pool swimming.

Polar Grit X

Credit: Polar
  • Price: £369 / $429.95
  • Weight: 64g
  • Display size: 30.48mm
  • Battery life: Up to 7 days in smartwatch mode and 40 hours in GPS mode

Described by the manufacturer as the ‘Swiss army knife of training aids’ this watch has an impressive spec list.

It's designed for multisport, so you get full bike and run and triathlon functions, but the swimming metrics detect everything from heart rate to distance, pace, stroke and rest time, while the battery life of up to 40 hours means you can get all your workouts in without having to worry about losing power.

For Strava fans, it has an ‘upcoming segment’ function, which will help keep you motivated on the bike and run!

Read our full Polar Grit X Pro review for more information and our verdict.

What to look for when buying 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 and 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, for example, 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, or 20 ATM, which 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 recommend rinsing their 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. I

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

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.

Top image credit: Oleg Breslavtsev/Getty Images