Swimmers Buying Guide: 5 Things to Consider When Buying a Swimming Watch
Date Posted:7 March 2016
A swimming watch is a necessary tool for swimmers who would like to measure their performance while training. The common swim metrics you would want to know is your swim distance, pace, stroke type identification, stroke count, and swimming efficiency (swolf). Like any other sports instruments, choosing the best swimming watch depends on what features you want it to have as well how much you’re willing to spend for it.
If you’re out in the market for a swimming watch, here are the five things you need to consider.
- Where do you usually swim?
- Do you plan to use it for activities other than swimming?
- Would you like to track your heart rate while swimming?
- Do you like to pair it with your smartphone to receive notifications?
- How would prefer to transfer your swimming data?
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1.) Where do you usually swim?
Pool Only
If you'll only be using the watch in a pool, the following watches would be great. These swim watches use an internal accelerometer instead of GPS to determine your stroke type, and lengths/laps. When you use these watches in swim mode, you will need to specify the pool length you’ll be training on.
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| Garmin Swim | TomTom Spark | TomTom Multisport |
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| Garmin vivoactive | TomTom Spark Cardio | TomTom Multisport Cardio |
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| Garmin vivoactive HR |
Pool and Open Water
If you’ll be using the watch in both pool and openwater, you will need a watch that has GPS. The following multisport watches use GPS technology to determine your pace, distance and location while out swimming in large bodies of water like rivers, lakes, and oceans. These watches are usually recommended for triathletes.
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| Garmin Forerunner 920XT | Garmin fenix 3 | |
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| Suunto Ambit3 Sport | Suunto Ambit3 Peak | Suunto Ambit3 Vertical |
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2.) Do you plan to use it for activities other than swimming?
Swimming Only
The Garmin Swim watch is one of the best watch designed exclusively for swimming. This means that it satisfies most swimmers’ required comfort, accuracy, user-friendliness and the value of information. You can also set the Garmin Swim to regular watch mode so you can use it as your daily watch.
Swimming and other sports
In addition to swim mode, the following multisport GPS watches can be used for running, cycling, and other sports.
- Garmin vivoactive
- Garmin vivoactive HR
- Garmin Forerunner 920XT
- Garmin fenix 3
- Suunto Ambit3 Sport
- Suunto Ambit3 Peak
- Suunto Ambit3 Vertical
- TomTom Spark
- TomTom Spark Cardio
- TomTom Multisport
- TomTom Multisport Cardio
Swimming and daily activity tracking
The multisport GPS watches below can be used for different sports such as running and biking, and can also monitor your daily steps, distance, calories, and sleep.
- Garmin vivoactive
- Garmin vivoactive HR
- Garmin Forerunner 920XT
- Garmin fenix 3
- TomTom Spark
- TomTom Spark Cardio
- TomTom Multisport Cardio
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3.) Would you like to track your heart rate while swimming?
While the TomTom Spark Cardio and Multisport Cardio have a built-in heart rate monitor, this feature is disabled when them in swimming mode. If you want to track your heart rate while swimming, you would need to use swim watches which can be paired with a compatible chest-strap that can track your heart rate underwater. Below are a few of them.
| Garmin Forerunner 920XT and fenix 3 can be paired with the HRM-Tri or HRM-Swim. | Suunto Ambit3 Sport, Ambit3 Peak, and Ambit3 Vertical can be paired with the Suunto Smart Sensor. | |
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4.) Do you like to pair it with your smartphone to receive notifications?
The watches below lets you receive email, text and other alerts when paired with a compatible smartphone.
- Garmin vivoactive
- Garmin vivoactive HR
- Garmin Forerunner 920XT
- Garmin fenix 3
- Suunto Ambit3 Sport
- Suunto Ambit3 Peak
- Suunto Ambit3 Vertical
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5.) How would prefer to transfer your swimming data?
Transferring your swim data should be quick and easy. The swim watches below allow you to wirelessly transfer your swim data from your watch to your computer with either via ANT+ connectivity, USB, Bluetooth Smart, or Wifi.
ANT+® wireless technology
USB or Bluetooth Smart
- Garmin vivoactive
- Garmin vivoactive HR
- Suunto Ambit3 Sport
- Suunto Ambit3 Peak
- Suunto Ambit3 Vertical
- TomTom Spark
- TomTom Spark Cardio
- TomTom Multisport
- TomTom Multisport Cardio
USB, Bluetooth Smart, or WiFi
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Physical Specifications Comparison
|
Model |
Display resolution, WxH |
Weight |
Battery life |
Water rating |
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55 x 31 pixels |
1.4 oz (40.0 g) |
1 year - CR2032 (user replaceable) |
5 ATM |
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205 x 148 pixels |
38.0 g (1.34 oz) |
Up to 3 weeks (10 hours in GPS mode) |
5 ATM |
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| Garmin vivoactive HR | 205 x 148 pixels | Regular bands: 47.6 g; X-large bands: 48.2 g | Up to 8 days in smartwatch mode (with 24/7 heart rate monitoring, no GPS), up to 13 hours in GPS mode | 5 ATM |
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205 x 148 pixels |
2.1 oz (61 g) |
Up to 40 hours in UltraTrac mode; up to 24 hours in training mode; up to 4 months in watch mode |
5 ATM |
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218 x 218 pixels |
Silver/Dark: 2.9 oz (82 g) |
Up to 50 hours in UltraTrac mode; up to 20 hours in GPS training mode; up to 6 weeks in watch mode |
10 ATM |
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128 x 128 pixels |
80 g (Coral); 86 g (Sapphire) |
14 days (15h battery with 5 sec-GPS accuracy) |
5 ATM |
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128 x 128 pixels |
89 g (Black); 92 g (Sapphire) |
30 days (30h battery with 5 sec-GPS accuracy) |
10 ATM |
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128 x 128 pixels |
74 g |
14 days (15h battery with 5 sec-GPS accuracy) |
10 ATM |
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144 x 168 pixels |
49 g |
Activity tracking: up to 3 weeks, GPS: up to 11 hours |
5 ATM |
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144 x 168 pixels |
50 g |
Activity tracking: up to 3 weeks, GPS: up to 11 hours, GPS + Heart Rate: up to 9 hours |
5 ATM |
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144 x 168 pixels |
50 g |
Up to 10 hours (GPS Mode) |
5 ATM |
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144 x 168 pixels |
63 g |
Up to 8 hours (GPS+HR), up to 10 hours (GPS) |
5 ATM |
Which swimming watch do you think is suited for your needs? Please comment below.
If you're looking for a GPS watch for a certain sport, feel free to check out these buying guides:
- Buying Guide for Runners: How To Choose The Best Running Watch?
- GPS Watch Buying Guide: How to Choose the Best Multisport Watch?
- Fitness Band Buying Guide: How to Choose the Right Activity Tracker for You?
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Comments (1)
Watches for swim training
14 August 2016From the comments in the article above, is the Tom Tom Spark cardio not suitable for both pool and open water swim training? I am a bit confused since this watch has GPS capabilities. I wear glasses and like the large image size on this watch.