Garmin Swim 2, GPS Swimming Smartwatch for Pool and Open Water, Underwater Heart Rate, Records Distance, Pace, Stroke Count and Type, White

Update 16June2022: I just want to give a shout out for Garmin phone support. I was having trouble getting GPS to find satellites this summer, and it was losing track mid swim. Mary Beth at Gamin support walked me through several paths to finally get the find time down to under a minute. She was patient and seemed genuinely interested in solving my problem -- a rare event from support lines these days. I'm still loving my Swim 2 after nearly a year. ------- original review -------------- My earlier Garmin Forerunner 310XT wrist GPS takes forever to achieve satellite lock, and it showed me zipping back and forth while I was open-water swimming, so I needed something new. It's all in the software, because a watch on your wrist will lose a satellite or two while it's under water, and the software needs to adjust for this and not think you have zoomed at high speed to the point where it regains satellite lock. Garmin has been working on this issue for some years, (as have others) and I'm very pleased with the results. I also borrowed an Apple watch for a few open-water swims. Tracking was excellent, but it has a feature that locks out any screen actions while swimming, making it somewhat difficult to control. Also, the Garmin is really built for swimming, so it has many more swimming metrics besides speed that make tracking your progress easier. The other advantage is that the Swim 2 software interface is very smooth on a PC, whereas you have to interact with an Apple watch with an iPad, Mac, etc. (There may be options for the interface that I'm not aware of.) The real killer for my use of the Apple watch was that it was less reliable reading my pulse while swimming. Both Apple and Garmin use optical pulse measurement, which is a bit dicey in the water (both say to adjust the band tight but comfortable), but often I would finish a swim to find that the Apple watch had not recorded my pulse at all. The Garmin may make some mistakes occasionally, but it keeps doing the best it can. Controlling the Garmin is not as intuitive as the Apple watch, but once I got used to it I didn't start activities unintentionally or make similar mistakes too often. On balance, the Garmin Swim 2 is a keeper and has replaced my Timex Triathlon as my main watch. The alarm, timer, and stopwatch features are more flexible than the old Timex and get a lot of use.

Good watch has held up for over two years now. Good durable watchband as well. I down loaded and printed the directions 12 pages. Battery is weak if one uses the heart rate mode etc. I only use mine for open and closed water swimming. GPS works well. The lap counter is also accurate. The stroke rate I assume is accurate as well. Manually set if swimming anything but free.. I don’t even try as I would have to wear glasses to see what was what on the face, and my reading eye site is not terrible. Not bulky or heavy which is a plus.

This watch replaced a Garmin Venu Square that stopped charging. Since this watch is more expensive I picked up the 3-year warranty on this one. Pros: Simple to use. Outside rim of the watch protects the bezel nicely. Looks good. Accurate GPS built in. HR monitor matches well with built-in HR in exercise equipment. Looks pretty good for a fitness tracker. Cons: Only one Cardio option. Pricier than the more flexible Venu Square. Can't customize display for fitness use. No Walk event tracking. I have been sticking with Garmin because I need accurate HR monitoring in the water, and most trackers disable their HR on swim functions. These seem to do a good job with that, and if you are an avid swimmer this would be a great watch for you. It has swim tracking and logging functions that I don't use, so I can't speak to those. With this watch being so much more expensive, you don't need your smartphone for the GPS to function, but I'm a little disappointed that there's only one, generic Cardio event for tracking. Otherwise there's Pool Swim, Open Water Swim, Cycling, and Running. I suppose you could use the Running Event to track a walk or hike. Wish List: Break Cardio event into a variety of events only distinguished by there name, for more easy history analysis in the Garmin Connect app. I would like to customize what's shown on the display screens during a recording event. For instance, when swimming I want to see distance, elapsed time and HR on the main screen. Instead, all you can see is the interval distance and time, with unused space at the bottom. So, all that being said, I like this watch. While there are some things I wish it would do, generally speaking it just works. I like not having to mess with a screen protector like I've had to with my earlier, raised bezel models. If you don't mind that, always have your smart phone on you, and need more flexibility, check out the Venu Square, but get the protection plan!

Such an amazing watch. Been using it for about 2 months to test out battery life and in the swimming pool and battery last about 7 to 8 days before I have to charge again. In the pool it counts the laps and vibration to let me know that I have completed the work out it's on point different give it a 5 star

Great swimming watch. And the distance always show while you are swimming a feature not shared a a certain, fruity competitor’s watch ( unfortunately). They are worth the money and last 2-3 years ( i swim 1.5 miles 4-6x a week).

## ONE YEAR REVIEW ## Still very happy with this watch as a triathlete. I learned a few tricks with watch and app. I am updating my previous review. I still keep this watch at 4/5 stars. #UPDATED REVIEW# Well, first time buying a Garmin watch and I really like it. I was used to a running/biking GPS “watch” before this. I’m starting triathlon training and I really needed something polyvalent, especially for swimming. I think this watch is the perfect match. #swimming: it tracks very well all your lap as long as you give it a nice push from the wall. The drill function works well too even if you can’t rest at all when drilling otherwise it will calculate all the data wrongly. Open water GPS works well. I know some people are saying that it does not work properly, I have to agree it did glitch a few times for me. But you know it right away and it was only a couple of times... the app provides a lot of data about your swimming, like it is actually insane! At my level, I’m sure I am only using 25% of its capability lol. # running: basic functions, nothing too fancy=speed, avg speed, heart rate, etc. You can switch between pace mode or speed mode. # biking: exact same as running mode. No issue with the vibration of the pavement. # cardio: nothing fancy, just records your heart rate and calories based on heart rate. #pros: really nice looking watch, especially in white. Love it for swimming and for any triathlon training/event. GPS works well (up to 200/300m difference over 10km compared to other GPS device). No main issue at all for this watch. Battery, if not connected to phone via Bluetooth, lasts forever honestly. Only played with app on phone so far, pretty sure the soft on computer is good too. Customer support is pretty helpful and efficient. #cons: GPS takes awhile before connecting sometimes, like 6-10min. Which is kinda really long when seating in the car ready to go... GPS does glitch badly sometimes, but it is pretty rare and you know right away when something is wrong. Disappointed that it does not recognize your swim exercice more accurately. Watch does not give maximum speed for any mode, you can only find out your top speed once you downloaded the data to your phone and use the app... the sleep mode is not as good as other smart watches and also does not sync with your alarm set on your phone (so the watch does the maths itself for when you go to bed and wake up, so usually pretty wrong). You cannot edit your personal records, like the “categories” are pre set by Garmin and you can’t do anything about it (like 10km, half marathon and nothing else for running...). Price is kinda pricy (still a year later), especially for athletes with no big budget. I’m sure it would have much more success if it was at $199/219...

This short story may become a novel, so buckle up! I am sure Garmin makes solid products, and I did plenty of research before buying the Swim 2. I was pleased with an outdoor swim(s) I did and feel it was accurate in using the GPS to calculate distance. The LAP POOL however, is an entirely different story. The watch was not even close in calculating my distance. It seems to think I swam a 'mega lap' as in it did not recognize that I ever turned. Sometimes I use a kick turn, sometimes not. I do not think you should have to have perfect form for this watch to know when you turn! I use an Apple Watch, which has plenty of problems, but it is never that bad. It recognizes my turns. Side note, I am one of the best swimmers at my gym. I know what I am doing. There is no way the Swim 2 can be that bad, or it would be returned all the time. Here the plot thickens, not for the better. I am in a near month long saga with their customer support, which has pushed me beyond the ability to return the watch through Amazon. The first Garmin agent to help me identify that the watch didn't recognize my turns, to which I responded how sad that is, given the crappy Apple watch can do it. The agent turned the case over to their tech support and said he would get back to me asap. I never heard back from him! I called back, and the next agent said they were 'still working on it.' A couple of weeks passed and I heard nothing further. Today I called and had a lengthy conversation with yet another agent. He put me on hold and claimed to reach out to anyone familiar with my case. He returned from hold to relay a question from an agent familiar with my case asking whether I had ever returned a Garmin watch before. I told him it was my first Garmin product, so no. I also asked what the heck that question had to do with my present watch, and why tech support (who supposedly have been hard at work trying to see find a solution) would ask such a question. He did not have a good answer. That whole exchange left me doubting whther anyone from tech support seriously looked into my case at all. Our conversation continued, and the agent suggested at first that I exchange the watch for another to see what would happen. We discussed upgrading, and I mentioned there is a Garmin product that is a solid upgrade but only $20 more dollars. I told him I didn't buy it initially because I really had done my homework on the Swim 2. He claimed they have an array of other watches that track swimming and that they are superior in performance to the Swim 2. One would think at that point he would offer such a watch in exchange for the piece of crap Swim 2, and in consideration of their poor customer service (never calling me back for weeks, and not resolving the issue), but nope, he went into the standard "the system won't allow it routine." This call went on for over 50 minutes. I had to be on hold at a haircut appointment. I was shocked at how readily the agent pivoted to telling me Garmin would simply like to refund my money. That is going to be yet more time commited from me, sending them proofs of purchase, packaging the watch, and sending it back to get a refund. What a joke and a waste of my time. The agent, should the Gods ever get this message through to him, has essentially said that NO Garmin product can accurately measure lap swimming. That is preposterous, but that's what I am left with; a terrible waste of time, and terrible service. Also his familiarity with their products was poor in that after yet another hold, he realized that all of their watches regardless of tier, use the same geo-synchronization turn recognition technology. So in the end, he was dead wrong about the Swim 2!!!! I am really bummed that this company made no sincere effort to help me, and gave up so easily. I cannot recommend the Swim 2, and I especially cannot reccommend Garmin on the basis of their service. I rarely write reviews. I am no hater or troll. Writing is taking my precious time, but I hope for some good karma for helping other customers to avoid what happened to me.

Pros: ease of use Ability to turn off and on alerts in app Easy to track workouts Easy buttons (up, down,back, etc) Love the connect app Love the simple screen. Day. Time, steps and yards swam. I don't need more info off the bat Cons: The band gave me a rash :( and will change it Gave 5 stars due to simplicity of use, battery charge lasts 1 week and also alerts management

Love this watch. Simple and does the job.

I used the previous Garmin watch for about 10 years and was very nervous about switching to this one as the next step. But I’m finding that this watch is perfect for me. Its easy to use and very accurate. Good for lap swimming. I’m really glad that it works with Garmin Connect so I can continue viewing my swim history online. It syncs easily so I can see my number of strokes number of laps and all the other data. I know that you can see it on the app on the phone but it’s very difficult to see history with watches., but Garmin Connect keeps me coming back to Garmin. And why not? They have great swim watches!

Product works the way it suppose to. Fast delivery!

Excelente dispositivo, atractivo y funcional para sumergir en el agua

Love my Swim2. Easy to use , clear watch face that I can read without glasses. Love the GPS tracking of ocean swims. Highly recommend this product.