Swim 2 by Garmin
Swim anywhere, train everywhere with Garmin Swim 2, the GPS swimming smartwatch. Use it in the pool or in open water to monitor your underwater heart rate at the wrist and to make sure your on track by recording distance, pace, stroke count, stroke type and distance per stroke.
- GARMIN SWIM 2 BUNDLE – Garmin Swim 2 Swimming GPS Watch, PlayBetter HD Screen Protector Film (4-Pack), PlayBetter Portable Charger (2200mAh), USB Charging Cable
- ON-WRIST HEART RATE & 24/7 WELLNESS MONITOR – Provides accurate heart rate readings directly from your wrist with Elevate heart rate technology! Wellness monitoring features include all-day stress tracking, advanced sleep monitoring and more; Counts steps, monitors body battery, guided breathing and tracks workout.
- SWIM MODES + ADVANCED SWIM FEATURES – Allows you to train in bodies of water such as lakes, oceans and rivers while recording your distance, pace, stroke count, stroke rate, stroke distance and SWOLF score. Track rests with the new auto rest feature; know your anaerobic threshold speed with Critical Swim Speed and track time/distance for drills with the Drill Logging feature.
- SLIM & LIGHTWEIGHT + GARMIN CONNECT – Featuring an always-on, full-color Garmin Chroma Display that is easy to read even in direct sunlight; operated by a reliable five-button interface. Pair your watch with a compatible smartphone and download the Garmin Connect app to share, compete and interact with your fitness community.
- ESSENTIAL ACCESSORIES BUNDLE – Keep your Swim 2 looking brand new with our PlayBetter Protective Hard Case + never have your electronics (watch, phone, speaker) be without a charge again with our PlayBetter Portable Charger!
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Mo higgy –
I went from a Vivoactive HR to swim 2. Swim 2 you has 5 buttons. You can not ever change the band, back light turns off in about 30 sec., the watch is still big. Looks cheap , has a few more features than the HR.5 buttons
AlanK –
It accurately tracks my swim laps, I can look at the watch mid lap and see what I’ve done so far. As well as on the edge of the pool.It also allows me to enter in a drill, use the kick board, and record my distance. It then adds that to my totals.There are only 4 exercise options, swim (open swim), running, cycling, and cardio.It also has an auto rest feature that detects when you are resting in between laps – so it calculates your rest time into your swim statistics.It a very (swim) feature packed watch.
Steven –
## 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…
Jay P –
The watch is inaccurate and very limited. For $250 – there are plenty of other watches that would work better.It is NOT accurate in the pool distance swum. It is NOT accurate in strokes (forget about “stroke count”!). It is NOT accurate with “programmed” workouts! It is NOT what it purports to be.Battery life is not reliable. You can be at 1% battery life, plug it in for few minutes and it states your battery life is 100%?! So, you cannot rely on the displayed battery life.The interface is horrible and confusing. You have to press twenty buttons to start and end workouts.You can only upload Swim Workouts?! It’s artificially limited – does not make sense.I would strongly suggest you buy something else – do not waste your money.
Jono –
UPDATE:Today, while running, I noticed the the screen had cracked. It was fine yesterday, I charged it last night, and when I started my run today, I noticed it was cracked about 2 miles into the run. I suspect it cracked during charging, perhaps due to the battery expanding, but that is a guess. Very disappointed. I’ve had an Apple Watch S2 for years, and it has never cracked, despite being charged constantly and being dinged from time to time.I am a few days past a 30 warranty, but hopefully something can be done. I will update this review as soon as I hear any good or bad news. I wish I had gotten a new Apple Watch at this point.PREVIOUS REVIEW:Perfect for Swimming + Running. GPS a bit slow initiallyDoes the job. Plenty of data. Auto lap works. Not sure strike detection is working, not sure where that detection would appear. Syncs with iPhone easily. I wear this when running to/from the pool and while swimming.I wear it with an Apple Watch for comparison to the Swim 2 HR monitor alone and to Swim 2 w/ HR strap and the Apple Watch and Swim 2 are almost identical in all data points.Battery lasts forever.GPS takes a minute to find a signal when first starting an activity, so plan to wait a little before you start moving.I have a older Apple Watch S2, which I don’t trust in the water, but if I were in the market for a new Apple Watch, I’d probably use it instead of this Swim 2, since I only need basic metrics.I do love all the details the Swim 2 provides which the Apple Watch doesn’t currently.
rex –
I swam 1800 yards in a lake, and the watch registered it as 3500 yards. The GPS track was accurate (based on looking at the map), but the distance is recorded as nearly double. I thought maybe I had a faulty unit, so I returned it for a replacement. The replacement exhibits the exact same problem. I tried it with GPS+GLONASS and GPS without GLONASS, same problem. I made sure that GPS was “ready” (connected to satellite) before swimming; I swam freestyle and made sure the watch was not submerged other than during the swim stroke. Clearly this is a software error in how the watch computes distance; I have no idea why it doesn’t just use the GPS data since that appears to be accurate. Many others have complained about the inaccuracy, but I had no idea it would be this bad. I have the latest firmware. This watch has been released for 8 months, so there is no excuse for it still not working. STAY AWAY FROM THIS WATCH UNLESS THEY FIX THE SOFTWARE!! I’m going back to my old Forerunner 910xt, which is far more accurate and reliable.
Bradford Charles –
I bought this watch for open water swims and it works as advertised. But it does so much more than I expected. It keeps track of my steps, my bike ride stats and it notifies me when I receive an Email or text – which sometimes comes in handy during a long workout. I sometimes have issues with the Garmin connect application, but the watch stores my info and it eventually appears in the computer summary.
Jo –
I swim in a 25 meter pool several times a week and I actually look forward to seeing my swimming stats calculated for me by my Garmin Swim 2 watch. I also love the step counter and bicycle tracking. I should have purchased it sooner.