Garmin Swim Watch

Waste of time – The band will break as all watch bands do, but replacing it wasted months of my life ; I bought several replacements which all promptly broke; the screws that attached the band to the watch are finicky and some simply do not hold the band in place. Garmen could have designed a simple bar that allows any strap to be fitted, but instead we have this… Read more

ridiculously finicky design, designed to break and be replaced, with significant cost. My other complaint is recharging; the recharging cable is like one of those old-school television aerials from the 1950s; you need to hold it precisely in the right place for anything to happen. More often than not, after plugging it in overnight, it would not be charged in the morning. The only way to ensure a charge was to hold the watch and recharge cable firmly and observe it. It usually gives a ‘Battery Low’ warning which is how I know it was actually connected. This warning never appeared when I wore the watch normally. Again, this recharging issue could be fixed by designing a cable that clips in and stays clipped it. Or has this been designed again to prompt sales of recharger cables? Either way, it is a nasty design. All of the watch tracking and GPS functionality are fine, but don’t make up for the time lost trying to fix the band and simply getting the watch to recharge.

Its ok – The watch it's self is good no complaints. I am just an average man 95kg The band it comes with is too small, I need to stretch it to make it fit and then it's uncomfortably tight to fit on the last hole. Can I get a longer band, of course I can but I have to fork out another $45. I don't have an abnormally big wrist, disappointed as it's not fit for purpose until I spend another $45. Show details

Great watch for pool swims – Very accurate, has never missed a beat in 5yrs. Have changed the battery 4 or 5 times no problems. has drill mode so you can kick and do other drills keeping your swim speed separate.

Waste of money – On its second use in the pool, water got in, and it fell apart when I took it off at home. FAIL

Does the job well – Been using mine most days for over four years, with two battery changes and haven't had any problems. It's easy to read under water and easy to pause if necessary. As another reviewer noted, it doesn't use GPS so if you get stopped in a traffic jam part way through a lap it'll record that as two laps (albeit pretty fast ones). But the overall time… Read more

and stroke counts aren't affected so it's no big deal. It's sturdy enough not to mind the occasional brush with a lane rope, and the band is solid and secure with a proper buckle (unlike some devices on the market). The Garmin Connect website is much more comprehensive than a smartphone app.

Sad Ownership Experience – The Garmin Swim Watch came highly recommended last May (2016) and the 'general promise' was that it would run 11-15 months before a battery change was required. The Garmin Swim was good at measuring my 80-120 laps per day in the 25m council pool where I swim. In 6.5 months of swimming 13 days per fortnight for about two hours per session, it's… Read more

accuracy was either perfect or 1%-2% variance maximum from distance swum.

The memory (last 30 measurements) was good.

Sadly, this was all undone by the need to replace the battery just before xmas 2016. I followed the video to the letter. I used proper jeweller's tools to ensure I did things well.

The watch died in the very next session at the pool. A mere minuscule droplet of water got in somehow.

Garmin Australia's response: "Bad luck!" ... It did not matter to them that I was a good Garmin customer. Vivofit 2, two car GPS units for wife and self, bushwalking/orienteering tracker, etc.

My loyalty was not rewarded with an offer or repair or replacement or even discounted repair and replacement.

I contacted Garmin Head Office (USA) and also felt fobbed off by their lazy response.

The only ray of hope was that the local supplier (swimwear & sports gear company WIGGLE.COM.AU) spent a considerable amount of time trying to get GARMIN to make good ... ultimately to no avail.

I use a cribbage scoreboard at the end of the pool to track laps and the four synchronised pool clocks to keep my time. I now whack my records into a spreadsheet. No more Garmin purchases for me. They let me down with the Vivofit 2 and the Swim Watch.

Built to last is garmins starap line – Which is a straight lie. Just over 2 years old. Stops working properly. Company response. Tough. Don't touch this product which works fine til it stops. A lot of money for something with such a low shelf life

great watch but – I have had my watch for 14months it's done the job perfectly but the battery needed replacing so took it to a watch repairer to get a new battery put in it stumped them as there are many seals they replaced the battery but would not water test the watch ,just be aware of this I will contact garmin on1800235822 and will get their advice  Show reply

Awesome till you need to change the battery – I loved this unit till about 18 months later I needed to change the battery. I followed their instructions and even a youtube video, but short of siliconing the back plate back on, I couldn't get the seal perfect enough. So it filled with water and that was the end of it. So if you get this watch send it to the manufacture for a battery change when it goes, it will be costly, but cheaper than a new watch.

Good - but – The major frustration with this watch is that it does not display the correct distance during the session (always a couple of lengths short). This is frustrating because the actual distance measured by the watch is correct (when you check the totals AFTER the session) When I bought the watch it had old firmware and failed to count the correct… Read more

lengths (it also incorrectly detected different swim strokes). After several attempts I managed to install the PC link and updated the watch firmware and since then it has correct counted the number of laps (but still displays the incorrect value).

Actually for people considering the watch this is important to note - This watch DOES NOT CONTAIN A GPS - it detects movement and tries to guess the number of laps and swim stroke from that movement. You must enter the length of the pool and then the watch simply counts laps displaying the estimated distance.

I bought this watch to replace my aging Swimovate which uses the same movement principle to count laps. Comparing the Swimovate to the Garmin - Garmin is a much nicer watch with an easy to understand menu system. The Swimovate is more accurate and cheaper. (I was no longer able to see the small lap count on the Swimovate)

After buying the Garmin another swimmer said that theirs had never worked properly and had died after only a few months. After this morning's swim the inside of the my watch face was totally fogged (so clearly NOT waterproof) hinting mine may be going the same way. He has returned to using his Swimovate Clear display, easy to navigate menu system Doesn't display correct lap count (even if it has counted laps correctly), not sufficiently waterproof