6 Best Swim Watches for Dominating the Water

Ready to take your swimming to the next level? Here’s an expert look at the best waterproof watches and smartwatches for swimming.

Swimming is one of the best activities to get and stay in shape. Cardio, meditation, muscle building, stronger lungs—you name it, swimming will help you do it.

For those who like to take the power of traditional fitness trackers and use that supercomputing power on their wrists to measure and monitor their activity levels, whether it’s heart rate, distance, or even time spent in different energy zones, there are a variety of swim watches available for the aquatic athlete.

And fortunately for you, over my 30+ years as a competitive swimmer, 2x Olympic Trials qualifier, and now 6x a week semi-competitive lap swimmer, I’ve tried them all.

Here’s the best of the best.

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The Best Watches for Swimming

Here’s a quick look at our top choices:

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Ultimately, each swim watch comes packaged a little differently.

Every watch and smartwatch for the water-bound athlete tracks the basics of swim training—distance and time—but if you want to take your swimming to the max, there are a bunch of other metrics to track and measure, including:

• Lap counting
• Splits
• Stroke Count
• Stroke Detection
• GPS for open-water swimming
• Easy to access screen to check splits, time, etc
• SWOLF scores

And so on.

Next, we will do a deep dive with each swim watch to show what kind of swimmer is right for each watch, key pros and cons, and key features to look for.

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Apple Watch

✅ Best-in-Class: Smartwatch for swimming

Apple makes exceptional gear, and while they aren’t known specifically for being swim or multiport tech makers, the Apple Watch 8 does everything that those watches do and more.

The Apple Watch is water-resistant to 50-meters, and has a built-in swim app that covers everything from splits, volumes, what stroke you are doing, pace, and stroke count. For the open water and triathlete swimmer, when GPS-enabled, the app can also paint your swim out on a map.

Apple’s add-on app called Water Lock allows you to lock the screen when you are in the water to prevent accidental touches and clean out the watch’s speakers when you are finished in the water.

(Tip: To end your swim workout, press and hold the dial and let the Water Lock feature unlock the screen so you can end and save your swim.)

The Apple Watch includes all the other features of a smartwatch that make it awesome for the pool and your dryland training, including optical and electrical heart sensors, a beautiful retina display, and endless customization options in terms of wrist bands and apps.

For swimmers who want more ideas, more metrics, and more flexibility in uploading their own swim workouts, there is an abundance of third-party apps, including Swim.com and MySwimPro, which have a deep library of workouts, drills, training videos, and much more.

Beyond the insane accuracy of the Apple Watch, it’s also the only smartwatch for swimming that tracks kick without you having to go back into the app and make manual edits.

(For more information on how rad this watch is for swimming, check out my in-depth review here: Apple Watch for Swimming — A Review from the Lap Pool)

This is the only tracker or smartwatch I’ve ever used (or heard of) that has this feature, and it was a software update at the end of 2022 that made tracking kick possible.

My Apple Watch has taken over daily driver duties of being my workout tracker of choice. Its thin profile is barely noticeable on my wrist while swimming (particularly when compared to bulkier watches and trackers I’ve used in the past–ahem, Garmin Fenix), and as mentioned, it’s far and away the best at tracking laps and distance accurately during my swim workouts.

While the Apple Watch is among the most expensive swim watch on our list–although not as expensive as the Apple Ultra, which most swimmers do not need in terms of its 100m+ depth diving protection–its accurate native app, easy integration with top-tier third-party swimming apps, peak accuracy, and the fact that it tracks kick sets have it firmly at the top of my list.

✅ PROS	❌ CONS
Only smartwatch that automatically tracks kicking	Battery life is fairly short
Excellent lap counting and distance accuracy
Customizable dashboard to see the stats that matter most to you
Thin casing; barely notice it on your wrist when swimming

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Garmin Fenix 8

✅ Best premium multiport swim watch

The Garmin Fenix 8 is the watch for swimmers who like their laps but also like to get after it outside of the pool, too.

That means for swimmers who also do open water swimming, triathlon training, hiking on the weekends, logging trail runs, or hitting the gym, the Fenix 8 logs it all without having to use separate devices.

Like Garmin’s other watches, including the discontinued Garmin Swim 2 (RIP), the Fenix tracks the all of the basics that swimmers prioritize:

• Distance
• Pace
• Splits
• Stroke count
• SWOLF
• Heart rate
• Detailed workout summaries

My favorite feature is the “Training Effect” analysis. After you’re doing swimming, it shows how you much of your workout was aerobic vs anaerobic and a detailed measurement of how much time spent in each energy zone.

Awesome for seeing what your body is actually doing in training and helps you plot better workouts moving forward.

Garmin doesn’t offer a built-in swim coach like they do with running and cycling, but you can build workouts of your own in the Garmin Connect app or upload workouts and training programs from third-party platforms like Training Peaks.

For swimmers who like balancing hard work with hard recovery, the Fenix has your back here too with a Training Readiness score, which combines stuff like:

• Sleep duration and quality
• Heart rate variability
• Recent training load
• Recovery metrics

And then estimates how prepared your body is for another hard workout, with a recommended timeframe before your next big session.

Although I love my Garmin Fenix as a daily driver watch, there are two big trade-offs for serious swimmers looking for a watch:

The Fenix is a big watch. It’s noticeably thicker and bigger than most swim watches because of the stainless still or titanium construction. This thing is built for action, not for perfect hydrodynamics in the water.

Doesn’t track kicking. You have to manually scroll to the “drill timer” on the watch and start and stop it, while setting the distance for the drill, if you hope to log those meters.

For many open water, triathlete, and freestyle-focused swimmers, the kick thing isn’t a big deal, but it’s a bit disappointing for those of us who like to kick on a board a lot—especially at this price point.

Ultimately, the Fenix 8 is an incredible watch.

For swimmers looking just for basic workout tracking, the Fenix 8 is honestly more watch (and cost) than you need.

But if you’re looking for one premium watch that can handle swim training and handle everything outside of the pool at an elite level, the Fenix is your best bet.

✅ PROS	❌ CONS
Best premium multisport swim watch	Definitely not cheap
Excellent battery life (2 weeks or so)	Larger and heavier than most swim watches
Comprehensive and accurate swim tracking with detailed metrics (SWOLF, pace, splits, stroke count, heart rate, Training Effect, zone training, etcetera)	Doesn’t automatically detect kick sets; requires Drill Mode
Accurate multi-band GPS for open water swimming	Overkill if you are looking for a swim-only watch
Garmin Connect ecosystem to build your own workouts, upload practices and programs from popular third-party platforms
The raised buttons are easy to find and use when working out in the water

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Garmin Vevu 4 Smartwatch

✅ Best swim watch for function and style

The Garmin Venu 4 is the swim watch for swimmers who want Garmin’s excellent swim tracking without wearing a watch that looks like you are trying to join SEAL Team Six.

The Venu 4 blends Garmin’s powerful training ecosystem with a slim and stylish design that’s as comfortable swimming down the black line as it does at the office.

The watch tracks everything most swimmers care about, including:

• Laps and total distance
• Stroke count and stroke type
• SWOLF
• Heart rate
• Pool and open water swims
• Critical Swim Speed (CSS)
• Drill logging for kick sets and other swim drills

The Vevu 4 is sleeker than the bulkier Fenix lineup, and also slightly smaller than the current crop of Forerunners. It has a lightweight case (reminds me a lot of the Apple Watch, to be honest) and it you have smaller wrists—or don’t want a massive watch face dominating your arm—the Venu is the smarter option.

And because it’s a smartwatch, you get all the fun features outside of the pool like texting, taking phone calls, pairing with your smartphone apps, using Garmin pay, monitor sleep and recovery, and so on.

Battery life is also excellent and can be stretched out to around 12 days when you use the battery saver mode.

Like the Fenix, it can’t automatically detect kickboard work (it has to be manually added afterwards if tracking it is important to you).

The Vevu 4 is a beautiful watch that also performs awesome in the water, delivering all the tracking goodness of Garmin watches with a refined look that shines away from the pool, too.

✅ PROS	❌ CONS
Best smartwatch for swimmers who want excellent swim functionality and good looks	Doesn’t automatically detect kick sets
Slim, lightweight design that’s comfortable in and out of the pool	Premium price compared to entry-level swim watches
Tracks pool and open water swims
CSS, SWOLF, stroke detection, and Drill Log
Excellent battery life—up to 12 days
Comes with Garmin’s health, recovery, and smartwatch features

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Fitbit Versa 4 Smartwatch

✅ Best budget-friendly swim smartwatch

Not everyone needs a $500 smartwatch to keep track of their swimming. Fortunately, there are some options that give you a touchscreen, a lot of the basic swim tracking functionality, and friendlier pricing.

The Fitbit Versa 4 covers the essentials at a lower price, making it an excellent option for fitness swimmers and casual lap swimmers who simply want to record their workouts and stay active.

Fitbit has been a big player in the wearable market for a while now, with a popular and best-selling line of smartwatches and watches for every budget and age group. With 5ATM waterproofing, the Versa 4 logs and displays your swim workout with crystal-clear precision.

It tracks:

• Distance
• Laps
• Duration
• Pace
• Calories burned

The Fitbit ecosystem–now powered by Google’s Android–is designed around being active and healthy, with features like Daily Readiness Scores for assessing how hard you should push it at the pool today. Detailed sleep tracking, GPS for outdoor workouts, and about a week’s worth of battery life on a full charge.

The biggest drawback is that you aren’t going to get the same depth of detailed training information as a Garmin or Apple Watch. If you love nerding out on interval analysis, energy system contributions, and so on, you’ll run into its limits.

For more casual lap swimmers, who maybe aren’t obsessed with splits and stroke counts, the Fitbit Versa 4 is a powerful and reliable smartwatch for tallying up and tracking your time in the water.

✅ PROS	❌ CONS
Excellent value pick	Swim metrics are fairly basic
Built-in GPS for outdoor swimming	No advanced swim features
Daily readiness score and industry-leading sleep tracking	Better suited to fitness swimmers than competitive swimmers
Lightweight and comfortable
Smartwatch features like Google Wallet, Maps, Alexa, and Bluetooth calling

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Timex Ironman Classic Watch

✅ Best watch for swimmers who take their own splits

The Ironman watch has been around for as long as I can remember. For years, it was the preferred watch of swimmers, triathletes, runners, and so on.

Of course, with the massive surge in computing power and features in the most recent smartwatches, the Timex Ironman can seem quaint, a relic of the past to be left with dial-up internet and VHS tapes.

But if you want a simple, no-frills watch for your lap swimming, and don’t mind hitting the buttons on the side of the watch at the end of each lap, then the Timex Ironman watch serves up an equal dose of wrist-based split keeping and nostalgia.

Water-resistant up to 100-meters, with a 100-hour chronograph and 30-lap memory, the Timex Ironman is a great and simple watch for swimmers who want the timeless look of a Timex with basic functionality.

✅ PROS	❌ CONS
Affordable and easy to use	No automatic lap or distance tracking
Large, easy-to-read display	Requires manual start/stop
100-hour chronograph with 30-lap memory
100m water resistance
Excellent battery life

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Swimovate PoolMate 2

✅ Best no-frills swim watch for counting laps

Not every swimmer needs or wants a smartwatch on their wrist.

A lot of swimmers solely want a swim watch to accurately count laps and records their swim workouts without the apps, touchscreen, notifications, or another device that needs to get plugged in at the end of the day.

The Swimovate Poolmate2 is that watch.

It is a dedicated swim watch that uses motion sensors to detect your strokes and count laps with excellent accuracy. Over the span of a recent 4,200m swim workout (short course), it tallied up every length. It also tracks distance (helpful for when I lost count), pace, speed, SWOLF, and stores up to 50 workouts for later review.

Unlike most budget swim watches the PoolMate2 can also help you log your open water swims by estimating distance swum via a strok calibration feature. While it won’t give you the same “zig zag” map that GPS can provide, it’s still a great way to measure those outdoor swims.

The strength of the watch is also its simplicity—the PoolMate2 doesn’t hook up to any apps or devices so workouts live on the watch, making it best suited for swimmers who value true simplicity instead of connected data and features.

✅ PROS	❌ CONS
Excellent swim watch for counting laps	No app or cloud syncing
Learns your stroke quickly and accurately	Design quality has been inconsistent on some recent units
No-frills design; made specifically for lap swimming	Affordable, but lacks features of watches that are only slightly more expensive (e.g. Garmin Forerunner 55)
Tracks SWOLF, pace, stroke count, and more
Open water mode for tracking distance swum
Affordable; costs around $100

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What to Look for in a Swimming Smartwatch

Swim watches have come a long way in recent years, and with each passing year, there seems to be a fresh wave of performance upgrades.

Which can make sorting through all of the options, which are constantly changing, a little tough.

Here are the key things to look out for when choosing the perfect swim watch for you:

⭐ Waterproof rating.

All of the watches on this list are rated water-resistant in varying degrees. The Apple Watch, Samsung Active2, for example, can be submerged into 50m depth of water which is more than enough for swimmers.

⭐ Tracking.

Laps, distance, turns, strokes, splits—can the smartwatch track all of the essentials when it comes to nailing your swim workout?

Each swimmer values different metrics and rates their swim workouts by different stats. While time and distance are the two big obvious metrics, there are tons of new data sets that swimmers can use to measure and motivate performance in the water.

Time spent in specific training zones, training effects, and more. SWOLF is a popular new metric that is almost standard in most watches designed for swimming laps.

More on SWOLF here: What is SWOLF in Swimming?

⭐ Heart rate monitoring.

Wearables, and swim watches are no different, primarily use optical heart sensors to see how fast your blood is moving, producing heart rate data. While fairly accurate, optical heart rate monitoring isn’t perfect.

For peak accuracy, invest in a chest strap—a study¹ done by the American Medical Association found wearables were not nearly as accurate as a chest strap for accurate heart rate tracking.

⭐ GPS.

Open water swimmers looking to track their swim workouts, whether it’s time, distance, or just seeing how straight (or not) they are swimming will want to opt for a swim watch with GPS.

Pro Tip: For maximum GPS accuracy during open water swim, put your smartwatch in a swim buoy. Sounds silly, but the constant connection to the satellites above gives you a more detailed and accurate mapping of your swim.

⭐ Lap and distance counting accuracy.

The accuracy of swim watches and trackers is paramount. After all, if it’s miscounting (or worse, not counting at all), much of the value in wearing one goes out the window.

In my own testing, the Apple Watch is the easy winner for accurately counting how many laps I’ve swum over the course of a workout.

The Apple Watch also gets HUGE bonus points for the fact that it’s the only swim watch that can track kicking on a board.

⭐ Third-party apps.

While many swim watches have native apps for measuring and logging your swim, watches like those made by Apple, Garmin, and to a lesser extent, Samsung, offer third-party apps.

These can be great for loading workouts to your watch and joining an online community of swimmers.

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The Bottom Line

You and I both know that swimming is one of the best activities on the planet. Nothing quite beats a good swim, except for the feelings of accomplishment when we get out of the water.

Adding a quality swim watch to the mix can help take your swimming even further.

By being able to measure and track your performance in the water, you have a blueprint moving forward and a source of motivation for days when you aren’t quite “feeling it.”

Among the best swim watches on the pool deck, the Apple Watch stands out for its beautiful screen, exceptional accuracy, the fact that it can track kicking on a board (!), and its sleek casing. The Apple Watch also gives you more data than you could ever dream of, from stroke counts to splits to heart rate tracking.

While the battery life isn’t so great (it requires a daily charge), it’s heads and shoulders above the competition.

Here’s a full recap of our top choices:

Choose the swim watch that is perfect for you, and take your swimming to new heights.

Happy swimming!

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