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BEST SWIMMING WATCHES TO HELP YOU IMPROVE IN 2023

Open-water swim coach and 220 Triathlon editor Helen Webster takes a look at three of the best swim watches on the market

Keen to maximise your time in pool or open water? Then analysing your training with one of the best swimming watches available is a good shout. Here are some to consider…

Whether you’re training in the pool, in the open water or both, a swimming watch is a good investment to make sure you are getting the most out of your time and effort.

Which one you go for will differ depending on what kind of training you're doing, the metrics you're looking for and how much you can afford to spend.

Garmin Swim 2

Buy from Amazon (£319.64).

Credit: Garmin

Price: £219 / $249.99

Weight: 36g

Display size: 26.3mm

Battery life: Up to 7 days in smartwatch mode and 13 hours in GPS mode

Wanting to keep things simple and buy a watch that just focusses on your swimming? Then the Garmin Swim 2 could be the one to go for.

This smart watch has all the features you could possibly need for both pool and open water, with wrist-based heart rate and both a pool and open-water swim mode. It will log lengths, distance, pace, stroke count, stroke type and SWOLF in the pool and, with built-in GPS, logs distance, pace, stroke count, SWOLF, stroke rate and stroke distance in open water.

It also allows you access post-swim analysis on the excellent Garmin Connect platform. The watch will also sync to your phone to allow message alerts.

For more info, read our full Garmin Swim 2 review.

Coros Pace 2

Buy from eBay (£179.09), Decathlon (£179.99).

Credit: Coros

Price: £219 / $249.99

Weight: 35g

Display size: 30.5mm

Battery life: 20 days standard use, 30 hours GPS mode

Coros claim this is the lightest multisport watch on the market, weighing in at just 29g including the silicone strap.

Plus, it has a superb quoted battery life of 20 days with regular use and 30 hours in full GPS mode (so more than enough for all but the most hardcore of triathletes!).

As a multisport watch this one will appeal to triathletes as it also has running and cycling modes and the ‘training analysis’ feature allows you to monitor energy and recovery levels.

It's waterproof to 50m and offers metrics such as, pace, time, distance, stroke length, stroke rate and SWOLF, to name but a few.

Wahoo Elemnt Rival

Credit: Wahoo

Price: £199 / $199

Weight: 53g

Display size: 30.4mm

Battery life: Up to 14 days in smartwatch mode and 24 hours in GPS mode

Designed to perform with Kickr and Elemnt bike computer integration, the Rival is a multisport watch which also includes a triathlon, open-water and pool swim mode.

Of most interest if investing in this option though, for most buyers, will be the integration with other Wahoo products and platforms. The ‘planned workouts’ feature also includes TrainingPeaks integration as well as 12 pre-built Wahoo Sports Science workouts.

The week's workouts will automatically sync, allowing you to manage swimming, cycling, and running workouts. Good for time-pushed triathletes!

And as always have a chilled day from the Viking