Almost every smartwatch these days is water-resistant and can withstand a swim in the pool or even an open water swim. However, some are far superior to others in terms of accurately tracking your swims. Thus its essential to search for the best waterproof smartwatch.
With more smartwatches now capable of distinguishing between breaststroke and front crawl, it can be difficult to choose between all of the best options.
A smartwatch has a plethora of features and can track vital health and fitness data. Checking whether or not a smartwatch is water-resistant is one of the considerations you should make when purchasing one. Smartwatches nowadays offer water resistance and can be used while exercising or swimming.
When buying a smartwatch, you should think about things like dial size, battery life, and build quality. A smartwatch with a long battery life eliminates the need to charge your watch daily.
Here are a few of the Top Waterproof Smartwatches
Samsung Galaxy Watch 3
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 is powered by an Exynos 9110 chipset and has a circular 1.4-inch Super AMOLED display with Corning Gorilla Glass DX protection. It is water-resistant and suitable for swimming. It has an accelerometer, heart rate sensor, and gyroscope, as well as 8GB of internal storage. The smartwatch has a fall detection feature that sends an SOS to your emergency contacts. It measures your SpO2 levels using a red LED and infrared rays, allowing you to monitor the oxygen saturation in your bloodstream.
Apple Watch Series 6
The Apple Watch Series 6 is one of the best smartwatches on the market, thanks to its constant refinement and tight integration with the Apple ecosystem. It is available in two sizes: 40mm and 44mm. It has a heart rate monitor, blood oxygen saturation monitor, GPS, and the option of cellular or non-cellular connectivity. Swimming can also be done while wearing the smartwatch. It is one of the best smartwatches available and includes a variety of fitness features.
Amazfit GTS2 Mini
The Amazfit GTS2 Mini has a 1.55-inch AMOLED display that can be customised with watch faces. It has a heart rate sensor and allows you to monitor your blood oxygen levels. The waterproof smartwatch has a sleep quality monitor, a stress monitor, and over 70 sports modes. It has a water resistance rating of 5 ATMs, allowing you to use it while swimming. The watch’s battery life is claimed to be up to 21 days on a single charge.
Fire-Boltt Beast
The Fire-Boltt Beast smartwatch has a 1.69-inch HD display and a rectangular dial. It allows you to track your heart rate as well as your blood oxygen saturation levels. The watch has a sleep tracking feature that allows you to monitor your sleep levels. It claims an 8-day battery life and a standby time of up to 15 days. To help you track your activities, the watch has several sport modes.
TAGG Verve
The TAGG Verve waterproof smartwatch has a 1.4-inch display with narrow bezels and multiple watch faces to choose from. It has IP68 water and dust resistance, so you don’t have to worry about it being damaged by water or dust. This watch tracks your blood oxygen saturation and monitors your heart rate sensor. It also has a sleep monitor that tracks the quality of your sleep. The watch’s battery life is claimed to be up to 10 days on a single charge.
Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2
The Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 is one of the best options if you have an Android smartphone, but it also works well with an iPhone. It includes fitness tracking features as well as a variety of modes suited to various workout regimens. The watch is water and dust resistant to IP68 standards. When compared to square-shaped smartwatches, its circular design also helps it blend in better. The watch is available in two sizes 40mm and 44mm and includes GPS, a heart rate monitor, and, for a small fee, 4G LTE support.
It has dedicated swim-tracking features, which allow you to view metrics such as distance, strokes, lap time, and SWOLF (to measure swimming efficiency) from the Super AMOLED display. And now, Samsung has made this watch suitable for pool and open water swimming.
Garmin Vivoactive 4
The Garmin Vivoactive 4 is the best waterproof smartwatch right now, blurring the lines between a regular smartwatch and the company’s usual crop of sports watches. It is also compatible with Android and iPhones.
The latest edition, like the older Garmin Vivoactive 3 range, provides excellent swim tracking accuracy while remaining waterproof and resistant to pressures of up to 5 ATMs (50 metres).
Of course, as with any Garmin, looking through your data after workouts is half the fun. In Garmin Connect, you’ll also find a dedicated swimming screen that displays data on distance, time, stroke, SWOLF, temperature, pace, speed, and more.
This is also a waterproof smartwatch with full access to Garmin’s Connect IQ store, allowing you to enhance your swim tracking experience with extra apps like Swimming App Professional and extra data fields.
The transflective display allows you to see your real-time swim data while underwater. While there is no support for open water swim tracking, as found on more expensive Garmin devices, this is an excellent choice for those who spend a significant amount of time in the pool and want a solid smartwatch experience outside of that time.
Garmin Venue 2
The Venu 2 is the second Garmin watch to feature a full-colour AMOLED touchscreen display, and it’s now bigger, brighter, and sharper, making it a much nicer watch to live with both in and out of the water.
Like our top pick, the Vivoactive 4, it largely mirrors that less expensive Garmin with the same pool swim-tracking features, albeit with a higher quality touchscreen display to show off your real-time metrics. Distance, pace, stroke count, SWOLF, and calories are among the basic metrics. Garmin has added the ability to view intensity minutes within the Garmin Connect app to assess how hard you worked during your pool session.
It will also detect the type of stroke, provide a basic rest timer, and monitor your heart rate underwater. However, how reliable that HR monitoring is debatable.
Your data can be viewed on the watch after swimming, and you can dig deeper inside the Garmin Connect app. If you want to earn some Kudos, Garmin also works well with third-party apps like Strava.
While the Venu 2 has a slightly shorter battery life than the Vivoactive 4, it should still provide enough tracking time in the water before you need to charge it again. If you don’t want to spend the money on the Garmin Venu 2, you can get the Garmin Venu Sq for less.
Fitbit Versa 3
Fitbit’s first waterproof smartwatch, the Ionic, has essentially been retired, so if you want a Fitbit smartwatch for swimming, you’ll need to look at the Versa 3.
It has a slimmer, smaller design than the Ionic and all of the same swim-tracking features, so you can view lengths, distance covered, and workout duration on the touchscreen display.
It doesn’t show the type of stroke, and there’s no SWOLF data, so data-hungry swimmers may be disappointed, but it’s a good swimming smartwatch for beginners or casuals.
In terms of what you see on the watch, the swim tracking experience feels a little basic. After you’ve showered and dressed, the post-swim data is similarly straightforward. The emphasis once again is on how this activity contributes to your overall day’s data.
Fitbit’s other smartwatch, the health-focused Sense, also supports swim tracking. Thus, you’ll pay more for the additional serious health monitoring features available.
If you’re looking for a data-rich swim tracking experience, this isn’t it. It’s ideal for swimmers who just want to go for a swim and don’t want to delve into more advanced metrics.
Huawei Watch GT 2e
We should clarify that the Huawei Watch 3 does exist; we tested it, and it performs admirably in the pool. However, the tracking experience is identical to that of the Huawei Watch GT2e. It has a more swim-friendly strap and is a good, affordable option to consider.
Huawei provides a bright, sharp touchscreen AMOLED display housed within a 47mm stainless steel case that gives it the appearance of a nice watch.
It can track both open water and pool swimming and provides metrics such as laps, calories, distance, speed, SWOLF, swim stroke rate, and frequency. You can expect to see distance, average SWOLF, swimming time, swimming strokes, and swim stroke rate when you go outside.
The downside is that data is largely contained within Huawei’s companion app, with no third-party app support for swimmers available. Huawei has made its platform available to developers. The Watch 3 already includes access to Huawei’s AppGallery storefront, which should include some swim-related apps in the future.
If you can live with that, you’ll still get a really good swimming watch with a lot of metrics. The impressive 2-week battery life is also another reason to consider it. Also read about Best Smartwatches under 5000 in India in 2021.
