It’s winter and unless there is something deeply wrong with you, the weather is hardly conducive to alfresco aquatic exercise, even despite the (irony alert) almost-impossible-to-turn-down invitation I received to go ‘wild-swimming’ in Kent off the back of conducting these reviews.
However, despite the fact that Jack Frost is lurking murderously around every corner, there’s no need to lose so much as a single stroke while things are excessively wintry, thanks to the proliferation of infinitely preferable indoor swimming pools, both public and private, to be found across the frozen wasteland that is this super-cooled country, where you can get your wet-on in the warmth.
Which, of course, is my utterly wimpy way of defending how I conducted my ‘field’ tests on the superb range of the best smartwatches for swimming I’m about to unveil to you. I mean, look, I may have been born and raised in the perma-winter of Manchester, but the best part of 28-years spent on the Equator here in the South has stripped me of any ability to cope with cold beyond a light bar-based breeze on a summer’s day.
So, yes, explanatory amble done, to put each of these water watches through their paces, I’ve done a deep dive – no the puns will not cease to plumb the depths – to see which of the current clutch of smartwatches are the absolute Best for those wanting to take the plunge.
Shop the swimming essentials below
Wahoo ELEMNT RIVAL GPS
Best for: Future aquatic Olympians
I’ve always admired that unique breed of sub-aqua sportster who possesses the ineffable, unbreakable, steely resolve and unwavering focus of the long-distance water displacer. Those, Speedo-clad, unstoppable obsessives who think nothing of hogging a whole lane in the pool in order to power ever-onwards, back and forth, like some remorseless, chlorine-loving Duracell bunny, all in a bid to better nothing and nobody but themselves. Yes, admired… and viewed with deep suspicion and some measure of irritation.
Okay, there may be a smidge of envy involved on my part, but as we all know, when you can’t compete on one level, utterly blow them out of the water on another one. Which is what I did, swaggering up to the pool’s edge with the hand-not-to-notice ELEMNT RIVAL GPS smartwatch from Wahoo strapped to my wrist. Questions from the curious? Yes, there were many; and the answers were free-flowing too.
Built with nothing but SPORT (yes, in full, shouty capitals) firmly in its sights, make no mistake, this lightweight (53g) and ridiculously comfortable option is the first of its wrist-going kind to innovate the way proper Ironman-style athletes interact with their smart tracking tech, featuring as it does Touchless Transition which, in a nutshell, means the watch itself automatically segues between tracking duties, whether you switch from running to swimming or swimming to cycling.
This unique feature, combined with a barometric altimeter, optical heart rate sensor, live tracking to let select friends, family and rivals alike keep an eye on you and your progress, water resistance down to 5 ATM (50-metres) and a colossal battery life of 14-days in standard watch mode and 24-hours in GPS, makes the Wahoo ELEMNT RIVAL smart- and tough enough to tackle any wild-water sporting insanity you feel smart- and touch-enough to take on yourself.
It is fitted with a Gorilla Glass lens protecting the 1.2-inch, 64-bit colour LED display. There’s also the iOS- and Android-compatible companion ELEMNT app to let you change your workout profile in a couple of clicks, plan workouts and pair extra Wahoo fitness sensors, plus five perfectly prominent but also safely recessed hard buttons to help you easily access all functions and review info. The ELEMNT RIVAL really is the stone-cold-serious swimmer/multisports-man’s performance-perfecting best pal.
- Compatibility: iOS and Android
- Display: 1.2-inch Colour LED
- Resolution: 240 x 240-pixels
- Battery life: 14-days (24-hours in GPS mode)
- Water-resistance: 50m
- Satellite receiver: GPS and Glonass
- Weight: 53g
- Colour options: Stealth Grey or Kona White
Buy now £140.00, Amazon
Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra
The ultimate Samsung training and tracking smartwatch is now with us. Certainly striking, it cuts a swathe through the crowds of its contemporaries, whether you opt for the orange strap or not. Technologically, it’s at the top of its game, Samsung imbuing it with a serious CPU, AI enhancement, smooth-running apps aplenty, a lengthy battery life, and a build that makes it damn-near indestructible.
And it’s that last bit that gives the Ultra the edge over the Watch7 – while the tech used in both is almost identical, the Ultra offers ultra endurance for those athletes out there who want to take things off-piste and push themselves to the absolute limits, without worrying whether their watch can take the punishment.
The Ultra is twice the price of the Watch7, and that might be what sways the more casual gym bunny away from it and into the arms of the 7, but for the off-roaders, the adventurers, the adrenaline junkies dangling off cliffs at the very extremes of exercise, the Galaxy Watch Ultra will prove irresistible.
Buy now £599.00, Amazon
Mi Xiaomi Smart Band 7 Pro
Best for: Pocket-pleasing pool-going performance
Looking for discretion in a waves-ready smartwatch with a price tag that won’t weigh you down? Then welcome to the world of the undeniably elegant Smart Band 7 from Xiaomi.
Not everyone wants to be constantly questioned as to how their quest to achieve the body perfect is progressing, especially by strangers in a swimming pool, so sometimes it’s better to keep your smart health secrets to yourself… as much as possible. Slim, unimposing and almost unnoticeable apart from the fact you have a black silicone strap on your wrist, the feature-packed, low-price Smart Band 7 may be small in stature when unengaged, but snap into action and the impressively scaled 1.64-inch AMOLED touchscreen display will spit out your vital stats, including heart monitoring, SpO₂ (blood/oxygen), stress levels and menstrual cycle tracking tech.
Compatible with the latest flavours of Android and iOS, connecting to smartphones over speedy Bluetooth 5.2 BLE where it pairs with the Mi Fitness app, the Smart Band 7 comes with no fewer than 110+ fitness modes to play around with, including on-wrist running courses, basic or advanced options, and of course, water resistance down to a whopping 5 ATM, making it strong contender for open-water fanatics looking to accurately access their exercise routines and have on-going access to the data thereafter.
Available in a whole gamut of colours and priced at just £80, even if the swimming thing is just a fad that fades as quickly as the crazy dream began, the Xiaomi Smart Band 7 is still a slick smartwatch just as agreeable with everyday, largely inactive life.
- Compatibility: Android 6.0 or higher, iOS 12 or higher
- Display: 1.64-inch AMOLED Touch Display
- Resolution: 280 x 456-pixels
- Battery life: 12-days
- Water-resistance: 50m
- Satellite receiver: GNS
- Weight: 20.5g (without strap)
- Colour options: Ivory, Olive, Orange, Blue, Black, Pink
Buy now £84.99, Mi Xiaomi
OPPO Watch Free
Best for: For very casual, cost-watching water-babies
I initially reviewed OPPO’s Watch Free during the heady summer days of – what we called at the time – 2022, and found it to be an impressively specced slice of smart, coming in at a cost that, even now in the crippling grip of the cost-of-living crisis, is still a bit of a bargain. But back then, in my smug, smartwatch-reviewing hubris, the one thing I didn’t do with it was take it swimming. An unforgivable oversight? Alright, wind your neck in, it was a busy summer! Also, wind your neck in, because now I have…
But before we slip into that, it is available in Black and Vanilla strap iterations, yet despite the standard price of £89, the Black version is currently available via Very for just £49, which is almost ‘free’ if you overlook the £49 part.
Veritable bargains aside, the Android- and iOS-compatible Watch Free still gives you some 16.7 million colours on its 1.64-inch screen, 100 workout modes to keep you in the rudest of health, heart rate and blood/oxygen monitoring, plus sleep tracking, so it remains as smart, efficient and intuitive to use as ever. However, what happens when you tumble suddenly into a body of water? Well, the truth is, not much. Yes, the OPPO has a ‘swim’ exercise option which automatically locks the screen in ‘Underwater Mode’. This, combined with a water-resistance down to 5 ATM, means you can splash about to your heart’s content and, when you re-emerge onto terra firma, your OPPO will return to normal functions, utterly unbothered by the dowsing it just received.
The OPPO Watch Free is more about monitoring your vitals during the more standard four forms of exercise comprised of Running, Walking, Rowing Machine and Elliptical Machine use, and also ensuring you’re getting the best sleep possible. But if you do want to swim in it, you most certainly can without fear of damage or loss, so if you’re not bothered about the metrics but just love an occasional, spontaneous splash, the Watch Free offers all the freedom with none of the follow-up information overload.
- Compatibility: OS: Android 6.0 or later, iOS 10.0 or later
- Display: 1.64-inch AMOLED screen
- Resolution: 280 x 456-pixels
- Battery life: 14-days
- Water resistance: 50m
- Satellite receiver: No
- Weight: 20.9g (without strap), 3
- Colour options: Vanilla or Black
Buy now £89.00, Very
Polar Grit X2 Pro
Best for: SBS-level True Grit
Time to put your big boy/girl pants on now, as we up the multisport ante to full-on, no holds barred, no surrender, no no, no no no no, no no no no, no no there’s no limits level techie training with the built-for-battle Grit X from smart sports watch expert par excellence, Polar.
Despite tipping the scales at just 64g, this certainly ain’t no lightweight, it comes absolutely jammed to the metaphorical rafters with cutting-edge training/tracking tech. This includes a colour touchscreen, multiple geo-location solutions to pinpoint you and map your way with unerring accuracy, over 130 customisable sports profiles to play with and measure your metrics and automatic Android and/or iOS smartphone goals. There’s also workouts and progress synchronisation to keep you constantly updated, sleep scoring for a keen eye on the times you’re supposed to be inactive, and a military-tested level of durability that sees this near-indestructible action accessory capable of coping with temperatures from -20°C all the way up to 50°C. What you’re here for though is to know about its ability to handle watery depths of up to a whopping 100m – double that of most others of its smart ilk – thanks to its WR100 resistance rating.
And it’s that last detail (of a long list of sure-fire selling points) that makes the Grit X of absolute interest here, as this is a swimmable smartwatch that goes way beyond the remit of its peers, by offering the insane owner all the thrills of as much open-water front crawling as they could crave, while also throwing in the ability to go down, sub-surface as deep as 333ft, should that be your bag.
Add into that a smart fuelling assistant that tells you when and what to eat and drink to ensure you don’t keel over from over-doing it, a training battery life of up to a full 40 hours, and a companion app that lets you make changes to settings and monitor everything you do or plan to do and, there you have it, simply one of the best smartwatches for swimming.
- Compatibility: iOS and Android
- Display: 1.2-inch MIP
- Resolution: 240 x 240-pixels
- Battery life: 40-hours
- Water resistance: 100m
- Satellite receiver: GPS, Glonass, Galileo, QZSS
- Weight: 64g
- Colour options: Black or Green & Silver
Buy now £649.00, Polar
Polar Verity Sense
Best for: No-nonsense water-tread tracking
No, it’s not a smartwatch per se, you’re quite correct, but what we have here in the fine form of the Verity Sense is a smart optical heart rate sensor band optimised for swimming. How is it optimised for swimming? Well, an armband that comes complete with a swimming goggles strap clip in the box, the Verity Sense – alongside having its own internal memory – can hook up over Bluetooth to your smartwatch and/or Polar smartphone app to let you record and view your workouts/splash-outs after the fact or, if you happen to have someone stuck high and dry nearby, they can monitor your performance in real-time.
And that’s all there is to it: simple, no-fuss metrics on your pool performance that simply strap on and let you access your info any way you want. In short, then: smart swimming simplicity.
- Compatibility: Android and iOS
- Display: No
- Resolution: Not applicable
- Battery life: Up to 30-hours
- Water resistant: 50m
- Satellite receiver: No
- Weight: 19g (without armband: 5g)
- Colour options: Grey
Buy now £86.50, Polar
Garmin vivomove Trend
Best for: Pool time and party-time
As something of a wristwatch purist myself, who only transitioned from Swiss analogue accuracy to solely smart just a little over a year ago, what was first a proper Dick Tracy novelty has since become my wrist-bound weapon of choice. Why? Because I can take calls on it, read and reply to notifications, keep the occasional eye on my vital stats and, of course, summon my voice assistant to do my bidding. But, like most people who exercise, I like to do it loudly so that everyone in both the immediate and outlying area is well aware of the fact that I’ve just returned from another marathon sesh at PureGym/Bannatyne’s/David Lloyd/Mighty Mick’s. I also like to accurately record my athletic accomplishments to share online. The trouble is, most smart sportswatches are not designed to perform in the pool and be stylishly acceptable amongst the bourgeoisie browsers of the vegetable aisle; well, until now.
Behold the latest from Garmin: the vivomove Trend (yes, that’s a lowercase ‘v’ and an uppercase ‘t’), a smartwatch engineered for capturing exercise activity data when you’re running, riding or – moreover for the remit of this article – swimming at depths of up to 50m, while also tracking your heart and blood oxygen saturation rates, stress, respiration rate, hydration and all other manners of metrics, paired to your Android or Apple phone. This is all while looking like a slick, sexy, snazzy and socially acceptable analogue watch.
Yep, designed to do the digital business and be the kind of wrist-going bling that fits in at fancy cocktail bars, the vivomove Trend is a class-oozing understatement of metal, glass and silicon, cunningly spun together to result in a timeless face complete with an analogue-look sweeping hour and minute hands, while all the ‘smart’ remains hidden until summoned forth on the screen.
Water-resistant down to 50m, you can now have the best of both worlds in one watch and, should you be caught pocketless and cash-free post-swim, you can even use Garmin Pay to treat yourself to a post-dip treat without having to bother fishing around for your locker key.
Would I go as far as to say that the Garmin vivomove Trend is a triumph of smartwatch design? You know what, I would. However, if money is not an object and you’re looking for the ultimate iteration of this smooth fusion of tech and style, an extra £200 on the asking price will secure you the Garmin vivomove Luxe in stainless steel with a matching Milanese stainless steel mesh strap that, frankly, smartwatch sublimity.
- Compatibility: iOS and Android
- Display: 1.01 x 0.74-inches
- Resolution: 254 x 346-pixels
- Battery life: Up to 5 days
- Water resistant: 50m
- Weight: 43.3g
- Colour options: Cream Gold and Grey, Slate Black and Black, Peach Gold and Ivory, Stainless Steel and Mist Grey
Buy now £279.99, Garmin
