The 10 Best Waterproof Activity Tracker Gadgets in 2019
If you are here reading this article, you are probably a swimmer! Swimming is your primary fitness activity and you want a fitness tracker that will track this favorite fitness activity of yours. Well, you have come to the right place. Below, we will introduce you to the 10 best waterproof activity tracker gadgets that are trending in 2018.
Without a lot of fuss, let’s get straight into our recommendations for the best watch for swimming. Of course, a fitness tracker doesn’t always have to be a watch and can just be a band without a display as well. Just keep that in mind when deciding from these ten great wearable devices.
Garmin 010-01004-00 Swim Watch with Garmin Connect
- Swim fitness tracker
- Display with data = Yes
- Water resistant up to 50 meters
- What does it record?
- Swim distance
- Pace
- Stroke count
- Stroke type
- SWOLF
- Pool length
- Battery life of one year
At about a $100 price point and many features on offer, the Garmin Swim Watch with Garmin Connect is a hot favorite amongst swimmers.
Besides just tracking the common swimming metrics like pace and distance, the Garmin Swim is capable of identifying what type of stroke you are using. With that critical piece of information combined with other metrics like stroke, length, distance and pace, you get a pretty impressive tracking report that will constantly allow you to closely monitor your swimming performance, giving you great incentive to do better, every time you dive into the pool.
Garmin uses something called a SWOLF score, giving you a quick metric to analyze and monitor your swimming efficiency.
Garmin have designed this tracker with a very slim profile, meaning that it will offer very little resistance during your strokes, not something that can be said of all swimming fitness trackers out there, as some can get really bulky and awkward. Battery life is never going to be an issue as the battery will easily last a whole year. When the time comes to replace it, you just need to swap out the old battery for a new coin battery.
What swimmers really love about the Garmin Swim Watch is that it allows you to log drills with just a few quick button presses. Interval timing or lap timing is brilliantly easy with this device. With 6 physical buttons on the dial of the watch, Garmin have made it as easy as possible for you to quickly press what it takes to monitor specific swimming activities, without making you spend time on navigating the device’s menu. Logs also include weekly progress reports, motivating you to compare your swimming progress every week, always giving you the motivation to strive a little harder than the past week.
Swimmers also love the fact that they can upload all the data collected by the Garmin Swim Watch and upload it to Garmin Connect, to then view several detailed metrics in a much more detailed manner, on a smartphone, PC or another mobile device. Connecting your Garmin Swim Watch to your PC can be a convenient automatic process. All you need to do is connect the provided USB ANT Stick to your PC and your Garmin Swim will automatically upload all data when you are in range of this USB device.
As you can see, there are several reasons why the Garmin Swim Watch is a hot favorite as the best waterproof fitness tracker gadget for swimmers.
Fitbit Ionic Smartwatch
- Smartwatch that can be used as a swim fitness tracker
- Display with data = Yes
- Water resistant
- What does it record?
- Laps
- Stroke style
- Calories burned
- Continuous Heart rate (Monitoring doesn’t work when you swim)
- Pool length
- Lengths
- Sleep tracking
- Battery life of about 4 days, before you need to recharge
Now, the Fitbit Ionic is much, much more than just a heart rate monitor for swimming. It is a full-fledged smartwatch that offers pretty much all the features offered by a high end smartwatch like the Apple Series 3 Watch, in addition to offering activity tracking while swimming.
You wouldn’t want to buy this just as a swimming fitness tracker. But, if you need a smartwatch that does a fantastic job of also tracking your swimming activities, this is a great choice. Since this is a full-fledged smartwatch, it retails at about the $299 price range.
To use this smartwatch as the best watch for swimming, simply put it into swim mode with a press of a couple of buttons. Once in this mode, the watch’s sensors will calibrate in such a way that it will know what sort of stroke style you are using to swim. Even if you forget to put it into swim mode, the watch is intelligent enough to still track your swimming, but not as accurately as when you manually put it into swim mode.
The Fitbit Ionic is a great choice as a fitness tracker if swimming isn’t your only fitness activity. If you like to bike and run, the Ionic has special modes to track those activities in great detail as well, making it the last fitness activity tracker you will ever need.
Of course, wearing the Ionic will also give you access to the Fitbit app on your iPhone or Android phone. If you didn’t know already, Fitbit has one of the best apps on the market, giving you amazingly easy and intuitive reports to read, analyze and then use the data to improve your fitness workouts.
A built in GPS, ability to store and play music, ability to give you a personal coaching session and even the ability to make payments and receive pretty much every notification that you receive on your phone make the Fitbit Ionic a great watch for swimming, and a whole lot more.
Misfit Wearables Shine Speedo Swim Plus Fitness Tracker
- Swim fitness tracker
- Display with data = No (View data through app, on phone)
- Water resistant up to 50 meters
- What does it record?
- Lap count
- Swim distance
- Stroke type
- Sleep tracking
- All day activities
- Battery life of about 6 months
With a name like Speedo Swim Plus, you know this wearable from Misfit is designed to be a very swim specific fitness tracker. Users of this fitness tracker have lauded the accuracy of swim tracking. A collaboration with Speedo meant that the Speedo Shine works on achieving a very high level of efficiency when recording lap count and swim distance, in addition to identifying stroke style.
Besides swim tracking, the Speedo Shine can also be used to track walking, running, cycling and even whether you are sleeping lightly or deeply. Like the Garmin Swim watch, the Shine Speedo has a very thin and light profile, giving you a very non-interfering feel on your wrist, when you are putting in those hard laps at the pool.
The Shine Speedo is available in 10 attractive colors. Since there is no actual display on this wearable, you will have to connect it to your phone via the Misfit app. Once connected, you will be able to see swim distance, laps, stroke style and calories burned and a few other key metrics.
If about $70 is what you want to spend on the best waterproof fitness tracker out there, the Speedo Shine is definitely right up there as a great choice.
Fitbit Flex 2
- Activity fitness tracker with swim tracking available
- Display with data = No (View data through app)
- Water resistant
- What does it record?
- Laps
- Duration
- Calories burned
- Swim pace
- Swim distance
- Sleep tracking
- Battery Life of about 3 days
The Fitbit Flex 2 is another general fitness tracker that has swim tracking capabilities. At a price point of just over $50, this is an excellent tracker to buy if you need not just a swim specific tracker but one that will keep a track of your steps, calories burned, active minutes and overall activity levels throughout the day, in addition to sleep tracking.
Though the Fitbit Flex 2 is swim tracking enabled, it is recommended that you use your Fitbit app to put this tracker into swim mode. When you do that, you will also have a chance to enter the length of the pool. It is highly recommended that you enter this as it will allow you to track not just calories burned, laps and duration, but also your swimming pace and total distance covered.
The Flex 2 has 5 LED buttons that flash in different sequences to inform you off incoming calls and messages, so you are aware of phone activity while still in the pool. The Flex 2 has a removable capsule tracker that you can then use to insert in a bangle or pendant, if you don’t want to wear the band as is.
Like with any Fitbit device, all data is downloaded and reported in a very convenient way, through the Fitbit app. Though it isn’t a swim specific fitness tracker, the waterproof Fitbit Flex 2 is a good choice for a fitness tracker at a very affordable price point, especially considering the fact that it carries the Fitbit brand name.
Moov Now 3D Fitness Tracker & Real Time Audio Coach
- Activity fitness tracker with swim tracking available
- Display with data = No (View data through app, on phone)
- Water resistant
- What does it record?
- Stroke type
- Stroke count
- Lap analysis
- Active minutes
- Sleep tracking
- Suggests ways to improve swimming
- Battery Life of about 6 months
The Moov Now swim fitness tracker claims to be the best waterproof fitness tracker out there in the market. The manufacturers claim that the tracker uses the most number of sensors to exactly track how hard you are pushing yourself in the pool, putting in all those rigorous laps.
What is unique to the Moov Now tracker is that it has an audio coach that motivates you to push yourself just a little more than normal. Though this isn’t a feature that you can practically use while the pool, you can use it while running, to give yourself the motivation to not quit. For example, if you were running with 1,000 meters as a target in your mind and are about to give up at 900 meters, a voice prompt that will tell you “You are 100 meters away from your target. Keep pushing” will give you that little motivation to actually complete your daily goals.
The Moov Now doesn’t have a display and you will have to connect the device to the Moov Now app to see your swim data. Several thousand users have said that the Moov Now is the best swim fitness tracker to use if you are the type who is very particular about your stroke style being identified properly, or if you are one who changed stroke styles frequently while swimming.
The coin type battery easily lasts for 6 months and you don’t have the hassle of constantly recharging your tracker every few days. The Moov now is available in a very wide range of colors to suit every style statement and fashion sense out there.
FINIS Swimsense Live Watch
- Swim fitness tracker
- Display with data = Yes (High contrast OLED that is easy to read in water)
- Water resistant with Ipx8 rating
- What does it record?
- Stroke count
- Stroke style
- Total distance
- Swim time
- Swim pace
- Battery Life of about 6 to 7 hours
FINIS has carved out a name for itself with this swim specific fitness tracking device. The highlight of this device is the high-contrast OLED display that is very easy to read, with a quick glance, even while immersed in the pool or when you are wearing dark swim goggles. FINIS uses proprietary algorithms to identify the four main strokes used to swim; butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle.
A quick look at the display will show you total laps, interval times, your swim pace, the distance you cover with each one of your strokes, calories burned and also a proprietary SWOLF or efficiency score. The SWOLF score is particularly useful if you just want one quick number to track your swimming progress, without having to look at a lot of other data.
The battery life of 6 to 7 hours isn’t great but the device still has very loyal users as the accuracy of swim tracking is very good. Users of the FINIS Swimsense Live Watch also love the simple but high contrast display that is very easy to read.
You can view all data on the FINIS Live app, after the data has been uploaded via Bluetooth. When you set up the app, you can enter your gender, weight and pool distance to get the most accurate reporting of metrics like calories burned and distance per stroke.
TomTom Spark Cardio + GPS + Music Watch
- Activity fitness tracker with swim tracking available
- Display with data = Yes
- Waterproof
- What does it record?
- Miles
- Laps
- Speed
- Length
- Average speed
- Strokes
- Calories
- SWOLF Score
- Heart rate (Monitoring doesn’t work when you swim)
- Battery Life of about 3 weeks (if used without GPS)
The Tom Tom Spark is a general fitness activity tracker with a built in music player + GPS. It allows you to put it into special sport modes. Running, biking, gym training, swim and treadmill are the dedicated modes.
When you put this device into swim mode, it will give you the option to enter the length of the pool. Once you have that entered, the device is smart enough to understand when you complete a lap by using the wall at the end of the pool as a push off to begin a new lap. The watch gives off a little vibration signal as well, when you finish each lap.
What swimmers really like about the Swim mode on this fitness activity tracker is that it has a “Goal” mode where it shows your progress with a quick glance. If you complete your goals and keep going, you will receive a few extra buzzes from the device, sort of congratulating you for surpassing your expectations. If you go to the pool with a certain number of laps as a target in your mind, you can just set the device to remember this target and focus on swimming and not counting laps, waiting for the device to buzz you when you have beaten your goals.
Though heart rate monitoring doesn’t work when you swim, it can be a very useful metric when you run, bike or engage in gym training. This wearable also helps you track your sleep. Tom Tom recently announced that it no longer will participate in the fitness tracking business which means that the Tom Tom Spark is available at awesome prices, sometimes as low as $120. You will be hard pressed to find a GPS fitness tracker that also gives you swim tracking, for that price. We won’t call it the best waterproof fitness tracker out there but it certainly rates very highly when it comes to offering a lot of valueyou’re your money.
Garmin Vivoactive HR Smart Watch
- General fitness tracker with swim tracking available
- Display with data = Yes
- Water resistant with 5 ATM rating, up to 50 meters
- What does it record?
- Swim distance
- Time
- Stroke
- SWOLF
- Temperature
- Pace
- Speed
- Heart rate (Monitoring doesn’t work when you swim)
- Battery life of about 8 days
The Garmin Vivoactive HR is another great choice for a fitness tracker that will give you GPS tracking, heart rate monitoring and also swim tracking. Heart rate monitoring is not available while swimming. But then, almost all devices that use optical technology to monitor heart rate will not be able to track heart rate when you are in the water.
You will have to put the device into swim mode before you hit the pool. Simply press the action key, then swim, enter your pool size and press the action key when you are ready to start tracking. When resting between laps, simply hit the action key again to pause tracking. Hit action again to resume tracking and then finally long hold the action to then save your workout.
All your data will then be available for download through the Garmin Connect app. Amongst all Garmin products out there, the Garmin Swim is obviously the best watch for swimming. But, the Garmin Vivoactive HR is a great choice if swimming is only one of your fitness activities.
Polar V800 GPS Sports Watch
- General fitness tracker with swim tracking available
- Display with data = Yes
- Water resistant up to 30 meters
- What does it record?
- Swim distance
- Time
- Stroke
- SWOLF
- Temperature
- Pace
- Speed
- Heart rate (Monitoring doesn’t work when you swim, but you can get a reading if you also wear an additional H7 heart rate sensor)
- Battery life of about 2 weeks
The Polar V800 is a very pricey fitness tracker watch that retails for about $350. But then, it is not just the best heart rate monitor for swimming but pretty much the only fitness tracker watch that gives you a continuous heart rate reading while you are swimming. Other fitness trackers use optical heart rate monitoring technology that does not work when you are swimming. But, you do need to purchase and wear the H7 heart rate sensor to see heart rate metrics on this watch, when you swim.
The V800 can recognize freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly strokes. It can tell you if your stroke rate is too high or too slow. This can be very useful information when you are trying to better your swimming. For example, if your stroke rate is very high, your stroke might be very short and not maximized for performance. On the other hand, if your stroke rate is slow, you are not moving your arms fast enough.
The V800 is the best fitness tracker for freestyle swimming, as tracking accuracy level is highest when you swim in freestyle mode.
Garmin Forerunner 920 XT
- General fitness tracker with swim tracking available
- Display with data = Yes
- Water resistant up to 30 meters
- What does it record?
- Distance
- Pace
- Stroke count
- Stroke rate
- SWOLF Score
- Swim drill logs
- Swim rest timer
- Battery life of about 2 weeks
As the name of this watch suggests, it is a fitness tracker that you can specifically buy for running. But, it can also handle swim mode, giving you great information that other swim fitness trackers do. We would recommend this model for someone who is primarily into running, but occasionally takes to the pool as well.
This watch can record running cadence, speed, distance, ascent or descent, grade and more metrics. If paired up with the right accessories, it can record very detailed running metrics like vertical oscillation, ground contact time, recovery times and even predictive data on when you will finish your race.
If you buy this device for your swim tracking and your running needs, we recommend that you pair it with Garmin’s HRM Swim chest band to get all your swim data in conjunction with your heart rate, something that without a doubt will give you more insightful data about your swim workouts than data that doesn’t use your heart rate readings.
