Making a splash: the best fitness trackers for swimming

We’re big fans of the best Garmin watches, and as one of the best watches out there for triathletes, the Forerunner 965 has everything that most swimmers will need. It can track both open water and pool swimming, and unlike some devices, it can keep track of your heart rate even while you’re in the water. For pool swims, it’s smart enough to identify different stroke types while you swim.

It also monitors lengths, intervals, stroke count, SWOLF score, and CSS (critical swim speed). While not everyone needs all these metrics, if you want the most detail possible, this is a comprehensive list. But it does much more than just tracking your swimming.

Alongside swimming, this watch offers built-in GPS for incredibly accurate route tracking, there are dedicated triathlon and biathlon modes, alongside around 30 other sports tracking settings. You can download music and play it via the watch – perfect for listening to in the water via a pair of the best waterproof headphones. Battery life of over three weeks makes this an absolute powerhouse of a watch, with some of the best health and fitness tracking on any current device.

Price is the biggest drawback. The RRP of £599.99 means this won’t be for everyone. But if you want the best of everything for swim tracking and beyond, this is right up there.

If you want to track your swimming with an affordable fitness tracker, the Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 8 is our top pick. With an RRP of £34.99 - and sometimes on sale for under £25 - this is an exceptionally wallet-friendly device that still offers lots of features. There’s a reason it’s our favourite fitness tracker under £50.

The 5ATM water resistance rating means it’s great for swimming in the pool. It can also be used for other shallow water activities, such as snorkelling. The Smart Band 8 can record your lengths, strokes, average stroke rate, distance swum, and estimate how many calories you’ve burnt in the process. It can even recognise what stroke you were using during your swim.

The impressive 1.62-inch AMOLED display is bright and easy to read, and while not being a true smartwatch, it does have some useful smart features, including weather forecasts, music controls, and a calendar.  

The app isn’t as polished as some alternative brands, and there are some question marks around its activity tracking in general. But for under £50, it’s hard to complain too much.

A contender for our best overall pick, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 missed out for two reasons. Firstly, the RRP from £799 makes this the most expensive device on our list. And secondly, Apple Watches don’t work with Android, which means for a lot of people, this simply isn’t a suitable choice. Which is a shame because it’s an otherwise superb piece of hardware.

Sporting an aerospace-grade titanium case, this is a watch built to handle almost any swimming you care to do. As well as handling pool swimming with ease, this watch is water resistant up to 100 metres, making it suitable for recreational diving to depths of 40 metres, as well as withstanding high-speed water sports. Pool swimming tracks your sets and your rest, the kind of strokes you used, and the total distance you swam. It will also calculate the pace you swam each set at.

Battery life is much better than other Apple Watches, offering up to 36 hours (about 1 and a half days) of “normal” use – more than enough to track a swim. There’s also highly accurate built-in GPS, and a comprehensive suite of other health and fitness tracking tools. Unlike some of the other devices on our list, it’s also a complete smartwatch. For iPhone users, it’s a great choice.

Our pick as the best fitness tracker also happens to be the best Fitbit currently available, and hits a sweet spot between price, performance and features that make this suitable for most people. The Charge 6 is Fitbit’s most advanced fitness tracker, with upgraded sensors for more accurate heart rate tracking than any other Fitbit. There’s also built-in GPS, and even music controls for YouTube music. 

In terms of swimming, the Charge 6 can track swim lengths, duration, distance and pace. This isn’t as comprehensive as some devices, so it won’t be suitable if you want to get into the real details of your swim. But for most people, these metrics will probably be more than enough. It’s affordable too – the RRP is £139.99, but we’ve seen it occasionally on offer for £109.99. That makes this one of the most affordable fitness trackers on this list, without compromising on overall performance. 

Digital Writer Jack Barrell tried the Fitbit Charge 6 out for himself. Here's how he got on with it: "I was beyond pleased with the Charge 6 Fitbit as a result of it ticking so many essential fitness tracker boxes. It's an effective fitness companion thanks to how dedicated it is to your personal goals and progress. What also goes a long way is just how engaging and intuitive the Charge 6 is. Encouraging notifcations, graphics, and buzzes give you a congratulations or a gentle nudge to help you get the most out of your days.

It's not short of quality fitness tracker features either, all of which work brilliantly too. Having over 40 exercise modes (including swimming) at your disposal is a delight, heart rate monitoring is exact, and sleep tracking can really offer some interesting insight. At this price, there's little else out there offering such value."

The Coros Pace 3 is an inexpensive multisport watch that offers plenty of value for money. Crucially, you aren’t being short-changed on swim metrics either, as this watch offers the same features as more premium devices from Coros.  

Like several other fitness trackers on this list, the Pace 3 can track both open water and pool swimming. In the pool, the Pace 3 can track your heart rate while you swim, as well as detect 4 major stroke types. In open water, accurate GPS tracking is available while you swim freestyle – but it isn’t guaranteed for other strokes.

There are loads of metrics you can measure, including distance, calories, heart rate, pace, SWOLF, and temperature, among others. It’s a comprehensive feature set that will appeal to swimmers, triathletes, and pool swimmers who want as much data as possible. 

There’s lots of support for other types of training too, making this an extremely versatile sports watch for health and fitness fans. And its RRP of £219 makes it a bargain.

If you really want to feel like you’re living in the future, how about a pair of swimming goggles that track your swimming data, and beam it onto an augmented reality display that you can see as you swim? The Form Smart Swim 2 goggles are an extraordinary piece of kit, with a singular focus on tracking swimming metrics. Plus, there's the bonus of being able to offer you guidance and coaching on ways to improve your swimming technique. This does require a subscription, either £13 a month, or £84 for a year paid in full upfront. That’s on top of an RRP of £229. 

Clearly, these aren’t designed for casual swimmers. These are for serious, competitive people, or for those who would really value some extra support in improving their technique. In return, these goggles can track nine metrics when you’re in the pool, or six when you’re in open water. These include heart rate monitoring, pace, stroke rate, distance, and calories burned. If you pay for the subscription, you get even more tools, such as visual coaching to improve your technique, a compass to help you swim straight, and access to over 1500 workouts and 45 training plans. The goggles can also automatically detect what stroke you are using. 

14-hour battery life means you won’t need to charge these between every swim, while the data is compatible with Apple Health, as well as Strava, TrainingPeaks, TriDot and Final Surge. These are a much more specialised product than the other fitness trackers we’ve listed – but for some, they will be absolutely perfect.

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 is the ultimate Apple Watch for swimming. But the Apple Watch Series 9 is still an extremely impressive device, which will be more than enough for most swimmers. The biggest difference is that the Apple Watch Series 9 is water resistant to 50 metres, rather than 100, and so it can’t withstand diving or water sports involving high velocity water. But it still offers support for both pool and open water swimming.  

The Series 9 is good for measuring average pace, lengths and total distance, splits, SWOLF score, automatic stroke and kickboard detection. It’s a comprehensive set of swimming features that means this watch will be more than enough for all but the most serious of swimmers. 

As with any Apple Watch, it’s only going to be useful if you already have an iPhone to sync the data with – it won’t work if you use an Android handset. With its RRP from £399, we wouldn’t call it cheap, either. But for an all-round brilliant smartwatch, the Apple Watch Series 9 is hard to beat, and perhaps still the best Apple Watch for most iPhone users.

Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 6 is still one of the best Android-focused smartwatches for most people – although it’s challenged strongly by the Google Pixel Watch 2. Its overall level of polish just gives it the edge, however.  

For swimmers, the watch is water resistant up to 50 metres, making it fine to take for a swim in the local pool. The swimming mode on the watch automatically turns on water lock mode, which prevents unintentional screen inputs while you’re in the water. The Watch 6 tracks indoor and outdoor swimming, and can measure lengths, distance, split times, and automatically detect a variety of swimming strokes. For most recreational swimmers, this will be more than enough. Compatibility with third-party apps such as Swim.com help to elevate this device, as it allows users the option to select an alternative platform for tracking their performance, as well as giving access to training and workout plans.

The watch itself is a super all-round smartwatch. You’ll get the most from it if you also use a compatible Samsung smartphone, but any suitable Android device will give you access to a plethora of apps, and health and fitness tracking metrics. With an RRP from £289, it’s slightly cheaper than many rival devices, without compromising on performance.

If you like the idea of the Garmin Forerunner 965, but aren’t so keen on the price tag, the Garmin Forerunner 255 may be an enticing alternative. It’s an older, mid-range model, which means it doesn’t have quite as comprehensive a feature set as the 965. But there’s still plenty of features that make it well worth your investment. 

For swimmers, the Forerunner 255 supports pool and open water swimming. In the pool, the watch can automatically detect various strokes, as well as swim intervals and lengths. You’ll also benefit from distance, pace, stroke count, SWOLF score, and estimated calorie burn. The watch can also keep track of your heart rate during your swim. All in all, it’s a pretty comprehensive set of features.

It also does plenty out of the water – you can read our full Garmin Forerunner 255 review for the details – if you like to do a variety of sports and keep track of your metrics, this watch will do the job well. And because it’s an older model, it’s often available for less than £300 (sometimes under £220), making it great value.

As an alternative to Garmin, the Polar Pacer Pro offers a good mid-range multisport watch that has a similarly comprehensive set of health and fitness tracking features to the Forerunner 255. Open water and pool swimming are both supported. During open water swims, the Pacer Pro can track pace, route and distance courtesy of the built-in GPS. If you’re swimming freestyle, it will also count your stroke rate. 

For pool sessions, the watch can detect freestyle, butterfly, breaststroke and backstroke, and will measure pace, distance, strokes and SWOLF. Whether you're indoors or outside, it will also track your heart rate, to provide your average heart rate, and your heart rate zones during your swim. It can then estimate calorie burn, training load and training benefit from your swim. 

It’s a solid multi-sports watch that has highly accurate GPS tracking, and in our Polar Pacer Pro review, we felt it provides plenty of tools to support your health and fitness goals. It’s often available for under £200, too, making it one of the most affordable options on our list.