Garmin Swim 2 lets you monitor your heart rate underwater

Garmin Swim 2
Garmin Swim 2 (Image credit: Garmin)

Garmin has just launched the Garmin Swim 2, a wearable which, as you’ve probably guessed, is largely aimed at swimmers, and one which hopes to stand out by monitoring your heart rate even when you’re in the pool.

As well as that, the Garmin Swim 2 will also track distance, pace, stroke count, distance per stroke, stroke type and SWOLF score, so if it’s related to swimming, this thing can probably track it.

The Garmin Swim 2 also has GPS which helps it track you in open water, and if you stick to pools you can access features like pacing alerts, custom workouts and drill logging.

(Image credit: Garmin)

Not one to be phased by dry land, the Garmin Swim 2 can also track steps and sleep, and being a smartwatch this can also get notifications from your phone.

Battery life in smartwatch mode is apparently up to 7 days, while using GPS and the optical heart rate monitor cuts that down to a maximum of 13 hours. Pool and heart rate mode splits the difference at up to 72 hours.

The Garmin Swim 2 is out now, in slate or whitestone, for $249.99 / £219.99 / AU$399. Price-wise that puts it in competition with Garmin’s own Forerunner 245, along with the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2, though of course they’re less swim-focused.

You could also consider the original Garmin Swim, but that’s 5 years old now, has a black and white screen, and doesn’t track anything other than swimming, so maybe not.

TechRadar will be sure to bring it in to our labs – or swimming pools – to test how good the Garmin Swim 2 actually is, so look out for our full review soon.

James Rogerson

James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.