I wore my Apple Watch (first edition) playing and swimming in the Atlantic in South Carolina this past summer. No problems
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Watch Series 2: A Swimmer's Perspective
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
[doublepost=1474771831][/doublepost]I can't get past the picture. That is one tiny arm.
As a lifelong swimmer, I found the addition of 50-meter water resistance and swim workout tracking in the Apple Watch Series 2 to be a welcome improvement that made the new watch a must-have upgrade for me. While the original Apple Watch was not rated for swimming, many users had no issues regularly using it in the water, although its lack of built-in swim tracking features limited its usefulness.
With Apple Watch Series 2, Apple has not only upgraded the water resistance with new gaskets and seals to make it suitable for swimming, but added new Pool Swim and Open Water Swim workouts to help track your progress. As part of the Apple Watch Series 2 introduction earlier this month, Apple highlighted how it worked with swimmers in the company's fitness labs to develop the software to accurately track swim workouts, from using the accelerometer in the watch to measure arm movements to tracking energy expenditures during workouts.
So how well does the new Apple Watch work when you take it for some swims in a pool? Let's take a look.
Click here to read rest of article...
Article Link: Apple Watch Series 2: A Swimmer's Perspective
unfortunately, the swim.com app does not record heart rate. however, based on my experience with that app while on the pebble, the developer(s) seems to be pretty good about adding features (ex. interval detection wasn't there initially).
I tried out the swim.com app today and it worked pretty well. It displays more information (minus heart rate) than the built in app and I didn't have any problems with errant input due to the water.
Simple to start - just select your pool length and you can start.
I was concerned that the water might accidentally register input on the touchscreen since it doesn't activate the water mode like the built in apple pool workout app (and there's no way to access to configuration to manually enable that mode once you're in the swim.com app), but it worked great. No accidental input or the workout being stopped during the swim. I only did a short swim today (30 laps) but it worked well. Here are my observations:
- auto rest/swim detection
- shows last interval you swam and pace (ex. 100yards @ 1:20/100yds)
- best way to interface during workout is using the digital crown
- end workout is accessible on screen if you scroll to bottom
- didn't detect stroke type as I expected. it labeled all as free including the laps I swam breast
There's another thread with a lot of good discussion and information over here as well. Maybe it makes sense to merge?
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/sharing-my-first-swimming-experience-with-aw2.1998759/
Pah, for me it's even worse, my mic stopped working yesterday (and I haven't been swimming with the watch yet!) ... now I'll need to send it in and wait 10 days. Great. Already had it for half a week. Just great.
Yeah, I was there. In fact, I realized after the fact that we were next to each other in one of our races. If I'd known, I'd have said hi. I emailed you back when HealthKit was just getting started, but then flaked out and never got back to you.
Will give the swim.com app a try. Does it hook into Activity/HealthKit stuff?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ My wrist is 170 mm.
I thought that we can use both apps simultaneously? Or swim.com app will get all data from the original app?
This is interesting. I will try later afternoon. Thanks for sharing!
It might be possible to run both at the same time, but I haven't figured out how to do it yet. Your best best may be to start with the pool workout and then start up the swim.com app.
I'm pretty certain that the swim.com app stops the workout when you exit the app so I don't think you can start the swim.com app, then start up the built in pool workout app.
I see it similar to the camera on the iPhone. Used in lieu of a point and shoot for most people now (not the case when the iPhone launched). Never going to replace DSLRs for those that need serious/pro level.
In a similar way each version of the AW will get better at the tracking side of things. And it will get to a point where the mass market wouldn't ever touch a dedicated tracker (personally it's already there - but I run 2 to 3 a week for general fitness - I'm not a serious/pro runner). Those that need the DSLRs of fitness tracking will continue to buy their Garmins etc. that come with dedicated buttons, large batteries and other "must have" features that AW will never have.
Great review and post.
I am not a swimmer myself, but I absolutely love hearing real-world use cases of modern tech.
It's always interesting to me to see where the marketing falls off and reality takes place. Looks like a good additional feature if you were already thinking of getting an apple watch for everyday use.
I am not a swimmer myself, but I absolutely love hearing real-world use cases of modern tech.
It's always interesting to me to see where the marketing falls off and reality takes place. Looks like a good additional feature if you were already thinking of getting an apple watch for everyday use.
I find it kind of funny that in a sport where people are willing to shave their entire bodies to cut down on drag, they don't mind wearing a dinner plate around their wrist in a competition. On the other hand, I don't know anything about competitive swimming.
Excellent idea. For implementation: Usually each iBeacon should be absolutely unique. So you have a unique iBeacon for "Watch department at store xxx in town yyy". But you could have one range of iBeacons for "swimming pool" with a number 0 or 1 for left side or right side, a number 1 to 8 for the lane you are in, and a number for the length of a pool. So your watch would register "I am at lane 4 on the left side of a 30 meter pool somewhere in the world", then the iBeacon goes out of range, and a while later the watch registers "I am a at lane 5 on right right side of a 30 meter pool somewhere in the world" (if you switched lanes). And you could do the same for running or cycling tracks. (Don't know if iBeacon reacts fast enough for a cyclist at 30mph going past iBeacons).
We already had that, when Apple first released the AW.
I use the series 0 for running and its decent, though I would like the GPS, its not a show stopper for me. I just remember back a few years ago, when I ran, I didn't need any sort of device that tracked my running and I seemed to do ok
Yes, the technology has certainly helped, but at the end of the day, its about putting the feet to the pavement
That's exciting news, is it able to get around the kick problem with pre-programmed sets? Is that a feature?
Also, does it have a clock? Because I really need an interval clock and currently use my regular, good old fashioned watch to go on the :30, :45, etc or take an X second break lol.
Edit: Also to those confused about water resistance. It says 50m because that's the equivalent water pressure it is tested to, still at room temperature.
For example, you could submerge the watch to a foot of depth and tie it to a speedboat and it probably wouldn't survive. That's because the water pressure applied to it exceeds the water pressure you find at 50m of still depth. This an extreme example, but it should be noted that because of this, even watches rated for 30m of depth shouldn't be showered with.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_Resistant_mark
Last edited:
So I briefly tested using the swim.com app. It's just okay in my opinion, though I haven't really dug into it to see if I'm missing any features.
It automatically detects when you're resting, which is great, and generates splits for each swim visible in the iPhone app. If you're going on a short rest interval, it sometimes won't pick up the rest and so it'll treat multiple repeats as a single swim. There is a running clock of your workout displayed on the screen, so you can use that for your interval send-offs, although the watch makes things a bit finicky with having to raise your arm to wake the screen and then it shutting itself off after a few seconds right at the crucial moment.
Swim.com app workouts will count as Activity and so your calories and even your stroke count will automatically show up in Health and Activity apps. But they don't count as Apple Workouts, so it won't show up on that tab of the Activity app and other data like distance won't get synced over to the Apple side.
It automatically detects when you're resting, which is great, and generates splits for each swim visible in the iPhone app. If you're going on a short rest interval, it sometimes won't pick up the rest and so it'll treat multiple repeats as a single swim. There is a running clock of your workout displayed on the screen, so you can use that for your interval send-offs, although the watch makes things a bit finicky with having to raise your arm to wake the screen and then it shutting itself off after a few seconds right at the crucial moment.
Swim.com app workouts will count as Activity and so your calories and even your stroke count will automatically show up in Health and Activity apps. But they don't count as Apple Workouts, so it won't show up on that tab of the Activity app and other data like distance won't get synced over to the Apple side.
So I briefly tested using the swim.com app. It's just okay in my opinion, though I haven't really dug into it to see if I'm missing any features.
It automatically detects when you're resting, which is great, and generates splits for each swim visible in the iPhone app. If you're going on a short rest interval, it sometimes won't pick up the rest and so it'll treat multiple repeats as a single swim. There is a running clock of your workout displayed on the screen, so you can use that for your interval send-offs, although the watch makes things a bit finicky with having to raise your arm to wake the screen and then it shutting itself off after a few seconds right at the crucial moment.
Swim.com app workouts will count as Activity and so your calories and even your stroke count will automatically show up in Health and Activity apps. But they don't count as Apple Workouts, so it won't show up on that tab of the Activity app and other data like distance won't get synced over to the Apple side.
View attachment 660509View attachment 660510
Hey WildCowboy, I've had pretty good luck with the auto interval detection. The only thing is that it may stop your intervals a little soon so they are quicker than actual.
Also, not sure if I just didn't notice this before or if it was part of the update that was released yesterday but there is an option to sync to health. It's in the iPhone app under settings/account. Tested it out today and it works! You get everything that a pool workout gives (including average hr) except for active calories. I think that's pretty cool and makes quite a compelling case to use this app over the apple one.
Nice! Ya, I tested Monday night. Saw the update yesterday, but haven't looked into the improvements yet.
The swim.com app failed to record a 1km segment of my swim. Not sure why.
What's good about this app is it can sense that you are resting and is supposed to start automatically. I think it should also stop the timer automatically when you stop.
When you do stop at the wall, you have to figure out how to stop the timer. Spin the crown to unlock the screen and swipe and find the stop button. So this takes 4 seconds or so - and it's nice if it auto pauses. I think it does.
Another nice thing is you can see stroke count while you are pushing off the wall.
I think it's the best app so far, but I am still having some problems i think - next few swims and I'll figure it out.
I've just downloaded the app to my AW and went to set it up for a 20M pool and noticed it doesn't have that setting even though the AW does. I can't see any other options to change it to 20M - am I missing something or is this a distance that is not covered? Not a huge issue as I'll jsut use the workout app on AW and delete swim.com - cheers.
You can set it from the app on your iPhone. Just go to settings (upper left cog symbol) and devices and select the Apple Watch. You can set any distance.