'World's First Swim App' on Apple Watch Put to the Test in New Video

[WatchSwimmer]

Do you know of any links/blogs where people have been tracking similar usage, over time? I'd be very interested to get beyond these abstract debates and read more about real world experience. Plus, a big question: Anyone heard of any reports of a watch actually breaking from swimming?!!

We're going to swim the distance of the English Channel (41km) with our Apple Watch. Follow us at https://twitter.com/WatchSwimmer

We'll upload a map each time we've done a swim so you can follow the progress, along with any damage reports, videos/photos and hopefully some more updates on the progress of our Unreleasable Apple Watch Swim app!

Any suggestions, let us know.

If there is anyone in the London area capable of dissecting the Apple Watch to inspect for damage once we've completed/failed please get in touch.

 

[UltimaKilo]

I'm a runner in the Winter and an open water swimmer in the Summer. When I swim I usually do just under 2 miles a day which takes me considerably longer than 30 minutes in the ocean.

I really feel left out with the Apple Watch and it's why I haven't yet purchased one. Until I can enjoy my long swims in the ocean with an Apple Watch, I won't be purchasing the product.

 

[NervousFish2]

We're going to swim the distance of the English Channel (41km) with our Apple Watch. Follow us at https://twitter.com/WatchSwimmer

We'll upload a map each time we've done a swim so you can follow the progress, along with any damage reports, videos/photos and hopefully some more updates on the progress of our Unreleasable Apple Watch Swim app!

Any suggestions, let us know.

If there is anyone in the London area capable of dissecting the Apple Watch to inspect for damage once we've completed/failed please get in touch.

Can't wait to read your results!

 

[currocj]

Is it or isn't is waterproof for swimming. Apple please tell us in unequivocal terms!

Finally! 100 posts, now I can join those ever so fun political discussions!

 

[73b]

What sports are you worried about? Around here, most of the physical sports I might do don't allow jewelry of any kind, no matter how strong the watch. Running and cycling are not impact sports unless you fall down. (I try not to do that) The beach and swimming have been no trouble, I wear mine in the pool and have been to several water parks with no problem. Not assuming anything but if the watch is affordable for you, you will wear it no matter what and just deal with it if something breaks. AppleCare+ is helpful too, which I have but have not needed yet. The two main advantages to me of the sport is the lower price and the lower weight. The cost is closer to other sport watch options and is just enough for most.

I live on the beach so most of the activity I do happens on the sand or in the ocean. I always take off my watch before going to the beach because with volleyball or other beach games you are in the sand a lot, and I'm worried the sand will damage the watch. I don't have AppleCare but I probably should have bought it.

 

[inscrewtable]

I don't think it will be viable for Apple to make a proper waterproof model for the handful (relatively speaking) of customers. The reason is that it needs to be made more resistant than what is claimed. Therefore a watch advertised as coping with splashing, washing and a 1metre dunk for a minute, has to be made to withstand a few laps in a pool. A watch advertised to withstand a half dozen laps in a pool, would need to be made so that it could cope with an hour in the pool.

 

[SurferPup]

They just need to be creative in the app description. It can be used to measure the number of widths of a football pitch you can run whilst flailing your arms windmill-style !

Call it Windy-Widths

That's hilarious - so funny in a nice way. Thanks for the humour.

 

[britboyj]

If this app goes live, I will buy an Apple Watch Sport tomorrow.

 

[WatchSwimmer]

Can't wait to read your results!

Well it's just survived 1,525m.

 

[UltimaKilo]

Well it's just survived 1,525m.

I'm swimming 1,828.8 meters or so in the ocean. I would be even more cautious taking the watch into salt-water.

 

[Wappsydaisy]

In the days and weeks after its launch last April, one of the biggest curiosities surrounding the Apple Watch was its tolerance to water. Thanks to a few initial tests -- from showers to high dive pools -- we now know that the Apple Watch is indeed a bit more waterproof than Apple promises, and with that in mind a few London-based iOS developers have created the "World's first swim app on the Apple Watch," and put it through its paces in a new video.

Having designed a similar app for the Pebble, Ted Bradley and his team decided to take that idea -- a lapping, time, and heart rate monitoring swim app -- and transplant it onto the Apple Watch. The developers put each smartwatch to the same test, swimming four full lengths of the London Aquatic Centre's 50 meter pool. The test proved successful, with the Apple Watch mirroring the Pebble's results of a four lap, 200 meter swim. Apple's smartwatch even continued to measure heart rate successfully, raising from an initial 88bpm to 138bpm immediately after the test finished.

The only downside for the app is that the Apple Watch experiences a tiny bit of lag when waking it up to check out lap times, the developers explaining that only when the screen is awake can the app run through the data samples collected from the swim and take a few seconds to parse through the information and display it on screen. Elsewhere, the swimming data isn't locked into the app, all of the workout and heart rate information getting delivered to HealthKit like any other workout and adding to a user's daily exercise and move goals.

Of course, even though the app works, the developers are still referring to it as an "interesting technology demo," seeing that App Store Guidelines will immediately shut it down for encouraging users to use the Watch "in a way that may cause damage to the device." In the end, the app's creators just hope that Apple hears the calls for a fully-waterproof smartwatch and includes such features in the device's next generation.
The full blog post, where Bradley goes into detail about everything from his inspiration for creating the swim app to architectural challenges the team faced in creating it, is definitely worth a read.

Article Link: 'World's First Swim App' on Apple Watch Put to the Test in New Video

I highly doubt this will work but I know that there are waterproof cases for the apple watch already like the LUNATIC ones which will come out soon, so if you got in touch with them and maybe asked permission to use their product in a kind of disclaimer for the app staring that "Under apple terms and conditions for developers and wearers of the watch, your warranty will be voided if you do not use this app with a waterproof case (hopefully) available in all apple stores." I'm a swimmer and I could really use this to help me eat the right amount for my training levels and guage the distance and amount of calories I'm burning every training session and be able to combine that with my land training and everyday milling about, it's unbelievably valuable to me and for my swimming team to have that kind of information just on my wrist! I can't believe that this could be possible. So basically I'm asking you guys to stick with it, and don't give up!! I will definitely pay even up to $20 on the app store for this. You need to work out something with apple to get the waterproof case in stores, and then be able to get apple to let you release your app on the basis that everyone who uses it must use it with the case in the apple store. That's a lot of work but I do believe that what you've done needs to be shared! Thank You!

 

[Wappsydaisy]

I think it's clear that the watch is waterproof but Apple didn't want to have it fail and have to refund people or have a lawsuit or class action if it wasn't durable enough to stay waterproof over the life of the watch.

I would expect the 2nd or 3rd Apple Watch to be advertised as waterproof once they have more data about the durability of the water seals.

That's exactly what i was thinking... And i'm bloody pissed off about it XD

 

[Datalinks]

counting laps is no big deal, what we need is a waterproof apple watch that will be fully functional as a HRM.