Wearable Swim Lap/Time Tracker?

[eqbob]

Don't know if this will get any responses out there, but we shall see..

Does anyone have / use a wearable swim tracker for laps? I'm considering one and looking for suggestions.

It would be nice if it would work in 2 modes--first by distance and laps. The pool is only 34 feet long, so swimming a mile (160 laps) involves a lot of turning. I generally am completely zenned out by 20 laps and by 80 I really start to lose count.

Second, for those times when I choose to swim against the jets, it would be nice if it could track that as well, since there's no turning and pushing involved there. Probably not going to do this as most models I've seen aren't GPS based, but I've only been looking and reading for a short while.

Any thoughts?

 

[Casey]

Let's see if we can get any responses for you.

 

[michaelrbanks]

I purchased a Garmin Vivoactive for this. I LOVE a lot of the features, since I run and bike also, it provides all the GPS tracking for those activities, plus smartwatch features. Swimming is a bit lacking, however... It will track swimming strokes, laps, distance, efficiency, etc. but the one thing that really limits it is you cannot program a pool length lower than 18 yards (54 ft). So in your pool, like mine, the distance / lap will be significantly off. I'm assuming swimming against the jets will confuse the data since it doesn't have an "open water" mode - it would think you're doing one long lap & I'm not exactly sure what the end result will be.

Vivoactive Product Information

Running Data

You might have more success with the 920XT, since it does support open water, but it carries a heftier price tag:
Garmin 920XT Product Information

 

[eqbob]

Thanks. Appreciate the bump and the response. Been out of town so apologies for the late response to the thread. I looked at some Garmin ones but did see similar limitations on programming pool length. I might just have to keep with counting lengths while zenning. Of course, not allowed in pool for 7-10 days now, so have some for research and maybe a purchase.

 

[danpik]

Not sure if there is anything available that will do what you want. Swimming laps could work with a GPS enabled device if it was accurate enough. Civilian GPS accuracy, I believe, is limited to 3m (10') and depending on conditions, number of satellites, accuracy of the unit, etc it could be even bigger (20'-30'). It would be pretty hard for a unit like that to accurately track direction changes in a short length pool. As far as a distance counter for a jetted pool, How would it know how far you swan as you have not moved in theory. One idea for the jetted pool is to determine the water speed that you are swimming in. With that, you can calculate, based on time, how far you swam.