The best swimming watches are designed to track your workouts in a pool or in open water. They are designed to do this accurately, with GPS to measure your route and speed, and to count your swimming strokes.
Some of the best watches for swimming have specific profiles which give you special metrics like SWOLF, which is a measurement of swimming efficiency. They will also be able to estimate your heart rate while in the water, which is very useful for tracking your workouts more comprehensively.
Some of the best swimming watches are also the best running watches, so they’re perfect for triathlon users. We’ve included several of the best Garmin watches here, as they’re some of the highest-quality sports watches available for triathletes, along with Coros and mainstay smartwatch brand Apple.
The most expensive entries here also contain dive computer functionalities for snorkelers and scuba divers. One watch we’ve not included here is the Garmin Descent Mk 3, a dedicated dive computer, and we’re aiming to add this to the guide very soon.
The Quick List
The best swimming watch overall
A premium powerhouse, with a dedicated dive computer functionality, rugged exterior, and triathlon mode which allows for quick switching between profiles
The best swimming watch for Apple users
The Apple Watch Ultra 2 is one of the best smartwatches ever made, and the working dive computer and titanium construction, combined with its swim profiles, make it essential for iPhone fans.
The best cheap swimming watch
Cheaper than an Apple Watch SE 2, the Coros Pace 3 isn’t much of a lifestyle watch, but it’s a phenomenal training tool for everyone from beginner pool swimmers to dedicated amateur athletes, all with 25 days’ battery life.
The best swimming watch for beginners
The Apple Watch SE 2 is a cheap everyday smartwatch for Apple fans that iPhone users will love. It can also be used to swim in the pool, for counting strokes, and for giving a SWOLF score.
Best swimming watch for triathlons
The Forerunner 265 isn’t a big expense like the Fenix 8 or Apple Watch Ultra 2, but it packs a bright screen and smartwatch features along with loads of sports and recovery tools, as well as triathlon modes.
The best swimming watch overall
The Garmin Fenix 8 is our top choice for the best swimming watch overall. From pool swims and snorkeling to open-water adventures and deep-sea dives, this is a watch that can handle all of it, and then some.
Its bright watch face can be seen in the murky depths underwater, it packs a multi-sport triathlon mode for athletes, and safety tools like TracBack to stop you from getting lost. It even has an LED light if you need to attract some attention during a swim. It’s also got better battery life than the Apple Watch Ultra 2, which is next on our list.
There was an issue with the Garmin Fenix 8 and its resistance to cold water: on first release, watches would brick when exposed to cold water under around 7 degrees. However, that’s since been rectified with a software update, and we’re now left with a watch suitable for even the hardiest athletes and adventurers.
Read our full Garmin Fenix 8 review
The best swimming watch for Apple users
The Apple Watch Ultra 2 is our pick for the best smartwatch overall, but it also compares favorably with specialist training and swimming watches. This is largely thanks to its rugged titanium construction, SWOLF score support (a metric representing strokes per length, or strokes per 25 meters in open water), and dive mode.
Like the Fenix 8, the Apple Watch is a working dive computer, and can be used with the Oceanic+ app to calculate depth, oxygen levels, entry and exit points, decompression, and more. It’ll warn you against diving too deeply or rising too fast, calculating safe diving parameters and displaying them on-watch.
For non-divers, it’s still a great swimming watch for indoor or outdoor swims, with a nice Ocean watch band available as standard and longer battery life than any other Apple Watch, although still nothing to compare with Coros or Garmin. As the best functional smartwatch on the list, it’s the choice to beat for most Apple users.
Read our full Apple Watch Ultra 2 review
The best cheap swimming watch
The Coros Pace 3 is the cheapest watch on this list, and it’s a fantastic tracker for swims. It’s light, crucially, so you’ll barely feel it on the wrist, made from a cheaper polymer than the metal of the more expensive watches. It’ll accurately track strokes for butterfly and front crawl: I personally tested it in the pool and found the Pool Swim mode representative and useful, with the option to set up intervals and drills on the watch.
It’s a great watch for indoor swims, but it’s also a solid tri watch, with accurate heart rate readings (and can be connected to one of our best heart rate monitors for greater accuracy) multisport modes, and fantastic running metrics. It’s top of our best cheap running watch list and outstanding value for money. It may not be a flashy smartwatch, but it's a dependable, low-power training tool with outstanding battery life.
Read our full Coros Pace 3 review
The best swimming watch for beginners
The Apple Watch SE 2 is a cheap smartwatch and a fantastic entry point into the category, and if you’re someone with an iPhone just looking for a training watch to record your pool swims and be a good smartwatch, you can’t go wrong with an Apple Watch SE 2.
During our tests, we found the basic workout app to be all most people will need. It shares the same operating system as its Ultra sibling, so gets the same settings: you’ll still get stroke counts, distances, and SWOLF score estimates. It’s water-resistant despite its much lower price, but won’t sustain as many knocks and can’t be used for scuba diving.
The Apple Watch SE 2 is also a great all-rounder fitness watch, suitable for runs, walks, and all manner of fitness tracking, as well as using Apple Pay, notification functionalities, third-party apps, and all the usual smartwatch malarky. However, its low battery life means it’s unsuitable for multiple GPS workouts, sleep tracking, and by extension workout recovery tracking.
Read our full Apple Watch SE 2 review
The best swimming watch for triathlons
The Garmin Forerunner 265 is a perfect balance between the all-encompassing training tool of the Garmin Fenix 8 and the cheap-and-cheerful Apple Watch SE 2. Slimmer than some other chunky, expensive Garmin fitness watches like the Fenix, it is missing some of the ultra-premium features such as the dive mode, the LED light, and some advanced software features.
However, it retains Garmin’s best-in-class run tracking, the Training Readiness Score and Morning Reports to inform you of your recovery, and advanced swimming metrics, including stroke tracking and different profiles for pool and open-water swimming. Its long-lasting GPS battery life and sporty profile also make it perfect for amateur triathletes.
Its bright AMOLED screen, touchscreen option, and smartwatch functionalities, with notifications, Garmin Pay, and third-party apps via the Connect IQ store, also make it a great day-to-day companion. It's cheaper than the Fenix and Ultra 2, while being more expensive than the budget options on our list. For most serious amateur athletes, the Forerunner 265 fits the bill.
Read our full Garmin Forerunner 265 review
How to choose the best swimming watch for you
When choosing one of the best swimming watches, one of the first things that you’ll need to consider is your budget. How much money have you got to spend? That’ll determine which swimming watch is within your reach and might mean you’ll need to prioritize some features. If you’re looking on the lower end, would you prefer a stripped-back training tool from Coros, or a full smartwatch with lower battery life such as the Apple Watch SE 2?
The other factor to consider is what features you’ll need. If you’re looking for an elite-tier watch for all sorts of endurance exercise or deep-sea diving, you’ll need a watch to support those workouts. If you’re just looking for a watch to measure pool swims, you could save yourself some money and opt for a cheaper watch without the serious diving and triathlon-focused features.
How we test swimming watches
We test swimming watches the same as we test all smartwatches: by putting them on the wrists of exercisers and letting them loose. We drain the battery down, look at GPS and heart rate accuracy, and examine as many features as we can over the course of the review process.
For example, we tested the cold-water properties of the Garmin Fenix 8 by dunking it into a glass of extremely cold water, tested against a Garmin Fenix 7. When possible, we swim with the watches ourselves, but if not, we also send them to swim-focused or dive-focused writers to test after the initial review process is finished.
