It can be a bit confusing finding fitness trackers that are safe for swimming, because the water-resistant ratings lead your brain in all sorts of directions! Generally, water resistance ratings are based on laboratory pressure tests comparable to a swimmer sitting still under water at a certain depth.
This list – 10 Best Fitness Trackers You Can Swim With 2015 is in no particular order. Most of these fitness trackers don’t have advanced features for tracking swimming, but they are safe to use in the pool and will track distance and calories, although less accurately than running, cycling etc.
Full-on sports watches like the Garmin Epix, Forerunner 920XT, Fenix 3 or the Vivoactive with its mixed bag of features will serve you better in the pool, but obviously come at a higher price.
Misfit Shine
The popular Misfit shine is one of our favorite fitness trackers. It’s very user friendly, makes easy work of logging your stats, and features automatic sleep monitoring. It’s a coin sized and shaped device that weighs just 9 grams, it can be worn as a wristband, necklace or magnetically clasped onto belts, cuffs pockets etc. The Shine is Misfit’s flagship activity tracker, it has a coin cell battery like traditional watches that lasts around 6 months so it doesn’t need charging every few days. It has an LED display (which takes a bit of getting used to), and functions as a watch.
See also | Misfit Shine 2
Shine will track your steps, calories burned, distance and sleep quality and duration. It is compatible with iOS, Android and Windows Phone. The Misfit Shine is waterproof up to 50 meters.
• Misfit Shine
Around $59 USD
Speedo Shine
The Speedo Shine has the same sleek design as the original Shine. The new swim orientated fitness tracker has been put through its paces in Speedo’s Aqualab development facility. It will count and record your laps with industry-leading accuracy and recognizes every swimming stroke known to Speedo thanks to its onboard 3-axis accelerometer and proprietary algorithms embedded in the firmware.
On top of its advanced features for swimming, the Speedo Shine tracks steps, calories and distance covered. It also features automatic sleep tracking with light vs deep sleep analysis, and sleep duration. The twelve LED displays ubiquitous with Misfit wearables let you know how close you are to your fitness goals, along with telling the time.
The Speedo Shine houses a coin cell battery that never needs charging, instead it needs to be replaced approximately every 6 months. The new wearable uses Bluetooth 4.1 to pair with the Misfit app which is compatible with iOS, Android, and Windows, plus a Speedo app is in the works and should be available soon. The Speedo Shine is water-resistant up to 50 meters.
• Speedo Shine
Around $80 USD
Mio Fuse
The Mio Fuse is definitely one of the most comfortable fitness trackers I’ve tried, its soft and flexible material molds itself around your wrist. The sporty looking Mio Fuse offers built-in EKG accurate heart rate monitoring, calories burned, steps and distance, but it doesn’t feature sleep tracking.
It’s compatible with Android and iOS and syncs via Bluetooth Smart (4.0) and ANT+. Mio Fuse weighs 39 grams, has battery life of Approximately 6-7 days with 1 hour of workout time per day, and is water-resistant up to 30 meters.
• Mio Fuse
Around $139 USD
Mio Alpha 2
Like its little bro, the Mio Alpha 2 is very comfortable to wear. Although it’s built more like a watch than the Fuse it’s just as dedicated to fitness activities. At first glance the Mio Alpha 2 looks quite bulky, but I was surprised how unbulky it looked on my (not overly thick) wrist.
Mio Alpha 2 uses electrocardiogram (EKG) accurate data for heart rate monitoring, tracks calories, distance, but has no sleep tracking feature. It’s compatible with iOS and Android, and has a battery life of up to 24 hours in workout mode, and up to 3 months just using the watch function with heart rate monitoring turned off. Mio Alpha 2 is water-resistant up to 30 meters. Mio recommend that if you take the Alpha 2 into the pool – don’t press any buttons since water pressure may cause them to stick or break.
• Mio Alpha 2
Around $200 USD
Moov
The Moov fitness tracker is a multi-sport wearable designed to be worn on your wrist or ankle. Moov is different from the others because it’s not an all day fitness tracker or sleep monitor. Instead it acts as a digital personal trainer to help motivate and advise you during workouts. Moov is geared up for running, walking, cycling, workouts, cardio boxing and swimming. For the dry-land sports, Moov works with your smartphone, giving you real-time stats and audio coaching. It also uses your smartphone’s GPS to integrate your total distance covered within the Moov app.
For swimming, Moov stores up to 90 minutes of data. It then uploads your swim data via Bluetooth to your smartphone, including number of laps, average pace per lap, turn time, stroke rate, strokes per lap, calories burned and more.
Moov is user-friendly and easy to set up. The companion app is compatible with iOS and Android. The app provides plenty of activity analysis, plus you can connect and share your results with the rest of the Moov community. Moov has a water-resistant rating of 1 ATM (10 meters).
• Moov
Around $45 USD
Moov Now
The Moov Now is 44% smaller than the original Moov. The rechargeable battery has been replaced by a coin cell which gives you up to 6 months before it needs replacing. It has a new and improved, breathable band, it weighs less, and like the original it can be worn on either your wrist or ankle.
The Moov Now features all-day activity and sleep tracking, whereas the original is only meant to be worn for workouts and sports. It also has improved Bluetooth syncing, and a new processor that’s twice the speed of the original’s.
The same deal is going on with the Moov Now using your smartphone’s GPS data to deliver real-time stats such as distance, speed and pace for the dryland sports. In the pool the Moov Now is smarter than Albert Einstein.
It features automatic stroke recognition – freestyle, breaststroke, butterfly and backstroke; tracks your total number of laps, Lap time, pace, stroke rate, stroke length, flip/turn time, swim duration, fastest 100, interval times and calories burned. it offers pro tips on how to improve speed and technique, compares your times against Olympic gold medal swimmers, and enables you to share and compare data with the Moov community.
The Moov Now is compatible with iOS and Android. It is water-resistant up to 3 meters.
• Moov Now
Around $80 USD
Garmin Vivofit 2
The Garmin Vivofit 2 is a 24 hour fitness tracker and the successor to the Garmin Vivofit, which was in the running for best fitness tracker of its generation. Vivofit 2 tracks your steps, distance and calories burned, it also shows the time and date. Like its predecessor, the Vivofit 2 features a move bar, an indicator which will grow in length the longer you stay inactive. Vivofit 2 features sleep tracking which needs to be manually triggered, it will track your total hours of sleep along with periods of movement and restful sleep.
Like the original Vivofit, the Vivofit 2 is a great fitness tracker for convenience and ease of use. You can see your data with a glance at the monochrome OLED display which now has an available backlight, then sync up to the Garmin Connect app for Android, iOS and Windows to analyze your data. Vivofit 2 has a battery life of up to one year with two replaceable coin cell batteries. It is water-resistant up to 50 meters.
• Garmin Vivofit 2
Around $99 USD
Basis peak
The Basis Peak was acquired by Intel, it comes with the slogan ‘The Ultimate Fitness and Sleep Tracker’. The goal of its makers was to produce a fitness tracker with the most advanced features and the greatest accuracy in its category. The Basis Peak is kind on the eye with a design that fits into either a sporting or casual environment. It delivers smart notifications to your wrist, such as text, emails and incoming calls.
It senses your skin temperature and galvanic skin response. Basis Peak features a built-in optical heart rate monitor, it will track your calories burned, steps taken and has an advanced automatic sleep tracking mode. It also features gesture control, magnetic charging and a Gorilla Glass 3 touch screen display. The Basis Peak app is compatible with Android and iOS. It has a battery life of around 4 days between charges, and is water-resistant up to 50 meters.
• Basis Peak
Around $160 USD
Runtastic Orbit
The Runtastic Orbit is an all round fitness tracker that It will monitor your steps, distance, calories and sleep duration and cycles. It functions as a watch, has a vibrating alarm. The Orbit can be worn as a wristband, clipped onto other items of clothing such as your belt, or just slipped into your pocket. The Orbit has an OLED display so you can easily check your stats. It will recommend if you need to get more sunlight thanks to its ambient light sensor.
See also | Runtastic Moment
The Orbit’s companion app, Runtastic Me is compatible with Android, iOS and Windows Phone 8.1 or higher. Also, data from the extremely popular GPS fitness app Runtastic Pro can be displayed on the Orbit. It has a battery life of up to 7 days between charges, and is waterproof up to 100 meters so is safe for swimming. The Runtastic Orbit is one of the most accurate fitness trackers for counting steps thanks to its highly refined algorithms.
• Runtastic Orbit
Around $80 USD
Jaybird Reign
The Jaybird Reign is an athletic looking fitness tracker that packs the features you would expect in 2015, i.e steps, distance, calories, sleep and heart rate. It takes a unique approach to heart rate monitoring, measuring the variability in time between each heart beat (Heart Rate Variability – HRV).
The Jaybird Reign can recognise fatigue and recovery patterns, it has automatic sleep recognition, and features several sports modes such as cycling, walking, running and swimming, and it automatically detects when you are participating in each sport.
The green and red flashing LED display is simple but effective, it lets you know your stat progress and functions as a watch. Jaybird Reign is compatible with Android and iOS, has a battery life of 4-5 days between charges and is waterproof enough to use for swimming.
• Jaybird Reign
Around $160-$199 USD
Wellograph Wellness Watch
The Wellograph Wellness Watch is a smart-looking fitness tracking watch packed with features you would expect from a high-end device in 2015. It has a base made of anodized aluminium and stainless steel, and a monochrome liquid crystal display covered by Sapphire Glass.
The Wellograph features a Tri-LED heart rate sensor to track your BPM along with your steps, distance and calories burned. The companion app runs on iOS and Android. This premium fitness tracker/watch has a battery life of up to 7 days between charges, and is water-resistant up to 50 meters.
• Wellograph Wellness Watch
Around $299 USD
Atlas Wristband
Atlas Wearables are bringing out their new fitness tracker in 2015. I recently got to try it out at the 2015 Wearable Technology Show in London and was impressed. Simply put, the Atlas fitness tracker has more advanced features than the rest! It goes beyond the usual steps, distance etc with its ability to recognise different activities.
Atlas evaluates your form and can distinguish between different push up types, bicep curls, lateral raises and plenty more making it a great fitness partner, especially if you time your sessions instead of counting reps. Atlas features an optical heart rate monitor, it is equipped with aircraft grade sensors that can see how your body is affected by your routines and how quickly your heart recovers.
This extremely smart fitness tracker has a 128×64 touch-screen display and a 120mAh battery that lasts for at least 7 workouts. Atlas is compatible with iOS and Android, it’s also compatible with popular third-party fitness apps. What sets the Atlas apart from the others is that it has a dedicated swimming mode that will recognise and count your swimming strokes. It is water-resistant up to 50 meters.
You can pre-order the Atlas fitness tracker now for $249.00 USD.
Regarding the shipping date, Atlas have said “We do not currently have an estimated shipping date. All Atlas orders, including Indiegogo, will be shipped by late 2015.”
Withings Activite Pop
I just had to update this list and add the Withings Activite Pop, which obviously takes it up to 11 fitness trackers you can swim with! The Activite Pop is one of the better looking fitness trackers, for the obvious reason that it looks like an analogue watch. It connects to its companion app for iOS and Android via Bluetooth 4.0. It will automatically detect and track different activity types including swimming, running and walking. Pop will track your steps, distance and sleep patterns, it features light sleep versus deep sleep reports and has a vibrating alarm feature.
Pop will automatically adjust itself when you travel to a different time zone. It has a coin cell battery that lasts up to 8 months and is water-resistant up to 50 meters. The Pop doesn’t have a built-in heart rate monitor or GPS, and it doesn’t display smart notifications, but nevertheless it’s a very tidy fitness tracker!
• Withings Activite Pop
Around $149 USD
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