6 Best Waterproof Fitness Trackers for Swimming

Ready to take your swim workout to the next level? Here’s your guide to the best waterproof fitness trackers for swimming.

Athletes, and swimmers are no exception, understand the value of monitoring and tracking their performance in the water.

When you know what you are doing in the water, it sharpens your focus, gives you a jolt of motivation, and helps you stay on track.

And there is no better tool for helping you get the most from your time swimming up and down the pool (or in open water) than a waterproof fitness tracker.

Over 30+ years of swimming in the pool, from Olympic Trials qualifier to noon-hour lap swimmer, I’ve tried more of these devices than I can count.

Watches. Smartwatches. Goggle-mounted trackers. Smart swim goggles. And even finger-mounted counters.

In this roundup, we will look at the best waterproof trackers for swimmers.

Which ones are accurate, which have excellent apps, and which ones perform best in the water.

Whether you are a casual lap swimmer or someone looking to get every last detail out of their swimming, by the end you will have a crystal-clear idea of which tracker is going to help you slay your goals in the pool.

Let’s dive right in.

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The Best Waterproof Fitness Trackers for Swim Training

Here is an overview of the best trackers for swimmers:

Next, we’ll take a deeper look at each device, what kind of swimmer is best suited to them, what they track, how they track it, and later, how to choose the perfect swim tracker for your goals.

1. FORM 2 Smart Swim Goggles

⭐ Best hands-free waterproof fitness tracker

Waterproof trackers for swimmers took a big leap forward in 2019 with the world’s first smart swim goggles, the FORM Swim Goggles. In 2024, FORM updated the goggles with the FORM 2 Smart Swim Goggles.

In terms of pure wow factor, functionality, and accuracy, you can’t beat the FORM 2 goggles with their heads-up display and real-time swim workout metrics.

Yup, your splits, overall time, pace, stroke rate, heart rate, whatever metrics you choose, unspool right in front of your eyes as you swim.

And with the FORM 2, you can customize the in-google metrics to show you the data that matters most to your training.

Is it distracting to swim with the data right there? Yes. It can be at first.

Took me a handful of sessions to habituate to the rolling data in front of my eye. The first lap I swam with the FORM goggles I nearly rolled into the wall because I was mesmerized by the display.

After a few laps, you get used to essentially having a pace clock inside your goggle lens.

The biggest upgrade over the first edition is that the FORM 2 goggles have integrated heart rate tracking.

Where the FORM 1 needed a separate heart rate tracker like a chest strap or even watch, the latest version has a sensor that catches your heart rate on your temple–no add-on sensor needed.

There’s no other swim tracker that puts live heart rate in front of your eyes like this, and is awesome for swimmers who do longer swims designed to be within specific energy zones.

Some other key things to know about the FORM 2 Smart Swim Goggles:

• Works well in low-light and outdoor pools. Sunshine doesn’t white-out the display.
• The goggles are very comfortable and easy to customize to your face. They come with 5 nose pieces, adjustable head straps and an upgraded seal that gently suctions to your skin for a leak-free fit).
• In terms of fit, the goggles remind me a lot of Speedo Vanquishers, which consistently ranks as one of my favorite goggles for swimmers.
• Batteries last for around 14– a slight decline on the FORM 1’s battery life, a slight trade-off for the smaller tech unit.

The swim app that comes with the FORM 2 goggles is where swimmers that are serious about data can really get into the nuts and bolts of their swimming.

The app tracks every last detail of your swimming. If it matters to your swim workout, the app will track, log, and present the data in a way that swimmers intuitively understand.

There’s a lot more under the hood than a roundup can cover—I put the FORM 2 through a full training block, so if you want the deep dive on accuracy, the app, the subscription features, and how it stacks up against the FINIS Smart Goggles and the FORM 1, read my full FORM 2 Smart Swim Goggles review.

Two main cons of the goggles.

First, you do lose some peripheral vision to the side where the HUD unit is mounted, which is the trade-off when it comes with smart goggles.

And the FORM 2 doesn’t track kick yardage. Grab a kickboard and it logs the set as rest.

Kicking is something that I do a lot of, so I’d love to see this addressed in a future update. It’s also worth noting that the premium features of the goggles (HeadCoach, SwimStraight, guided workouts, and training plans) require a $19.99 monthly subscription on top of the goggle price.

Ultimately, for the swimmer who is dead serious about tracking their swims–both in the pool and in open water–and relies on accurate splits, heart rate, and stroke counts to stray on track–the FORM 2 are an absolute dream.

✅ PROS	❌ CONS
Best swim tracker for serious swimmers	Lose a little peripheral vision
Displays training metrics right in the lens!	Doesn’t track kick yardage
Exceptionally accurate (missed one lap over 7 weeks of testing)	Premium coaching/training features require a monthly subscription
Integrated heart rate—no chest strap or watch required
Detailed app that tracks everything you can think of in the water; easy download to app from goggles post-swim
SwimStraight for open water navigation + HeadCoach technique coaching
Adjustable display brightness

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2. Apple Watch

⭐ Best waterproof smartwatch for swimming

With the Apple Watch we veer off into the smartwatch category of swim trackers (the Apple Watch as our favorite overall swim watch).

For starters, the Apple Watch is almost scary-accurate at counting and tracking laps and distances.

This is the main issue swim trackers of all stripes struggle with. You’ve likely had the familiar experience of doing a 3,000m swim workout and looking down at your watch and it tells you that you swam 14,325m.

Compared to my ($900!) Garmin Fenix, the Apple Watch blows it out of the water when it comes to tracking lengths, missing only 1-2 lengths per week, usually because I am wrestling with my swim fins or other equipment in the water, confusing it.

The onboard swim tracking app is simple and tracks all the necessities, including how long you swam (distance and time), average heart rate, calories burned, number of laps, and how much yardage/meters you did of each stroke. Accessing the swim tracking app is a breeze, just a couple of clicks and you are in business.

One of the things that I really like about Apple Watch for swimming is that it tracks kick!

For swimmers who like doing kick at the pool (raises hand), the Apple Watch is the only tracker I’ve ever used that tracks kicking. Yes, when you grab a kickboard and start doing flutter kick, it knows.

To my knowledge, after years of testing countless devices and apps, the Apple Watch is the only device with this functionality, which makes it a total game-changer for swimmers like myself who spend a lot of time using a kickboard.

Apple Watches from Series 2 onward are water-resistant up to a depth of 50m. If you plan on doing deeper swimming and diving, the Apple Ultra Watch is rated for a depth of 100m (though it’s roughly double the price and overkill for lap swimming).

There are a few other things the Apple Watch does for swimmers:

• GPS tracking. A cool feature for open water swimmers: the ability to chart your swimming and see how straight (or not) you are going in the water. While the GPS function doesn’t work through the water each time your arm surfaces during the arm recovery it pings the GPS satellite and pinpoints your position (so don’t be surprised if you aren’t getting tracked while swimming breaststroke outdoors, for instance).
• Heart rate measurement. Although the heart rate function isn’t perfectly accurate (the most accurate way to measure heart rate while swimming is still a chest strap or mounting a heart rate monitor to the side of your head), with each iteration the sensors are getting better and better, and the Apple Watch can give you a broad idea of what your heart rate is like when swimming. Just make sure that the watch is snug onto your wrist.
• Third-party apps! This is a biggie—there are a ton of swim-centric apps for Apple Watches and it iOS eco-system. They use the hardware on your watch to track your swimming while also offering the ability to upload your own workouts, training programs, and workout/drill libraries. Two of our favorites are Swim.com and MySwimPro.

And, of course, the Apple Watch—being a smartwatch and all—has a metric butt-ton of features you can use on dry land.

The main knock is the same as it’s always been: it’s pricey (the SE is the affordable entry point, the Ultra the splurge), and battery life is short. Expect under 24 hours versus the near-three-weeks I get out of my Garmin Fenix.

For a device this feature-packed, that’s the trade-off.

✅ PROS	❌ CONS
Most accurate swim watch in the water	A bit pricey for casual swim tracking
Tracks kicking laps	Battery requires near-daily charging
Excellent multi-function watch
Open water and pool modes
GPS tracking (with cellular mode)
Lots of third-party swim training apps

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3. WHOOP 5.0

⭐ Best recovery tracker for swimmers

Most waterproof fitness trackers to the heavy math in the pool–logging the meters/yards, pace, intensity, and so on. But for swimmers zeroed-in on high performance, a really good swim tracker is one that gives them the tools for better recovery between sessions in the pool.

That’s where the WHOOP 5.0 stands apart.

Unlike a standard swim tracker that just logs the sweet, chlorinated stuff in the water, WHOOP continuously tracks heart rate, sleep, recovery, and training strain to give you a much better picture of how you’re responding to your swim training.

For swimmers who rack up the miles each week, this is a big piece of intel for smarter training:

Am I recovered enough to get after another big swim practice today?

I’m a big fan of the band design, which is a thinner, less obtrusive design that won’t get in the way of technique when swimming. There’s no bulky watch face fighting your catch and hand entry (ahem, Garmin). Battery life is awesome–about two weeks on a full charge.

The pricing structure is different from other trackers in the sense that you are really paying for a subscription, and not necessarily a device.

Swimmers who want “live” tracking in the sense that they can check their workout data on the wall will find the WHOOP lacking; no screen means you can’t check swim-specific metrics till the workout is over. (Though for swimmers who’d rather train without the distraction, that’s a feature, not a bug.)

WHOOP has some deep roots in the swimming community, too. Caeleb Dressel–Olympic, world, and NCAA champion and world record holder–has worn a WHOOP in training, pairing it with his usual log-booking to measure and track his training.

Other Olympians including Carson Foster and Conor Jaeger have been spotted training with the WHOOP.

The WHOOP 5.0 is perfect for swimmers looking for a simpler tracker that covers the basics but also delivers elite insights on recovery, sleep, and training load so that they can plan their swim training more intelligently.

✅ PROS	❌ CONS
Best swim tracker for swimmers obsessed with recovery	Doesn’t give much real-time feedback
Slim design; non-obtrusive. Excellent for swimming	Annual subscription required
Detail tracking of heart rate, HRV, sleep, training strain/load	Separate waterproof band required for swimming
Lasts two weeks on a full charge

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4. FINIS Smart Swim Goggles

⭐ Best waterproof fitness tracker for data nerds

Like the FORM Swim Goggles above, the FINIS Smart Swim Goggles have a heads-up display that shows your time elapsed, splits, stroke count, and all that good stuff… on the inside of your swim goggles.

This means no looking down at a watch between laps or squinting and looking across the pool deck at the pace clock to see how fast (or slow, as can be the case sometimes) you are going. No more.

While both goggles are exceptional in terms of the tech, there are a couple of features that make the FINIS Smart Goggle stand apart:

The goggles can be replaced. Swim goggles wear down over time. Scratches, the anti-fog coating evaporating, and so on. FINIS offers replacement goggles for about $30 in several different tints and colors. Simply pop the original HUD into the goggles, and you are back in business.

The metrics are to the side of the lens. The FORM swim goggles have the metrics up on the lens, all the time. For swimmers that just want to “check in” on their workout metrics, the FINIS Goggles have them tucked to the left side of the lens. Look left, see how fast you are going, and then look straight ahead again with an unobstructed view.

Besides that, the two goggles perform exceptionally well when it comes to tracking accuracy and app functionality. The apps were clearly designed by former competitive swimmers and are intuitive and easy to use.

The level of detail in the app far surpasses what you get with the tracking of the Apple and Garmin watches, and perhaps most awesome for swimmers who do lots of different strokes and drills when swimming, you can manually edit laps and reps in the app after your workout.

(In the image above, I edited the first two laps of the rep to represent that I was doing “kick” and not “mixed”, which is what it had recorded initially.)

While the FINIS Swim Goggle will track time and stroke rate when doing open water swimming, it won’t track distance, and the goggles cannot track heart rate.

But if you are looking for a pure swim training tracker and don’t want to wear a watch, the FINIS Swim Goggles are swimming data nerd’s dream come true.

✅ PROS	❌ CONS
Removable HUD and replaceable goggles	Lose a little peripheral vision with the HUD
Strokes can be edited in the app post-workout (i.e. “drill” to “kick”)	No heart rate tracking
Very accurate lap counting
Pool and open water tracking

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5. FitBit Inspire 3

⭐ Best budget-friendly waterproof fitness tracker

Thin, slim, and with a much-improved screen over the Inspire 2, the Fitbit Inspire 3 is an excellent waterproof fitness tracker that records the basics of your swims in the water.

The Inspire 3 automatically detects your activity, in this case swimming, and records the number of lengths you do, how far you swam (and how long it took ya) and breaks down the overall pace of the swim.

No need to tinker with the device when getting in the water–push off and get after it and the Inspire 3 takes care of the rest.

Note: For the watch to automagically track your swim, you need to swim for at least 15 minutes.

You can also start and stop the swim workout manually in the Exercise app, which you access by swiping up on the small watch face.

Speaking of the watch face…

It’s small. The Inspire 3 is basically the size of a bracelet (and makes my Garmin Fenix look laughably huge in comparison), which means it has a limited square footage for screen, making it difficult to see and read for people with not-awesome eyesight or when your swim goggles get all steamy and fogged up.

Also, swimmers who go deep on data, and who want splits, heart rate, stroke tracking, and all the rest, will want to look elsewhere.

But for swimmers who want to track the basics of their workouts, and don’t like the big and bulky feel of larger watches and trackers, the Fitbit Inspire 3 is a killer choice for tracking your swims.

✅ PROS	❌ CONS
The price!	Small screen; not ideal for people with poor eyesight or really foggy swim goggles
Can adjust the lap length size from the tracker	No HR monitoring in the water
Multiple band sizes included	Limited data recording
Very slim profile
Automatic and manual tracking
Barely feel it on your wrist

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6. Garmin Forerunner 945

⭐ Best waterproof fitness tracker for triathletes

Let’s just come right out and say it—this thing is a beast.

It not only looks like a tank when it’s strapped to your arm, but it is backed by the best in the industry when it comes to making multisport watches, the big G itself, Garmin.

Before we get to what I love about this thing, let’s dispense with the basics…

The Forerunner 945 is water-resistant to 50m, has built in GPS for tracking open water swims (shows a little breadcrumb trail on the map, which is a fun little touch), and has epic battery life, lasting around two weeks.

The swimming app on the Forerunner 945, which can be accessed in a couple of clicks, tracks all of the basics, including time swimming, splits, distance, SWOLF, heart rate, yadda yadda yadda. As well, you can track intervals and sets manually from the watch, if you so choose (it won’t track kick sets, so you will have to do it manually on the watch).

But it’s the performance features that are what I really love about this watch.

It tracks how much time you are spending in different heart rate zones, measuring general intensity, and outlining what kind of training effect you received from your swim (or run or bike).

This is awesome for better plotting recovery workouts, high-intensity, anaerobic days, or swim workouts where the goal is building aerobic capacity.

Obviously, all this data and fine-grain workout data is unnecessary for the casual lap swimmer, but for those who love the nitty gritty of this kind of data will absolutely love the Forerunner.

It’s priced reasonably well, for about half the price of other Garmin watches like the Fenix and the Apple Series 8 Watch.

The Garmin Forerunner 945 is the ideal waterproof fitness tracker for the endurance athlete, both in the water and outside of it.

✅ PROS	❌ CONS
Best waterproof fitness tracker for multi-sport athletes	Overkill for the casual lap swimmer
Detailed tracking info on energy zones, training effect, and more
Long battery life
Sync music from your favorite streaming service
Tracks training load, VO2 max, energy zone use
Tracks steps, sleep, and all the other usual smartwatch thingies

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How to Choose the Right Waterproof Tracker for Swimming

Choosing the right waterproof fitness tracker comes down to a few key factors:

Water Resistance

Naturally, the big selling point on a waterproof fitness tracker is that it doesn’t get zapped when used in the water.

All of the options on this list are water-resistant up to 50m of depth.

Training Metrics

The right waterproof tracker tracks the things that are most important to you and your swimming goals.

For data nerds who want stroke counts and splits for every last meter or yard of their swim workout, they will want to invest in something like the Apple Watch Series 8 or one of the smart swim goggles as they bank an almost overwhelming amount of data.

Swimmers looking for heart rate monitoring will want to stick with the smart watches or consider adding a heart rate sensor to the smart goggles (I highly recommend the Polar OH1+ as it can be clipped onto your goggle straps).

All of the waterproof fitness trackers on this list record the absolute basics, including duration, distance

Display Size

One of the best parts of swimming with a watch or smart goggle is being able to check-in on how your workout is going.

Seeing that you are in the right heart rate zone, nailing the pace you set for yourself, or swimming faster than usual is a great source of motivation. Which means you need to be able to see the display.

Swimmers who swim in dimly-lit pools will want a tracker that has a bright and clear display that can be viewed easily, even through the fog of their swim goggles.

Tracker placement

Where you place the tracker comes down to comfort and visibility.

Smart goggles take the tracking off your wrist and put splits and distance in front of your eyes. Swimmers who have a very sensitive feel for the water and don’t like the way water rushes against and over a watch will prefer this option.

Watches allow you to choose when you want to reference your workout metrics, which can help you stay focused on technique and timing your turns like a boss.

App performance

All the data in the world is useless if the app tracking it doesn’t display it in a manner that helps you stay on top of your workouts.

The FINIS, FORM, and Apple apps provide the most data that is presented in an orderly way. The FINIS and FORM apps in particular are excellent and clearly built by former competitive swimmers.

While I love Garmin watches, their swim app leaves a little bit to be desired in terms of being able to breakdown a swim workout on the app but are great for general stats like heart rate, distance, pace, and SWOLF scores.

Third-party apps

The apps on swim trackers have really improved in recent years.

That said, if you want to upgrade the features and analytics, there are some great third-party swim apps that offer online communities, programmed workouts, and a detailed dashboard that break down your swimming workouts.

Apps like MySwimPro, for example, connect with your Garmin or Apple watch.

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Why You Should Use a Waterproof Fitness Tracker at the Pool

There are a ton of benefits, after all, of knowing what you are doing in the pool:

Trackers give you goals to work with.

Whether it’s an interval, time for a long, unbroken set of straight swimming, or hitting a number of reps swimming a particular time, tracking our swimming gives us measurables to track and compare.

Getting the most from your waterproof fitness tracker means setting some goals and having a mission each time you cannonball, err, dive into the water to train.

Boosts motivation in the water.

This is the biggie, particularly for swimmers who train on their own (present company included).

Having results of your swim workout right in front of you pushes you to train a little harder, while also giving you the satisfaction of knowing that accomplished something measurable in the water that day.

Helps plot your training.

If you are straight-up swimming for leisure then you don’t a fitness tracker for swimming. If, however, you have things you want to accomplish, it’s helpful to know where you are at so that you can better plan future training sessions.

Devices like the Apple Watch, FORM Goggles, and the FINIS Smart Goggles allow you to upload workouts ahead of time, giving you purpose when you step out onto the pool deck.

Keeps you accountable.

Over the years I swam with countless swimmers who would leave early on the pace clock, just so that they could lie to themselves about how fast they were going.

Using a swimming fitness tracker will remove the guessing game that comes with eye-balling those old-school pace clocks, and give you accurate results that will keep you honest.

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The Bottom Line

Swimming is one of the all-time best ways to get in shape. (Plus, you get those snazzy V-shaped swimmer’s shoulders, too.)

And getting the most from your time in the water can be greatly assisted by using the waterproof fitness tracker that matches your ambitions and needs in the water.

So which tracker should you choose?

Here’s a quick recap of our top picks—whether you want real-time data in your goggles, the most accurate swim watch on the market, or a tracker that tells you how well you’re recovering between sessions:

Whether you want a simple lap counter so that you don’t lose count (it happens to all of us) or something that will allow you to fine-tune your training to swim better and faster than ever, there is a waterproof fitness tracker for swimming out there for you.

Choose your tracker of choice, start recording and monitoring your progress, and take your swimming to the next level.

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See More Stuff Like This:

The Best Waterproof Fitbits for Swimmers. Fitbit—one of the most popular wearables on the planet—has two waterproof fitness trackers for swimmers. Here are reviews of both Fitbits waterproof trackers for swimming.

The Best Swim Lap Counters for Tracking Laps and Splits. Ready to go low-tech with your lap counting? These simple devices will make sure you don’t lose track of laps and duration during swim training.