Best Fit Watches For Swimmers With Lap Counter (Our Reviews)

From the famous technology company Garmin comes a high-end, feature-rich smartwatch for the most serious of swimmers, backed by a 1-year warranty and Garmin’s exceptional support. It boasts a rechargeable battery that lasts up to 7 days in smartwatch mode, and up to a day using the GPS features.

The Garmin Vivoactive 3 Smartwatch offers a 1.2” diameter touchscreen display with a resolution of 240 x 240 pixels so that the face is clearly visible in the pool or out. This display – as well as the rest of the watch – is waterproof up to 50 meters making it great for regular pool use.

This smartwatch comes with 15 pre-installed modes, including the vital pool mode that will count your laps, time your turns, and more. It also supports other activities like running, biking, and more that make it a great triathlon companion. In addition to tracking your heartrate, it offers stress tracking so you can know when something is elevating your heartrate and causing stress, which helps to make for a healthier you outside and inside the pool.
The Connect IQ store allows for additional modes to be installed as well as apps that help turn the Garmin Vivoactive 3 Smartwatch into even more of a mini phone than it was before. You can install Uber to always know when it’s time to get out of the pool to catch your ride, a weather app to know what you’re walking out into when you leave the pool, and more.

Speaking of your phone, the Garmin Vivoactive 3 Smartwatch’s integration lets you sync with your phone via Bluetooth to answer texts, read email, and keep yourself informed about everything outside the pool.

The Moov 3D Fitness Tracker is for swimmers who only want an exercise companion as opposed to an everyday smartwatch. The tracker comes in at a mid-tier price range and focuses primarily on the triathlon sports rather than boasting support for every exercise known to man.

The Moov 3D Fitness Tracker has minimal physical features, with a simple wristband and design style. There is no display, instead relying on being synced to a smartphone with the Moov app to provide insights, real-time tracking (certain activities only), and more. This sync also allows it to provide audio feedback through the phone or Bluetooth speaker/earphones, allowing you to adjust your exercise on the fly.

When you’re in the pool, the fully waterproof device will be able to track your laps and lap time, identify your form and categorize results based on the stroke used, measure the time rested, and provide insight into how you can improve your times.

Outside of the pool it supports running, cycling, boxing, and bodyweight exercises in real-time. It can analyze form, identify when impacts are too hard on your knees, let you know when you can drop from the dreaded plank, and more.

The battery is non-rechargeable but lasts up to 6 months for exceptional convenience.

• Waterproof rating: 50M
• Auto stroke detection: YES
• Easy multi-sport transitions: YES
• Good battery life: YES – 6 MONTHS
• Simple, accurate swim tracking: YES
• Advanced training insights: YES – ON APP
• One-button triathlon transitions: NO
• Extremely lightweight: YES
• Speedo On integration: NO
• Light and comfortable: YES
• Easy to use: YES
• Heart rate and stress monitoring: NO
• Compact and fashionable: YES
• Automatically and accurately tracks activities: YES
• With well-designed app: YES
• With Large display: NO DISPLAY
• Multiple ways to wear: NO
• Compatibility with app: YES
• Swim stroke and lap counter: YES

The Fitbit Charge 3 Activity Tracker is a multi-activity fit watch by active technology innovator Fitbit. It offers a rechargeable battery life of up to 7 days, a 1-year warranty, and comes in at a fair upper mid-tier price despite offering a wide array of functionality.

The Fitbit Charge 3 Activity Tracker can be used for a variety of activities, including swimming, running, biking, yoga, and even sleeping. It uses a touchscreen display where the user can see metrics like steps taken, distance traveled, laps completed, rest time, and more at all times. Additionally, it can be synced with a PC or smart device where you’ll get more advanced information, insight and recommendations, and an overall health dashboard.

The Fitbit Charge 3 Activity Tracker has apps that allow you to do things like check the weather, receive notifications from a synced phone, receive a customized sleep schedule, and more making it an effective all-around smartwatch-like tracker. 

This bundle includes the Samsung Gear Pro2 Smart Fitness Band as well as wireless earbuds that are water resistant to accompany you on exercises in the rain. The earbuds can be synced to the device with Bluetooth, and the Pro2’s music capability allows you to stream music without needing your phone nearby. However, they are not waterproof so you can’t listen to music in the pool.

The fitness band uses a touchscreen display for navigation and providing real-time information about your workouts. It includes apps like Map MyRun and Speedo for advanced workout metrics, analysis, and more. The information is displayed on your device’s dashboard next to your heartrate, calories burned, and more fitness-related information. Notifications from your phone will appear and can be handled from your device in some cases through Bluetooth syncing.

Depending on the way you use the Samsung Gear Pro2, the battery can last anywhere from 4 hours to 4 days, with GPS, Bluetooth, and music features using more battery than standard heartrate monitoring. It includes a 1-year warranty in case something goes wrong as well.

With a futuristic and minimalist design, the Misfit Wearables Shine Activity and Sleep Monitor is as much a fashion piece as it is a fitness tracker. With no display except for LED lights, this device does not provide real-time tracking the normal way. Instead, it needs to be synced to the app on your smartphone where you will set a customized goal before exercising and as you progress through your goal, a light will illuminate in 5-minute or 5% intervals. Once you’re done, you can check the app to access the information.

This fitness tracker is entirely waterproof, making it a viable swimming companion for those who don’t need to actively see their heartrate and other exercise information. It will count laps, record lap time, analyze speed, and more on the app but only count towards your preset goal on the tracker itself.

As a sleep tracker, this device will record the time and duration of REM sleep (when your body doesn’t move) for you to review in the morning. This allows you to address potential causes for poor sleep, and work to improve them.

The Misfit Wearables Shine Activity and Sleep Monitor is powered by a 6-month battery that will need to be replaced upon dying, and the battery is not covered by the 1-year limited warranty.

If you’re looking for a men’s everyday watch that also works in the pool, you may enjoy the affordable Timex IRONMAN Classic Exercise Watch due to its budget price range, variety of colors, and basic exercise features.

The Timex IRONMAN Classic Exercise Watch features a large digital face that shows the time and date standardly, but can also act as a stopwatch, timer, alarm, and lap counter with the press of a few buttons.

It is graded to be water resistant up to 100M, making it work for deeper depth swimming outside of just the pool and the 10-year battery means you won’t have to worry about it dying on you. Add in the 1-year warranty, and you’ve got a solid value watch.