Swimrun Watches: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

Almost all swimrun participants have some sort of wearable device to track activities and races.

Swimrun.com received valuable feedback from 34 swimrunners on what watches they use, along with likes and dislikes. Here are the findings:

It’s all about Garmin

Garmin was used by over 75% of athletes. With the rest using Apple, Polar Vantage, Suunto Ambit3 & Huawei Watch GT.

Overall Garmin watches averaged 7.8/10 on scoring it overall for swimrun.

Apple watches averaged 7.6/10 and of the rest the sample sizes were too small to draw any accurate conclusions.

What is the consensus on Garmin?

Garmin users loved the accurate tracking and the amount of data available. Swimrunners would like to see the option to change the lap/transition button to the other side of the watch. And were unanimous in  wanting swimrun as a pre-set sport.

Which range is most popular?

The fenix range was the most popular. Richard Stannard (who has a fenix 6) explains why: it provides a good amount of data and works very well for swimrun, dividing up the swims and runs then give totals and averages for both and cumulative time.

Best of the rest

Of the rest, Yuta Koide  liked the Suunto Ambit3 for having a GPS log, measuring time and a long lasting battery,

Strava sucks

It is to the annoyance of a lot of swimrunners that Strava is so rubbish at recording swimrun activities. Strava displays all activities individually clogging up feeds with swimming and running legs.

Most will record it as a ‘run’, aesthetically more pleasing but not able to show the average pace average pace over land and water (as Garmin does).