Related
This discussion has been locked.
You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

Feature request - open water swimming

lucab
over 5 years ago

Maybe the following question has already been asked multiple times, but are we ever going to see open water swimming added to mid range watches such as the 645 or the 245? Is’s a bit of shame Garmin is treating this activity as a sort of elite one, whereas instead I guess there are more users practicing OWS in comparison to triathlon or golf.

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

    Thanks for sharing that, haven’t been able to find it.

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    Speculation only, but I think the problem is the GPS aerial design needs to be significantly different as 50% of the time the watch is underwater so it only gets a second or so to get a lock. Look at the 945 vs the 245, it's a wider body which I assume is for beefed-up aerials.

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to greg

    The case is likely larger due to a larger battery, not for GPS.  That said, the 23x/630, and 645 don't support OWS, and I really doubt they would add it to the 245.  I imagine the GPS SW would have to change, as well as adding support for the HRM-Tri and HRM-Swim 

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 5 years ago

    Open water swimming is intended for multi-sport watches. There are no Garmin watches that aren't multi-sport that have the OWS sport profile. So it's something that will not be available.

    If you want OWS you have to go to the 935-945 or the Fenix line-up.

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

    Garmin Instinct supports OWS natively and does NOT have multi-sport mode like the Fenix/FR 945 series...

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

    Polar supports open water function from its polar m400 ...Disappointed

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 4 years ago

    I added a custom "Swim" activity on my 245 and used it on an ocean swim today.  I specified GPS+GLONASS tracking.  It worked OK.  Definitely not a lot of GPS points due to being underwater most of the time.  I have had the watch in the ocean half a dozen times, including snorkeling to about 5 meters depth, with no problems. 

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Former Member

    I've installed Swim sports+ v1.12.1 from the store. Free demo are 7 or 14 days or you can pay 2,45$ for a 1year licence. I've tested it with my Forerunner 245, and I didn't get calories, o r heart rate measures, and distances (and obviously visual  waypoints in the graph) were not acurate due to each time it goes underwater it loses signal... As I have read, watches with better OPEN WATER options, correct this through algorithm that should take more parameters in consideration, so maybe this could be better... Anyway, I correct distance with maps after analyze it...  But it could be better... You can check it in my example below... Obviously I did not make such kind of jumps...  :-(Example done in Barcelona on 31 November  

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    645 has not being getting updates for a while. 245 receives slightly cut down versions of 945 updates. Seeing as the 945 already has open water swimming, chances of the 245 getting open water swimming are slim. Best option would be to look out for a 745 on sale.