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For swimming: garmin swim 2 or forerunner 245?

6263064
over 3 years ago

Hi, 

I am a multi-sport person, but 60-70% of my time is in swimming pool. What I liked about the garmin swim 2 was the ability to record training (style, stroke, resting time) without doing much, and get my training at the end on the app. I also liked the options to see your training on your wrist. However I am also an active outdoor person (cross country ski, biking, music) and therefore the forerunner 245 was interesting for the additional options outside the pool.

I read that since updates, forerunner 245 has now heart rate monitoring while swimming and auto-rest, so what are the reasons left that one would go for the swim 2? Only example I have left in mind would be openwater (but I am not doing much openwater), critical swimming speed (which would have been nice, but not the highest priority). Am I missing other elements that I wouldn't have while swimming with the forerunner 245?

Thank you!

  • 0 over 3 years ago

    Here is a break down of the swimming differences. Forerunner 245 on the left, Garmin Swim 2 on the right. The second picture is the full feature report for the two devices. 

  • 0 over 3 years ago

    For me personally, the Swim 2 is just too limited when it comes to activities other than swimming. The Forerunner 245 is advertised as a running watch, but it it has a lot of other activity profiles and features that make it perfect for a "multisports person" that is looking for a affordable watch with good value for money. The swim activity on the FR245 is perfectly fine. It lacks some of the more advanced statistics and pacing alerts, but I found it perfectly sufficient for my pool training. 

    The Garmin Swim 2 is propbably the best choice for someone who is really into swimming, with the advanced swimming features, the possibilty to connect to a HRM belt for swim training and the open water mode. But the FR245 beats it for all other sports, not only running. 

    So it is really a question of your preferences.

  • 0 over 3 years ago

    I bought a Swim 2 for my wife as she does a lot of outdoor swimming, it's good for that but not much else. You can't load IQ apps so for other sports it's really limited. Unless you are really focused on swimming especially outdoor and nothing else then I'd buy something else.

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to Garmin-Brooks

    That reply was over 2 years ago. But somehow, I was sent to it through some searches. Just to mention that this doesn't match with the current information from Garmin at https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/628939#specs. For instance, it now says for the FR245: "yes (with HRM-TriTm, HRM-SwimTm and HRM-ProTm)" for the feature "Heart rate from external HRM (real-time during rests, interval and session stats during rests, and automatic heart rate download post-swim)".

    I don't have first hand experience with the 245 but I tend to think that the website possibly reflects improvements in firmware.