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Garmin 265 Swim Setting such a disappointment

cwh29
3 months ago

I've been a Garmin user for a number of years.  Started with the 765 and then the 945 (both of which have been discontinued).  As a triathlete, when my 945 officially died, I was drawn to the price of the Forerunner 265 as it had all the training settings I was already using (Swim, Run, Bike, OWS, Tri, etc)  

I do A LOT of swimming these days..... what bothered me about the 945 I had is that it started to drop pool lengths as it was on its last legs.... understandable.  I knew I needed a new watch so bought the 265 when my 945 officially died.  What a disappointment the swim setting is.  Constant dropped lengths, it was over 200 meters off of a 4000 meter swim yesterday.  I read about consistent stroke (which I have), long push off from wall (which I do until I'm trying to sprint, then as you know, makes a long push off hard), and its still dropping.  I took the auto-pause off as I'm used to just starting and stopping it at every interval.  The pool length is configured correctly.

Does anyone else have this issue?  I know I can add it all in my head but I like the running weekly tally my Garmin gives me.  Additionally, with dropped lengths it skews the pace per meter time as it is constantly saying I swam a 75m in my 100m time, so then that's off. 

Hate to sound like a complainer and I'm really not that agro about my times but it would be nice if it consistently kept track of my correct swim lengths!  Anyone been through this and have any tips or tricks I'm missing?  TIA 

  • 0 3 months ago

    Do you suffer from resting bug calories as well? During swimming session, whenever I press the START/STOP button to pause the activity, it sometimes yields very large resting period (more than 10 hours) despite having no more than 5 minutes break (switching swimming gears, going to the restroom, etc.) This resulted in huge additional calories expenditure from the said ERRATIC rest.

  • 0 2 days ago

    I’m experiencing what seems to be the same issue with my Forerunner 265, which I bought specifically to track my swimming.

    When I swim in a 25-meter pool, my watch consistently overestimates the distance. For example, during a 1500-meter session, it often records 1700–1800 meters. I’ve also noticed that the lap counter sometimes increments in the middle of a pool length, and it always counts more laps than I actually swim.

    Could you clarify what triggers the end of a lap? I wonder if my swimming style might be causing confusion. However, instead of adjusting my style to suit the watch, I’d prefer if the watch could adapt to my swimming.

    From my perspective, it would be helpful to offer multiple options for defining how a lap ends. For example: detecting a change in direction, finishing the accumulated distance, hitting the wall, or pushing off the wall.

    I purchased my Forerunner in December 2025, and after 10 swimming sessions, I still havent experienced an accurate result.