Is the Garmin Swim 2 the ideal swimming watch?

Just one clarification and I finish from my side:

I do NOT work for Garmin. I work for a telecommunication company, and I am just a Garmin user.

To reflect the counting problem. Yes, it is so simple, if you get the right information from the accelerometer. If it tells you EXACTLY that you turned (note, I do not know what kind of data classifies it as a turn), then its an easy, task, everyone who has basic knowledge can create a code of increasing by one. But if you get some crappy data (too slow turn, imbalace during the length, changing speed during length, etc.), the software should decide, if it is a turn, or just something different. If  the decision is "turn", the number is incremented. If otherwise, not. But the decision is earlier than the increment.

Remember, the watch has no eyes, ears, sensors on your head, trunk, legs, etc. It is only attached to your wrist, and has some accelerometers (I guess 3D measurements, but I do not know anything behind it). Thats a tiny bit of data compared to your senses when you are swimming. The watch does not see on which side you are. So the task is quite complex.

An additional side note:

As you are a breaststroker, the open water GPS measurement will NOT work for you! And this is a technological problem, that GPS signals do not travel in the water.

"the open water GPS measurement will NOT work for you" :) A small, extra sensor for the swimmer's head! :) The price will be greater but something for something! 

"If it tells you EXACTLY that you turned" :) Shock sensor, impact sensor! Or an additional sensor / transmitter / measuring the distance from the watch, left on the starting wall, on the starting block! :) Where there is a will, there is a way! :) The price will be higher, but so will perfection!

The Swim 2 is the best swimming watch I had so far. Accurate enough, but still with some small issues. Worng counting is mostly due to a bad turn or changing stroke in  the middle of the pool. The watch can be coupled with additional sensors, so why not building and implementing some sort of BT/ANT+ beacon to be placed on either side of the pool. That should at least do the job of correct countig; even when just swimming with kicks. What is most unsattisifying are the really poor abilities of the Garmin Connect software to alter and modifiy the recorded acitivity data and have customn scaling on the diagrams. You can not even crop the recorded data after missing to stop the activity. Also the way of defining your own swim workout is so uncomfortable; there is way to improve. At least, to do some modifications on your swimming activities, there is the private web-site "swimmingwatchtools.com".
best regards

How do you explain that in my case this "best swimming watch you had" - from 9 months of using it and after two replacements for other copies - regularly leaves from 1 to 5 or even 6 25-meter pools and always in the first 10 pools from 40-60 freestyle swimming pools! Sometimes, to check, I stop at 4 pools, i.e. 100 meters, and the watch can only show 25 meters! These are absurdities and not "the best swimming watch"! For 10 workouts, 1 workout will be counted correctly! The second thing is the fatal recognition of the classic style, which is often mistaken for backstroke! Often he will pass the whole distance with breaststroke as backstroke, or mix in between backstroke between breaststroke! This is an embarrassing level of swim style recognition technology! I would like to add that I swim alone on the track and I do not change my swimming style or speed or cadence of strokes in the middle of the track! My return is always the same! So the errors in measuring the distance I swim are not dependent on my turn or a sudden change of style, speed or number of strokes! This poor technology / algorithm / measurement is to blame! And Garmin promises accurate measurements while swimming in commercial materials! For the errors that occur, Garmin technical support blames the watch users for bad style, bad twist on the wall, change of style and similar nonsense.Maybe for novice swimmers these reasons are possible, but not for experienced swimmers.

Sorry Wojciech, that you are so disappointed with your Swim 2. You will understand, that I can't give a propper answer / explanation, without knowing how you swim. For me the sytle recognition works quite well. I guess I would meet your definition of an experienced swimmer.  If there are mistakes, I can correct them with the Swimming-Watch-Tools.

You are complainig that even after replacing your watch, you still have the same problems. It's not so far away to think that the problem is with you and your swimming styles.And it's simply not true, that experienced swimmers for sure have a good style. I've seen very good/fast experienced Swimmrs with terrible styles; just brute strength but no gliding, no pleasure to watch.

Maby Swim2 and you are simply not a propper combination and you shloud try some other brand...

Best regards

You write that the problem is in me, because even after the exchange, the watch gives absurd data! Nothing could be more wrong: since the same scenario is always repeated: incorrect readings in the first 100 - 200 meters! So what do you think, after 200 meters I suddenly start to swim well, make turns well, swim with good speed and stroke cadence? Nonsense! AFTER 1000 meters or 1500 meters, the body is weaker, it is more difficult to swim, and the watch only then counts, as if it had an algorithm set in this way! Although it happens sporadically that the watch will also drop out of length at the 40th or 50th pool - but this is very rare. For over 15 years I have been swimming fairly regularly distances 1000m, 1500m to 2000m freestyle and short distances breaststroke. Sometimes, after a short rest, after a distance of 1500 meters, I try to start a new distance and the misreading scenario is multiplied: the first 100 - 200 meters are counted incorrectly and then the watch counts well, although with a few exceptions! I learned swimming already in high school under the supervision of a trainer. Already many people, also on this forum, have written about similar experiences with Swimm 2 - strange that these are identical experiences with very inaccurate measurements of the distance traveled! Breaststroke recognition is a true Garmin failure: Swimm 2 regularly replaces and confuses breaststroke for backstroke! Explain to me how an automatic accelerometer or other automatic motion sensor can confuse two completely different styles, where the arms work completely different: with the classic style, the arms are close under the water, the pulling goes under the water to the sides and to the chest, and then straighten all the time under the water, hands and forearms finally rise a little above the waterline, and with backstroke you make regular semi-circles over the water and pull the water along your body to your thighs! Confusing such movements by an accelerometer or other sensor is a spectacular failure of Garmin! How can the problem with this fatal confusion between breaststroke and backstroke depend on my possibly bad breaststroke? I wave my arms over the water and make circles like a backstroke? The absurdities of the Swimm 2 watch! :)

I would like to add that I swim very smoothly and flexibly, I do not fight with water, but I use its buoyancy and the kinetic strength of my arms and legs, these three elements keep me horizontal, horizontal and well stretched! My body is relaxed, not tense and therefore I can dust long distances. I always feel the water sliding around my body, and under water the only splash of water is at my feet, because my hands and arms very softly enter the water, without unnecessary splashing of the water! Besides, I am constantly perfecting my style, learning from courses on the Internet, watching the best swimmers and coaches!

Well, no reason to get upset. I still can't give you a good explenation, as  I only know about your swimming from what you are telling. Besides, looks like I have some dekades more experiance; as swimmer and coach.

I know that it is common habbit to put the blame on someone else first. Maybe your swimming to good, too smoth at the beginnig or after a propper break? I don't know. But what I learned from you is that you are not happy with your Swim 2, no matter what the reason is. So, why do still stick with it? Sell it and get some other divce that's working better for and with you. I don't think Garmin will come up with some update that fixes this issue for you.

Don't let your anger about your gadget spoil your swimming ;-)
Keep going.