A Growing Number of Users
Today, the market for sports and smartwatches is booming. Many sport and lifestyle brands now offer complete watch ranges. Each model supports dozens of sports, and their versatility allows users to wear the same watch all day.
When it comes to swimming with the app OpenSwim, nearly all watches on the market let you record your swim sessions. This is extremely convenient for swimmers: your data is automatically saved and then imported to your phone. Because OpenSwim is compatible with the main sport-watch brands, the app can easily retrieve your training data. The numbers speak for themselves—every month, thousands of new users sync their watch with the app, confirming that this is one of the most popular features.
Swimming with a Smartwatch
Still, swimming is less mainstream than other sports (looking at you, running and cycling) and comes with extra challenges—like being underwater—which makes it trickier for brands to handle accurately.
As a result, certain features are sometimes missing. Availability depends on the model and its position in the brand’s range. For instance, some entry- or mid-range Garmin watches don’t support open-water swimming.
Let’s focus on what we know best: swimming. After talking with many of you, we’ve noticed that one feature is becoming increasingly important—and it’s something that really sets brands apart:the ability to send a workout directly to your watch.At the moment, not all brands (and not all models) offer this option. In fact, most don’t allow swimmers to send a structured swim workout straight to their watch.
Sending a Workout to Your Watch
Super practical, this feature saves swimmers from having to print their workout, copy it onto a note, or memorize it before getting in the water.
To do it, your watch first needs to be synced with the app. Currently, only Garmin and Suunto support workout transfer to the watch.
A few important notes:
- If you’re having trouble transferring a workout to your watch, check out our dedicated tutorials for Garmin and improves Suunto.
- On Garmin, not all models have this feature. Only the high-end or swim-specific models—such as the Garmin Swim 2—allow you to send a workout directly to the watch. You can find the full list of compatible Garmin watches in the Swimming section here.
- On Suunto, only watches equipped with the SuuntoPlus feature support this option.
- The Apple Watch is a special case. To enable workout transfer, we need to develop our own Apple-compatible app. It’s a long, complex process—but it’s planned. We just don’t have a release date yet.