Best Waterproof Fitness Trackers

There’s a wealth of wearable technology nowadays to help you keep track of fitness goals, whether you’re exercising, walking, or even sleeping! There are fitness trackers that can monitor all of your major metabolic signs: calories burned, heart rate, blood oxygen levels, and more. But what if you’re into water sports? To track your progress there, you’ll need a waterproof fitness tracker. Fortunately, there are a wealth of such water-resistant and waterproof fitness trackers.

But you’ll see significant differences between the various models of waterproof fitness trackers. Some can be used for casual swimming, while others can be used for serious water sports, where the tracker gets submerged in water. And some have extra features, like GPS and the ability to play music as well.

We’ll go through some of the features of waterproof fitness trackers, and hopefully touch on enough of the main points to help you decide!

You’ll see that there are various grades of water resistance among wearable devices:

• Water-resistant: There are fitness trackers that are “water-resistant”. That means that you can exercise freely without worrying about sweat damaging the device. If you get them wet when washing your hands, or when jogging in the rain, your device should make it through all right. The latest Apple Watch, the Apple Watch 7, is water-resistant at up to 50 meters. You can go swimming with it in shallow water, but don’t risk scuba diving or waterskiing. It can track your heart rate during swimming, which is an advantage that it has over the Fitbit models.

Apple Watch 7

• Fitness trackers for swimming: There are fitness trackers that are intended for keeping track of swim data. An example is the Garmin Swim 2. It’s capable of monitoring heart rate as you swim, as well as the distance you swam, the number of strokes, and the “SWOLF” score, which is a sum of the number of strokes you took to swim a particular distance added to the time it took to cover that distance. It has an IP rating of IP68, which means that it can be submerged in 1.5 meters of water for 30 minutes without getting damaged.

Garmin Swim 2

The MorePro Fitness Tracker has slightly less water resistance, at an IP rating of IP67. IPX7 means that the fitness tracker can be fully submerged in water up to 1 meter deep for up to 30 minutes. (The IPX8 rating in the Garmin Swim 2 means that, not only can it be submerged in water for 30 minutes, but also that it can withstand higher pressures as well.)

MorePro Fitness Tracker

• Fitness trackers with a lock feature: There are also a number of Fitbit models expressly for swimming, with a special “lock” feature:

  • Fitbit Luxe: This model has a water lock feature that you set if you want to swim or shower. It can also track your distance when swimming, whether in a pool or in the ocean.

Fitbit Luxe

• • Fitbit Inspire 2: This can also track swimming distance, and has the same “lock” feature to prevent water damage. It also enters the locked position when you choose “swim” in the Exercise app. The Inspire 2 is cheaper than the Fitbit Luxe and has a better battery life as well. But the body of the Inspire 2 is plastic, as compared to the metal case of the Fitbit Luxe. Also, the Fitbit Luxe has a color display, while the Inspire is monochrome.

Fitbit Inspire 2

Here are some pointers that customers mentioned with the waterproof fitness trackers that they bought:

• Not as water-resistant as they say: Some customers were disappointed with the Samsung Gear Fit2. Even though it boasts of being water-resistant to a depth of 50 meters, and should be okay for swimming, they were disappointed when the device started malfunctioning after exposure to water. On the other hand, the Fitbit Inspire 2 lived up to its expectations for most reviewers when they took it swimming. It’s recommended to check the reviews to see how waterproof the fitness tracker really is, rather than experiment yourself.

• Pool swim mode: If you want to track your swimming goals, be sure to get a fitness tracker with the appropriate apps. The Garmin Swim 2 has an open water swim mode to track your distance, pace, stroke count, rate, and distance when you’re in open water like a lake, ocean, or river. If you’re only swimming in a pool, it has a pool mode for recording distance, pace, strokes, and efficiency. It also records special swim data, allowing you to test yourself when kicking, one-arm swimming, or sculling, where you just propel yourself with hand movement.

• GPS: Customers were pleased with the Garmin Swim 2, in that it has a GPS even when you’re swimming in a big body of water like an ocean or lake!

Here are some explanations about the typical waterproof fitness tracker specs, that might help you decide which is best for your needs:

• IP rating: We’ve already mentioned the IP rating for some of the products in the Best Reviews Guide list of the best waterproof fitness trackers. It consists of two numbers, with the first number being ingress protection against dust particles, and the second number being ingress protection against water penetration. The highest rating is IP68: the device is protected from contact with dust and can withstand continuous immersion in water. IP rating alone will only indicate if dust or water penetrates into the device at each level. They don’t indicate the degree of water pressure, which can make it more likely for water to damage the device.

• Number of atmospheres: You’ll see occasionally that a fitness tracker’s water resistance is given in “atmospheres”; that is, how many atmospheres of static, constant pressure it can withstand. Pressure is a more accurate indicator of how waterproof a device is than just the IP rating. Swimming in calm water will not produce the same amount of pressure on your fitness tracker as diving into water or surfing. Every 10 meters deep that you go underwater is an additional atmosphere (ATM) of pressure. Here are some data values that you’ll see with waterproof fitness trackers:

  • 1 ATM: When a watch or fitness tracker is rated as being water-resistant at 1 ATM, it can withstand pressure equivalent to 10 meters deep in water. This is sufficient for showering or washing hands while wearing the fitness tracker.

  • 3 ATM: This means that the device can withstand 30 meters of water. You can also jump into the water safely without damaging the device.

  • 5 ATM: This means that the device can withstand the equivalent depth of 50 meters of water. This is already sufficient for diving into the water.

Final Verdict

We went through some of the best-selling waterproof fitness trackers on the market nowadays. Some truly live up to their expectations of being able to track vital data when swimming, as well as when you’re engaged in other aerobic activities on dry land. Check out some of the products in the Best Reviews Guide list, and select one today!