If you are a keen swimmer, then Apple has just released what could be its first device to prove instrumental to your success in the water: the Apple Watch Series 2. Apple has enthusiastically promoted its swim-friendly features, but how much could it really help you in practice?
From splash-proof to swim-proof
While the first generation Apple Watch has certainly been taken into the pool for swim-tracking, Apple never recommended using the wearable in this way. At his company’s media event earlier this month, executive Jeff Williams told the crowd that this version of the Apple Watch was merely “splash-proof” – in other words, best just for protecting against accidental water damage.
While that Apple Watch has, with its rebranding as the Apple Watch Series 1, now been given its successor’s faster processor, avid swimmers should still pay most attention to the Apple Watch Series 2 – which Williams specifically declared was “swim-proof”.
Just how swim-proof is the Apple Watch Series 2?
The new wearable is rated water resistant for up to 50 meters under the ISO standard 22810:2010. That’s what Apple specifies on its website – and, in practice, it means that, for shallow-water activities such as swimming in a pool or ocean, that watch should resist water damage on your wrist. However, Apple warns that it “should not be used for scuba diving, waterskiing, or other activities involving high-velocity water or submersion below shallow depth.”
The Wall Street Journal‘s Joanna Stern recently tested the Apple Watch Series 2 in a pool – and, as she shows in the video below, you can eject water from the device’s speaker by turning the digital crown once you’ve brought the device out of the water. So, whether you’re enjoying simply a routine weekly swim at the local pool or some fun in warm, shallow water off the coast of somewhere like Spain or Hawaii, you’re good to go with the Apple Watch Series 2.
Useful tracking software in resilient hardware
Apple has also packed super-useful swimming tracking software into that little watch. Once you’ve got the watch on, before getting into the water, load up the Workout app and, depending on what type of body of water you’re about to enter, select Pool Swim or Open Water Swim.
With the first, you can pre-set a pool length distance to let the device, through detecting your stroke movement and when you make a turn, track the number of lengths you swim. The watch can even detect, without you telling it, when you’re swimming freestyle, butterfly, back stroke or breast stroke. Select Open Water Swim and, provided that you stick to freestyle swimming, the built-in GPS can detect the distance you swim and at what pace. Here’s to your workouts going swimmingly with the Apple Watch Series 2…
