5 Reasons Swimmers Need Apple Watch Series 2

I’m such a water baby. Ever since I was a wee infant I’ve felt most free when enjoying the liquid plunge. If I had a spirit animal it would surely be a dapper dolphin or mermaid with moxy. The opposite is true when I’m on land running around. I’m such a klutz.

But hey, why take my word for it? I became an instant celebrity in Markham after I was featured in, “Moms and Tots Pool Together,” a harrowing piece of investigative journalism courtesy of the Economist & Sun.

Jan Dobson tosses a gleaming silver whistle to the bottom of the pool. Her two-year old son Andrew tosser her an eager grin, then dives to retrieve the toy. He emerges wide eyed and victorious as his mother praises his fine effort.

It’s been almost a year now since I first started using the Apple Watch. I had lived a wrist free life ever since I bought my first cell phone so was skeptical about why I’d want to have another piece of tech weighing me down. After using the Apple Watch for several weeks this skeptic wrote a story on the 10 Ways to Use Apple Watch Every Day.

Apple Watch is wildly popular with fitness fans as it allows anyone interested in tracking their movement and fitness regime to do so with ease. I spend 50% of my time at the gym lifting weights and running on the elliptical machine and the other half of my week plunging in the pool for a great underwater workout. Last year swimmers looking to record their every move would find themselves imperfectly tracking their overall calorie expenditure because the Apple Watch always stayed in our gym bags when we dove in for a swim.

This Fall when Apple announced that the new Apple Watch Series 2 is waterproof swimmers from Toronto to Tokyo giggled with glee. The slick new device now offers a holistic approach to fitness management for those looking to get healthy on land or in the deep blue sea.

5 Reasons Swimmers Need Apple Watch Series 2

Welcome to the World of Waterproof

Whether swimming, surfing, or playing in the pool, Apple Watch Series 2 has been designed and tested to be water resistant to 50 meters (WR 50M), the watch industry specification for swimming. This enables exciting new use cases for Apple Watch – from open water swimming or tracking lap times in a pool, to kayaking or surfing.

Since speakers require air to produce sound, the speaker in Apple Watch has been redesigned to use the vibration of sound to expel water that may get into the speaker area. At the start of a swim workout, Apple Watch Series 2 auto-locks the display to prevent accidental screen touches from water. Upon completion, rotating the Digital Crown both disables auto-lock and triggers the speaker to eject any water that may have entered.

Track GPS Route Map for Open Water Swim

Apple Watch Series 2 has built-in GPS, allowing for precise distance, pace, and speed to be recorded for workouts without needing to take an iPhone. Apple Watch Series 2 uses a combination of GPS, Wi-Fi, and locally stored satellite data to help identify your position, so you can immediately start your workout.

Built-in GPS also enables route mapping for open water swims so that upon completion of a workout, a map of the route taken will be available in the Activity app on iPhone. The route map is colour-coded to provide an easy way to see variations in speed. Perfect for when you’re escaping the cold this winter in the Caribbean or next summer as you splash around in cottage country.

Improve Upon Your Success by Tracking Your Workouts

I’ve found the best way for me to improve each workout in the pool is to compete against my personal best. At the completion of each swim I save my workout and can then access a chronological catalogue on my iPhone. On a recent swim (see above) I was super excited to have surpassed my goal (102% wahoo!).

Each of my workouts at the pool records the following details: time of day, city, dominant swimming stroke (I’m mostly mixed as I toggle between front crawl, back crawl and breast stroke), total calories, distance, total time, average heart rate, average pace and total number of laps. In my first few weeks swimming with Apple Watch Series 2 I’ve increased my overall calorie expenditure from an average of 300 to 500!

Keep Track of Your Friends Workouts

While it feels great to celebrate your own personal fitness goals, its nice to keep track of your friends and family so you can cheer them on along the way. Do you have a sister living halfway around the world who could use some encouraging at the gym? Or are you on a swim team and want to track each members swim time throughout the week? Apple Watch Series 2 now allows you to stay more connected with your fitness pals and even offers messaging functionality so you can exclaim, “Great Job!” after mom successfully completes her first 50 lap workout. I also suspect this new shared fitness functionality will be wildly popular with Apple Watch Series 2 loving personal trainers as they can now keep tabs on their clients 24 hours a day and offer words of encouragement even when you’re on holiday! 

Music’s Not Just for Mermaids

Apple Watch Series 2 can store up to 2 gigs of music which you can easily organize into a high-energy Apple Music Workout Playlist for when you’re at the pool. Grab a pair of your favourite waterproof bluetooth headphones, sync to your Apple Watch Series 2 and you’ll find yourself singing like a Mermaid under the deep blue sea.