FORM Smart Swim 1 - Goggles

I absolutely love swimming laps with these. I just started swimming recently but am up to (apparently) swimming a mile ever day, 7x a week.But I had no idea how far I was swimming. I tried to keep track in my head but that didn't work. I wanted something accurate and completely hands off - I saw other folks messing with their watch every lap and didn't want that.Being able to see every second how far you have gone and how much time has passed is just awesome, all hands free.Now that I have more information, I am starting to make goals around all kinds of things, lap time being a new one for me. Got the heart rate tracker they suggest that sits at your temple.Pros:- accurately detects lap swimming, knows when you turn, tells you how far you've gone, how long you swim, how long you rest, and you dont have to do anything but get in and swim.- makes you feel like a freaking badass. It is seriously a data nerd's dream. I find myself excited to put them on and get to business.- very comfortable- the heart rate thing they suggest clips to the strap and boom, now you can see bpm too. Separate purchase.Cons:- while very accurate, it is not 100% accurate. It will typically miss 1 turn per swim (1.3% for me), resulting in swim metrics 25 yards fewer than it should be. It isn't a big deal, but it is annoying that it is so accurate except for one turn per day lol.- the app is visually overkill if all you want is lap metrics. They have all this other stuff like suggested training, swim patterns, etc. It is possible I will use that eventully, but I feel it should get less visual space in the app than the metrics. Makes it feel busy.- compared to other googles, you might feel like you have tunnel vision or horse blinders on with these. I got used to it immediately and actually found it helped me focus, but I could see how people might not like this.- priceyVerdict:If you can afford it, and data is important for your training or motivation, you will LOVE them. I find being able to literally always know where I am and how fast in going and fire much is left hugely motivating during the swim when it's actually important.

I consider myself a serious long distance swimmer. I bought the goggles because I wanted something which could keep track of my distance and time, and which would allow me to just focus on getting through a long swim without losing track of which lap I had just swum or how long I've been swimming. After setting the pool length, I had no issues with the goggles keeping track of laps. Every time I turned around, the goggles registered a lap after a few seconds and told me how fast I had done the lap and then switched to my overall time and distance. I'm not interested in the workouts, and I will say the app is pretty dense and difficult to navigate. It took a while to figure out where my swims were, and it took several attempts to sync the goggles. Since that first since I haven't had any problems, and I now know where to go to see what I did. To be honest, everything is given in the googles at the end of your swim. I don't do flips when I turn around and the googles were fine registering me stopping and turning around. Sometimes, I stopped to catch my breath and the googles automatically sensed this and went into rest mode.That said, It took me several swims and different nose pieces to find the one that fit without hurting. In traditional goggles, the nosepiece is rubber and flexes. The supplied nosepieces are hard plastic and don't give, so they don't adjust to your face. They provide 8 different sizes.The case is nice and well made. The goggles are quality. I had no leak issues and they didn't fog up. The goggles came fully charged and ready to go (minus set up such as entering your personal info.)I need bifocals, but wear glasses only for distance. If I need to read, I take off my glasses and bring the book to my face. I have contacts for distance. I had thought that because the info screen was close to my face that I wouldn't need to wear contacts, but for some reason you need distance vision to see the screen. I just wear one contact in my right eye and when I'm done swimming, toss it and switch back to glasses.It does take some time to get used to having a data field hovering in front of you while swimming...especially when it's only one eye. Thankfully, pools have a black stripe on the bottom so I can use that to swim in a straight line.Overall, so far, so good. They have definitely improved my swims. It's easier to distinguish between actual effort and perceived effort. It feels like I'm exerting myself when in reality I'm going slower than I feel and the googles help with that. But, like I said, I'm concerned with distance...not time...but I don't want to be too slow and waste time and energy when doing a long swim, so the time display is a good nudge to keep on pace.Edit 10/4/24In order to use the Goggles you need to pay. I thought I already paid when I bought the Goggles. It’s $100 a year. Why do I need to pay when the goggles already tell me distance and time? Money grab which isn’t cool.