Pool Mate 2 PoolMate2

It's very good for lap counting, have had it for more than a year, the battery ran out and they replaced (for about £20) through the post. The watch works well for what I want it for which is pool swimming, but you may well find some of the other features fiddly and complicated , depending on your level of expertise with IT. It's pretty robust and I wear it all the time

Crap

I am an intermediate swimmer, swimming mainly breast-stroke, with a front-crawl or back-stroke lap thrown in every 4 laps (25m pool) or occasionally every 2 laps. As I am trying to increasing my indoor swimming laps, improve my technique in general, improve my efficiency and decrease my overall time, I found I was loosing count of my laps. Also having to concentrate on counting laps meant I was not concentrating on my swimming. After much deliberation I finally opted for the Pool Mate 2.In summary: great piece of kit, does exactly what I purchased it for (count laps), but it does have a few issue. Though I think those are more to do with me than the watch. Would I recommend this - yes.First the good:- It counts my laps!. I know this is what I purchased it for, but it just does it, and it does it very well. There are a couple of issues (see below), but I think those are more to do with me than the watch. After only a couple of swims with the watch I have stopped counting laps, and started concentrating on my swimming- it fits fine. I do not find it too bulky or obtrusive on my wrist, though I do not wear it other than in the pool- The basic operation is extremely simple. Press start when you start, press and hold start for 2 seconds when you finish. If you swim, pause, swim, pause, then press start briefly at the beginning and end of every pause.- After 2 weeks I am already noticing small improvements in my style, speed and effort, as I am focusing on my technique, not my countingThe not-so good:- It has miscounted a couple of times and dropped a lap or 2. As above, I think this is more to do with me than the watch. If I swim full laps of a given stroke it works, very well even switching between breast-stroke, crawl and back-stroke on different laps. However, when I do front-crawl I sometimes find I catch up the slower swimmers in my lane, and have to switch back to breast-stroke mid-lap (I have slowed my crawl stroke as much as possible but just cannot go any slower). This does confuse the Pool Mate 2. It is unrealistic to expect it to count mixed-stroke laps, so I just try to make sure I give enough distance for any slower swimmers before I set off on a front-crawl lap, or stick to breast-stroke until they let me past.- Whilst the 1st digit of my laps is easy to read, the right most one is harder as it is too close to the right of the watch and often in shadow - so is that 30, 32, 34... laps? I have to look closely and angle the watch to read it properly. This is probably partly to do with the lighting in my local pool (I find it all very hard to read the laps at all whilst turning at the deep end) and partly to do with my eyes (I usually wear reading glasses), but it would be better if the digits had a slightly bigger margin from the right hand side. So far only doing 2 digits worth of laps (64 or 96), so will be interesting when I step up to 128 laps. I deliberately went for the Black-on-White screen as I thought it would be the easier to read. I am not sure if the White-on-Black screen of the black model would be any easier, harder or just the same to read.- The interface is not fantastically intuitive beyond the basic operation (which as I said above, is a breeze). When I try I and review my swim when I get home, I have to re-read the manual every time. I still end up with a Flashing "ERASE ?" message and no idea which button to press to get rid of it. To date I have not erased any swims, but I feel it is only a matter of time.Yet to try the open water mode, but will be doing that when it warms up here. Will also be calibrating it in the open water against a friends GPS swim watch so it will be interesting to see how it matches up. All reviews on its open water mode are good, so I am confident it will be reasonably accurate. However, the open water mode was not my primary reason for purchasing this watch, just a nice added feature***** UPDATE *****Ok, been using this a few months now, so an update. on the whole still very happy with this and it does exactly what I bought it for (count my laps so I can concentrate on my stroke and technique). It does not upload to the computer (but I knew it did not do that when I purchased - the PoolMatePro, PoolMateLive or PoolMateHR do that), so I manually enter my logs into a spreadsheet.I have found that the watch is about 75% accurate. Not bad, but not brilliant either. It only tends to drop/add 1 lap, so it is easy to spot - if I start at the shallow end, and check the watch at the shallow end I MUST have done an even number of laps, but sometimes it has counted an odd number!I have given up trying to setup the open water mode. By the time I have swam 1 "lap" of the lake I cannot remember the correct combinations of buttons to press to set the distance. Once I have pressed an incorrect button it appears to lose my data and I cannot set it up. I tried 3-4 times and then just gave up :) To be honest I do not think it would be very accurate for the way I swim in open water anyway - I tend to swim some slow breaststroke chatting to my mate, then we switch to a fast breaststroke, then I'll chuck in a hundred metres or so of crawl (freestyle), all on the same 600m "lap" - As I am only doing between 3 and 6 "laps", I can happily count those :)So overall, still happy with this purchase, and a great bit of kit for the money. Basic operation is extremely simple, though anything above basic start/stop tends to be more of a trial. Lap counting correctly 75% of the time is not quite as good as I hoped (would have liked 80%-plus), but is ok - hopefully I will find this improves as time goes on and I do more swims.

Generally a great watch, counts laps fairly accurately, good display, not too bulky, but unfortunately this is my third one already, each one just lasting a bit over a year. Each time after about a year, there was water getting in, at first just bit of condensation, then big bubbles. Warranty is only 12 months (I think I know why now!)

My bae likes this. She likes things that are simple to set up and use, and low on faff, and this is both of those things. Counts lengths accurately as far as we can tell, a doddle to set up apparently, and no issues with it after 3 months. She says it motivates her to keep swimming because the timer doesn't stop for breaks :DSwimmers with advanced training regimens involving 'kick drills' and 'roll-turn practice' (I'm blagging, I don't know what real athletic swimming involves) might want to trade up, but for anyone just doing up-and-down fitness swimming, this is great.

Battery only lasted 10 months. Took to a reputable watch repair shop to change the battery as instructed. Watch has not worked since. Don't waste your money !!

I have only used it in the sea to monitor the amount of time in the sea. Hope to try out in pool but not very techy.

The main thing I wanted this product for was to log time and calories, but unlike some other customers I found it counted laps ie lengths accurately provided I made it very clear when I was moving from one lap to the next ie touched the pool wall with my foot and glided for a before starting to actually swim on the new lap.My only criticism is that it could be more intuitive. When altering something in set up it is not clear when you press 'Start' and when you press 'Mode' again. Also, it seems to have a mind of its own and will change from left hand to right hand when I am not using it between one swim day and another - similarly it will change the pool length from kg to yards. I am probably doing something wrong but I am not clear what.