Who wore what Sports Watch? Monday night in the pool – What! no Fenix 3s!

Wednesday night was the club swim night. This post summarises some unscientific glances at everyone’s wrists over the last few weeks on those Wednesdays and the post presents an aggregate view of ‘sports watches worn’.

Lane 6 is the faster lane with lanes 5/6 having some national-standard swimmers/triathletes. Swimmers in Lane 1 would be in their first year. Most of the athletes from Lane 3 and above would be at least of GB Age Group standard.

I thought it was an interesting exercise as most people wore a (sports) watch despite it being of limited use in a coached session, offering little over and above the pool clocks that are available. Those that didn’t have a sports watch were typically either women or beginners in lane 1. I contrast this with a HM last year where, even in some of the faster pens at the start of the race, less than half of the runners (male/female) had any kind of sports watch.

• Lane 1 – 4 people, one old Garmin. Rest with none.
• Lane 2 – 6 people: Apple Watch 2, 2x 920XT, one old Polar
• Lane 3 – 8 people: TomTom Runner 3, 1x V800, 1x AMBIT3, , 2x 920XT
• Lane 4 – 7 people: 3x 920XT, 1x AMBIT 3, 1x Fenix 3
• Lane 5 – 4 people: 1x 920XT (occasional HRM-TRI)
• Lane 6 – 3 people: TomTom Runner 3, Timex Ironman

I also contrast this to a few years ago where, in my mind, fewer people wore watches for swimming. Yet it seems that now the majority of people, in my limited sample, do have some form of sports watch. The stand-out thing for me is the lack of Fenix 3s (one!!) and a preponderance of 920XTs (that’s the collective name for a group of Garmin triathlon watches). Most of the swimmers take triathlon seriously in some way, shape or form and their choice of ‘appropriate’ watch seems to reflect that.

Well, I thought it was interesting.

What’s the situation at your pool?