Perhaps the advent of the Apple Watch isn’t the be-all and end-all of smartwatches after all. At least until its app library fills out, there’s still room for specialized wristwear to make a splash.
Enter Swimmo, a smartwatch focused solely on the swimmer looking to increase strength and improve form. The OLED-equipped wearable is designed to be fully waterproof so as to work perfectly while tracking the length and intensity of each session. To do so, it captures everything from speed, distance, lap times, and heart rate, vibrating to alert users when to speed up or slow down in order to maintain a beneficial level of intensity to achieve set goals — all without having to interrupt the swim to take a look. The multilingual device uses a patent-pending Rotate&Tap maneuver to keep things as streamlined as its users wish to be.
Users can use a companion iOS/Android app (preferably not underwater) to access and analyze the entire history of their swimming sessions or to create a little friendly competition to keep motivation up. Stats, like personal bests, are shareable on social media for some bragging rights, too. Swimmo’s develMayopers hope to be swimming in $39,000 by May 20th. And those who dive in should receive the $179 wearable by October 2015.
Stretch goals for Swimmo include analysis of technique, something the Arcus already does for a variety of different activities — just not underwater. As such, Swimmo stands to become to the serious swimming enthusiast what the Garmin Forerunner watches have become to runners.