Gallery: Swimmo is the first smartwatch just for swimmers Gallery Gallery: Swimmo is the first smartwatch just for swimmers + 10

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Smartwatches have the potential to revolutionise how we monitor our fitness, but they're not necessarily suited to all sports or activities. Swimming, in particular, presents problems, as most people won't want to risk several hundred pounds worth of wrist-borne tech being rendered useless by a pool of chlorinated water.

Enter Swimmo, a new smartwatch designed specifically for swimmers and built for continuous use underwater. The device is currently seeking funding on Kickstarter, and despite the campaign only launching a matter of hours ago at time of writing, has already attracted $5,494 (£3,711) of its $39,000 (£26.4k) target.


The gadget comes with training apps aimed to track performance in the water, including heart-rate monitoring IntensityCoach, speed focused PaceKeeper, and TrainingGuide, an overall performance gauge. Along with compatibility with other fitness apps, such as RunKeeper or Endomondo, it also syncs with its own feature-laden smartphone app. This allows you to set targets for calories burned, swim distance or session duration, and analyse your performance. It also integrates social functions, comparing your swim records with friends and challenging you to beat them.

Rather ambitiously, the onboard fitness functions will work without being directly paired with an iOS or Android device, but pairing it afterwards will give you far more options for data crunching. Oh, and it tells the time, too.

Swimmo itself is a sleek looking band with a "color OLED display that is 100% water proof". There won't be any physical buttons that might let water between the gaps; instead, all operations are performed with two touch gestures and a flick of the wrist, a patent-pending process Swimmo calls Rotate&Tap.


One thing that's not too clear yet is charging. Although the creators claim 5-7 days of use on one charge, the only reference to the actual process of charging is to "use the included charging clip with USB cable and you are good to go". With no obvious ports though, exactly where or how you clip the charger on remains to be seen.

The team behind Swimmo has previously worked on projects such as Dice+ (digital dice compatible with tablet games) so there's proven experience in bringing a conceptual product to market. The full bios reveal a slate of people with very good experience in the tech sector, too.

The first batch of Swimmo watches can be picked up for $169 (£114), with higher pledge levels offering perks such as engraving or his and hers bundles.