15 quid for a replacement garmin strap? Are you paying for the legit ones, they’re no better than the copies which can be had for 5 or less!
Are you paying for the legit ones, they’re no better than the copies which can be had for 5 or less!
Yep, I’m that guy who’s keeping Garmin afloat. What copy do you use?
Just put your model number into ebay and there will be loads of options for cheap as chips straps
Done, ordered to tide me over while I mull over 955.
All though technically the same family, I’m not sure the 955 is really a replacement for your 920, it is now a completely different watch.
Obviously the size and shape. You can wear it as a watch, but you might find it less readable during exercise. Or at least it will take some getting used to. Then, as a watch it has limited smart watch features like mobile notifications and payment options. It’s not an iWatch, but is that something you want? Music if you want it?
Bluetooth connectivity good for newer apps and accessories, but again, only if you need it. Wrist based HRM, most would say not as reliable as a chest strap anyway.
Then all the new ‘metrics’. Sleep, recover, steps count, running power. Some of them interesting, hardly any vital.
And all for a lot more than a new strap.
Cheers buzz, yes, night and day compared to 920. Highly doubt I need any of the advanced functions and use Apple Music so that’s a non-starter with Garmin. Maybe a 255 or Apple Watch would be just fine for what I do.
My Garmin decided to stop tracking distance (therefore speed too) on my swim this morning. Using “pool swim” mode and same settings in the same pool but it gave up after 50m. Any ideas?
I had the same thing happen for no apparent reason and stop for no apparent reason
Garmin asked me to tell them the (unedited) activity next time
Do you use the lap button or just leave it running? If you’ve pressed (or missed) the lap button it can get out of sync where it thinks every swim is a rest and every rest is a swim so records nothing.
Just leave it running.
It’s a really frustrating thing because you do a couple of things to try and get it to work in the pool, then give up because you want to swim, but then you’re not near a pool all the time so can’t see if updates/changes later have helped. Then you get back in the pool intending to do a proper swim and the watch isn’t playing along again… the cycle repeats ![]()
This may be a ridiculous idea but could you recreate it at home by walking up and down a room, simulating swimming with your arms and pushing away from the wall when you turn at each end?
The Garmin’s only using a gyroscope so shouldn’t be able to tell any difference as far as I can see. It would give you the opportunity to try settings etc without a wasted trip to the pool.
Ps. I think we need the video if you do go down that route ![]()
I demonstrated improvements to the TomTom watch swim algorithm in a meeting by doing just that, I put on goggles and swimhat for effect, a video does exist, but I don’t have it.
Our algorithm used the accelerometer.
I’ve just treated myself to a Garmin 255 music.
I’ve not had much luck with using the watches in the pool, my 910 cracked on the first club session and 920 got scratched. Outside of that I only ever used them in a couple of pool sprint races.
I’d quite like to give it a go again, with HR (I have Polar Verity) to have a fuller picture of my training and so the health stats like recovery time, fatigue, etc. are including them. But not sure whether to use (risk) the 255 or dig out the old 920.
Does pool swimming knacker the watch? Think I read the chlorine messes with the barometer?
If I use the 920, will the activity sync to Garmin and then back to the 255, so the 255 has all activities and properly updates all the health metrics (eg body battery, recovery)?
I have always used my Garmins in the pool. Had issues with the baro yes, I know they disabled the HR monitor for swimming on some models as for some reason that was making it worse. Whether I would have had issues with the Baro if I hadnt used it in the pool who knows.
When you configure the 255 in Garmin Connect if you select the physio true up it will use activities done on other devices for the metrics you mention.
I’ve never really had any problems with Garmin’s except the 910 barometer which was renowned for failing. Lots of swimming with the 920 and then 945 has never had a single issue.
However, if you were truly concerned, then yes, physio true up should push an activity recorded on another device to your “main watch”. Just like it does with rides recorded via Edge devices. It even does it now with activities on Zwift and Trainerroad if you setup the link to your Garmin account in those apps.
That said, OHR via the newer watches is fairly decent, and another data point to look at after a swim. I never look at anything during the swim. The HRM-swim straps were rubbish, altho I still use a chest strap for everything else, including OW swims under a wetsuit. Much better data.
Does the 255 have a barometer or does it just use GPS for altitude?
I thought you had to go for the 9xx watches to get a barometer?
Googled it, apparently it does have a baro.
The baro issues garmin really need to sort out. My 910xt had rhe same problem and thats 5 or 6 generations ago.
I thought it was a swimming problem? They now switch off the barometer when swimming (electrically) as this was what was causing the failure?
I’m getting tempo classification for base runs:
I think it detects both maxhr and lactate threshold, so I need to manually reset on do a maxhr test
Don’t wish to sound smug but my 7 year old Garmin Vivoactive has pretty much never missed a length in the pool
Although the fact I don’t flip turn might help, and probably the simplicity of features does too as it’s tracking nothing else other than the time.
On the downside it takes 10 minutes to find a GPS signal when I want to go for a run and the battery doesn’t last very long. But I don’t understand most of the settings and data the new ones all come with so doesn’t seem worth an upgrade until is totally bust.

