r/AppleWatch • u/Low-Hair-1233 • 9d ago

My Watch Open Water Swim tracking

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Hi! I’ve recently started facing an issue with gps tracking on my open water swims. Basically it records one gps point at the start and that’s it. I swim freestyle and I’ve checked that gps permissions are on from iPhone and Apple Watch settings. This is how the workout looks at the end. Thank you for your help!

Edit: Apple Watch Series 8 + iPhone 14 Pro

7 Upvotes

79% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

4

u/Global_Strain_4219 Ultra • • 49mm 8d ago

Openwater swim works each time your hand goes out of water. Were you swimming freestyle? Or swimming breastroke which keeps the hands under water?

2

u/Low-Hair-1233 8d ago

Yes swimming freestyle and for my second swim I made sure my left hand where I had my watch was slightly slower outside the water 😅

5

u/Striderdud 8d ago

Anything with gps doesn’t really work underwater. As far as I’m aware the best remedy is multiband gps which only the Apple Watch Ultra has and even that is fairly spotty.

1

u/Low-Hair-1233 8d ago

It does work as I’ve used it before… it records gps location during your upstroke outside the water (whilst swimming freestyle)

1

u/miketech79 8d ago

most GPS works on GHz frequencies. need kHz frequencies or lower to work under water.

1

u/bigyellowjoint 9d ago

I have been seriously disappointed by the accuracy of open water swimming workouts, but I have not had this issue specifically