I was wondering if my Galaxy 5 watch is waterproof enough for my swim practice. Would anyone be able to let me know if it is?
Somewhat unrelated, if you are at a meet don’t swim with the watch on—it slows you down and is against the rules in some places.
Winslow said:
Somewhat unrelated, if you are at a meet don’t swim with the watch on—it slows you down and is against the rules in some places.
Good point, never thought about the rule side of it. Definitely slows you down too; just feels like extra drag.
They say it can stay underwater for 5 feet for 30 mins, but I’d recommend just not swimming with it.
You may get disqualified if you swim with a smartwatch. Make sure your coach clears it with the chief judge BEFORE your race.
I had swum several times with my Galaxy 3 Active watch until one time when I came out of the pool and it was glitching and just dead. I then looked it up and many people had the same issue. I had to ‘treat’ myself to a new watch, which I will never wear in the water now—too expensive to risk!
@Uma
Similar happened to me, but it was a Galaxy 4 and glitched immediately the very first time I got into the swimming pool.
Just in case you want a good watch to swim, I’d recommend a Garmin; the Forerunner series works perfectly underwater, but they’re not lifestyle watches. It took me 2+ months to get used to my new watch 'cause it’s not touchscreen. The good news is that the FR 265 is (I got the 255).
@Uma
Thank you for the advice.
Not allowed in any high school competitions and I believe also outlawed in USA swimming. Should be fine to use it during practice. I have plenty of swimmers that use an Apple Watch to check HR during practices.
I have a Galaxy Watch 4, and I’ve worn it for several hundred ocean swims.
I had a Galaxy 4, which says it was waterproof. The first time I got into the swimming pool, it stopped responding to my commands and started to get hot. It was screwed 
. A couple of months later, I bought a Garmin Forerunner 255, and it works perfectly!
I have a Galaxy watch, and I have been swimming with it for a while. The trick is to set your exercise to swimming (which turns on the water lock) or turn on the water lock in the watch menu.
I have the Watch 5 and it was perfect for training. However, my dad had the Watch 3 and it died, but got replaced under warranty, so I guess it’ll be fine.
I’ve been using my Galaxy 5 watch for years now tracking my swims. It works. Just shake it after and use the water lock during.
Perrin said:
I’ve been using my Galaxy 5 watch for years now tracking my swims. It works. Just shake it after and use the water lock during.
Does it track your workout (distance, pace) accurately?
Using the water lock on Samsung watches doesn’t always work. I made sure it was always engaged, but the watch still died.
Replaced with a Garmin.
Firth said:
Using the water lock on Samsung watches doesn’t always work. I made sure it was always engaged, but the watch still died.
Replaced with a Garmin.
Doesn’t the water lock just protect from unintended inputs on the touchscreen?
@Thorn
My friend explained to me (so hearsay; take it with a grain of salt) that Apple’s water-mode pushes the speakers all the way out to seal any holes from the speaker diaphragm.
This was probably a year or several ago, so it may be old tech or just misinformation, but that was the explanation I got at the time.
A cursory Google suggests there is something speaker-related with Apple’s water lock, but I didn’t dig for details.
Is a watch legal?
Yeah, it is. I use my Watch 4 all the time, and I swim 7 times a week for 2 hours.