Garmin Swim 2 Discontinued: 3 Best Replacements for Swimmers (2026)
The Garmin Swim 2 is discontinued with no successor. The 3 best replacement watches for pool and open water swimmers, plus how to keep exporting workouts.
Garmin quietly retired the Swim 2 — and never released a Swim 3. If you've been searching for a new one and coming up empty, you're not imagining it. Here's exactly what Garmin replaced it with, the three watches worth buying instead, and how to keep your structured workouts flowing to whichever one you pick. Wait — Is the Garmin Swim 2 Actually Gone?
Yes. The Garmin Swim 2 — the brand's only purpose-built, swim-first watch — has been moved to Garmin's discontinued products list. There is no Swim 3 in the pipeline, and Garmin has folded its swimming features into the broader Forerunner and Instinct lines. You'll still see the Swim 2 floating around as new-old-stock or used, but it's no longer a watch Garmin is making.
That leaves a specific kind of buyer stranded: the person who wanted a dedicated, lightweight, swim-focused watch without paying triathlon-watch money. The good news is the swimming capability didn't disappear — it migrated. Garmin now steers that buyer toward the Forerunner 165, and there are two other strong options depending on what you valued most about the Swim 2.
Want the closest match? Forerunner 165. Want an upgrade with CSS and training metrics? Forerunner 265. Want rugged build and huge battery life? Instinct 3. Full breakdown below. What Made the Swim 2 Worth Replacing Carefully Before you buy, it's worth naming what the Swim 2 actually did well, because that's the checklist your replacement needs to clear.
It tracked pool lengths, stroke type, distance, pace, and SWOLF automatically. It had a real open water GPS mode — rare at its price. It was light, slim, and disappeared on your wrist. And it lasted for ages in smartwatch mode between charges. What it never did especially well: rich training analytics, structured on-device workouts, or doubling as a serious running and cycling watch.
So the question isn't "what's identical to the Swim 2" — it's "which current Garmin keeps the swimming strengths you care about, at a price you'll accept." All three picks below clear the swim-tracking bar; they differ on everything around it. The 3 Best Garmin Swim 2 Replacements Matches the Swim 2 on Which One Should You Actually Buy? If you're replacing a Swim 2 because it broke or you sold it, and you mostly swim laps with the occasional open water session, buy the Forerunner 165.
It's the honest like-for-like: same core swimming jobs, nicer screen, current software, no wasted money on features you won't use. If the Swim 2 always felt a little basic and you've started taking training seriously — CSS tests, pace zones, recovery — step up to the Forerunner 265. It's the watch the Swim 2 would have grown into. If you swim outdoors a lot, beat your gear up, or hate charging, the Instinct 3 trades the fancy screen for toughness and battery life.
Still torn between models and price tiers? Our full best Garmin watch for swimming guide ranks the whole 2026 lineup, and the Forerunner 165 swimming review digs into the budget pick in detail. Keep Your Workouts — No Matter Which Watch You Pick Here's the part the spec sheets won't tell you: the Forerunner 165 doesn't let you build structured swim workouts on the watch itself, and even the 265's on-device builder is fiddly.
That's where most ex–Swim 2 owners get frustrated. The fix is to build sessions somewhere sane and push them to the watch. Build your set in the AquaPlan workout generator , export it as a Garmin FIT file, and sync through Garmin Connect. Your intervals, rest, and target zones appear on the watch face mid-set — on the Swim 2, the 165, the 265, or the Instinct 3 alike.
See the full Garmin swim workouts guide for the step-by-step sync. Frequently Asked Questions New Watch, Same Great Workouts Whichever Swim 2 replacement you land on, AquaPlan turns it into a structured-training machine. Build a session in the drag-and-drop generator, export a Garmin FIT file, and swim it with every interval on your wrist. Or start from 130+ ready-made sessions filtered by goal and zone.
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Written and maintained by AquaPlan Team, Swim Training & Product.
The AquaPlan team builds swim-training software for structured pool workouts, Garmin-compatible FIT export, printable workout PDFs, and progress tracking.
Focus areas: Structured swim workout design, Garmin-compatible FIT file export, Pool training plans and workout-library systems, Swim training tools for web, iOS, and Android.
Editorial standard: AquaPlan training guides are checked against the current workout builder, workout library, Garmin export workflow, and product limits before publication.