Which is the best strap to use for pickin… (2024)

Thanks, Karina. That's helpful to know the two bands are OK in water, but I would also like to know how reliable they will be in terms of getting the watch to measure HR during swim workouts. I've been using the watch for over 3 years to track my swims and the results have been hit or miss, with many emails back and forth with Apple, many trips to the Genius Bar. The problem apparently has been keeping the watch in close enough contact with the blood vessel(s) on the back of my wrist while I'm swimming. For the first year I was using the default strap, tightening it as much as possible but mostly getting largely blank HR graphs at the end of an hour's swim. The velcro sports loop worked much better, as it was easier to cinch up by small amounts, but it stretched out with use and after 6-7 months would no longer stay fastened at all. I went through two of those but got tired of buying a new one twice a year. The one I'm using now is the Nike, which has a greater number of fastening positions. Sometimes it works great, but sometimes I'll get half an hour of no HR readings then half an hour of steady readings, or maybe only half a dozen spot readings over an hour's swim. I have to cinch it uncomfortable tight to get it to work at all in the water. For walking, running, biking it works fine on a looser setting. So my real question is, will either of these new bands give me reliable HR readings while swimming without being so tight as to be uncomfortable the rest of the time? This is important since they are not adjustable, and apparently you cannot switch them out with another strap. Will they stretch out with use? I'm not going to spend that much money on a watch that I have to replace if there's a problem with the strap, or if I need one size for swimming and another for comfortable rest-of-the-day use. Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me!