is swimmo worth it?

| плавання, товари

the guys in swimmo want us to support them on kickstarter. somehow they've managed to make a video teaser that… has turned me off almost instantly. everything, starting with the voice and on to the total lack of the actual product presentation… the video is just a heap of smoking ad templates.

anyway, that's probably my own problem =) i've scrolled to see what the swimmo smart swimming watch will be. so here's what i found (i'll compare to garmin swim that i've been using for half a year now):
  • first ever smartwatch designed specifically for swimmers (wow! i guess garmin swim is not smart enough for them, and pebble has not been designed only for swimming so technically this piece of advertising bullshit is probably true);
  • color screen (i don't care for a color screen on my wrist, especially when i'm in the water);
  • touchscreen, no buttons at all (this can both be a good thing or a bad one depending on how it turns out);
  • syncs via bluetooth (latest garmin sports watches can do that, others too, eats up battery faster than ant+ but at the same time is more versatile because potentially can connect to any device with bluetooth, not just pc's with ant+ dongle, which is great);
  • heart rate monitor (something that garmin swim doesn't have);
  • vibration feedback (garmin swim doesn't have that, but also something i personally don't care about at all);
  • basic watch functions (no illustrations so no way to see what that means; garmin swim has two watches for different time zones and an alarm clock);
  • 5-7 days of battery and you won't be able to replace it once it's dead in a couple of years (wow! my garmin swim has been working for half a year now without changint it's standard cr2032 cell);
  • wrist band — no info about it being replaceable or not, so probably not (garmin swim's band can be replaced if damaged, get a new one for $20);
  • price: $230 (wtf?!) and just $169 special preorder price (get your garmin swim for $150).

also there's pebble for $99 (and a free shipping to ukraine!) it has no heart rate monitor but otherwise it's more than a match for swimmo as far as my swimming needs go. however…

garmin swim seems optimal.