Open water upgrade for FORM goggles

FORM have announced another development for their innovative goggles, due this summer. Launched in 2019, FORM goggles were the first on the market with a live, augmented reality display built into the eyepiece. They gave swimmers the possibility to track key metrics (such as pace, stroke rate, splits, elapsed time etc.) while they swam.

We published an extended review of FORM goggles in September 2019.

Within a few months of launch, FORM pushed out an exciting new feature: the ability to link FORM goggles with a Polar OH1 optical heart rate monitor. Using a clip on your goggle strap, the heart rate monitor picks up your pulse from your temple, connects via Bluetooth to the goggles, and displays your heart rate while you swim. Impressive, but still primarily of interest to pool swimmers.

With their latest announcement, FORM are tapping into the open water swimming market. From this summer, swimmers will be able to pair their goggles with select Garmin devices and Apple watches, access GPS data and beam pace and distance metrics, as well as heart rate, in real time into their line of sight.

Dan Eisenhardt, FORM’s CEO and founder, is a former competitive pool swimmer. In a recent interview with Outdoor Swimmer, he admitted that he’s become a bit of an outdoor swimming fan as he’s been testing prototypes of the live GPS feeds. “It really anchors you in your swim,” he says.

Regarding the accuracy of GPS while swimming, FORM have been testing in open water and Eisenhardt says that on a 1000m group swim, all devices recorded a distance with 10m of each other.

For details of compatible devices and additional information, see www.formswim.com

Existing FORM goggle owners will be pleased to learn that the upgrade will be made available free of charge. Anyone who buys FORM goggles now, before the GPS functionality is available, will also receive a free upgrade.