Garmin Forerunner 265S Running Smartwatch, Colorful AMOLED Display, Training Metrics and Recovery Insights, Whitestone and Neo Tropic

I use it to count strokes as I swim, and it’s the first watch to do this flawlessly. I’ve used the original Garmin Swim, the original Apple Watch, and the Apple Watch Series 2—this one is by far the best. With the Garmin Swim, you had to push hard off the wall for it to register a turn. With the original Apple Watch, you had to avoid pushing off too hard or it wouldn’t register sometimes. This watch, however, perfectly registers turns no matter how hard or soft the push-off. Whether you’re doing gentle push-offs to maximize swim distance or aggressive flip turns with hard push-offs, it tracks perfectly. I used my Garmin Swim for years, replacing band after band. Apple Watches, on the other hand, are built with planned obsolescence, which really frustrates me. If you upgrade your phone, at some point the watch will stop pairing. That’s why I ended up using two different Apple Watches—something that made me genuinely angry. A watch should work until it physically breaks, not be rendered obsolete by software incompatibility. Shame on you, Apple. I own several iPhone, iPad, MacBook, and Mac desktop—I’m not an Apple hater, but I do hate this particular behavior. Because of it, I’ll never buy another Apple Watch if there are good alternatives like this Garmin. This watch registers strokes better than either of the others, and like the original Garmin, I expect it to work for years without being forced to upgrade.