Form Swim Goggles
US$200 Designed by the same group that brought us the Recon sunglasses in 2010, Form Swim goggles feature a heads-up display that allows you to keep track of different metrics while you’re swimming. You can customize the goggle display through the phone app to show split time, interval time, rest time, total time, stroke rate, stroke count, distance per stroke, pace per 100, pace per 50, distance, length count or calories burned.
Form has also recently announced a partnership with Polar that allows connection to the OH1 and OH1+ optical heart rate monitors, which adds heart rate to the mix, too. The Polar monitors are mounted with a clip to the strap of the Form goggles and heart rate is measured from your temple. An update to the app allows you to show either beats per minute or zones to the heads-up display.
All of this means you can now hit the pool and get lots of real-time data while you’re swimming. That isn’t the only upside of using the Form goggles, though. After you’re workout you simply sync the goggles to your phone to download all the metrics from the workout, which allows you to analyze specific aspects of your stroke so you can work on those in future workouts.
A $200 pair of goggles is a useless investment unless they are very comfortable and easy to adjust, but there’s no need for concern on that front. The Form goggles come with five different nose bridges that allow you to wear the heads-up display on either your left or right eye. The contoured silicone eye seals are extremely comfortable, too. They also come with a permanent anti-fog coating. Although we haven’t had a chance to do any really long-term testing, the Form goggles look to be ready to stand up to lots of use.
Form has done a great job of making it very easy to set up and use the goggles. The app is easy to set up and, once you’ve identified how long the pool is that you’re swimming in and decide if you’re planning to do either a long, continuous effort (lap swim) or a series of intervals (intervals setting), you pick the metrics you want to keep up with and off you go. The display was very easy to see in the indoor pools we tested, and other reviewers have suggested that is the same at outdoor pools, too.
The only thing we’d love to see is some way to get all this data during open-water sessions, but that’s not really possible since there’s no GPS capabilities. Knowing the folks at Form, though, I can’t imagine it will be long before some sort of watch connection allows for even that data to be added to the mix.
For those looking to be able to keep track of what they’re doing during pool workouts, without having to keep looking at a pace clock, the Form goggles are certainly the answer. And now, thanks to the addition of heart rate measurement, you really can dial in all the metrics you need to ensure you’re getting the most out of each and every workout.—KM