FORM smart swim goggles: Road Test

These smart swim goggles tell you what to do in the pool - “just like a real coach”. Who really wants that, though?

A bit RoboCop: the FORM Smart Swim Goggles

WHAT IS IT? A bit of cool for the pool: it’s a pair of “smart” goggles!

DON’T TELL ME, THEY LIVESTREAM YOUR HILARIOUS BACKSTROKE ANTICS TO TIKTOK? It’s nothing like that: they provide a head-up display of your live swim metrics - pace, lap-times, distance covered, stroke count, all that sort of stuff. This information is displayed inside the goggles; you can customise the “dashboard” so that it displays only the metrics you want.

CLEVER. Yes. And the goggles sync with the FORM Swim app, which allows for a really detailed post-swim analysis, if you’re a) a proper athlete or b) an anally retentive type.

HOW ABOUT TRAINING PLANS AND WORKOUTS? The app has loads of ’em! Just choose one based on your goal (training for a triathlon, say) and your goggles will tell you what to do in the pool – “just like a real coach”, FORM says.

ANYTHING ELSE? Yes, there’s also a “Jean-Paul Sartre Mode”, in which one-liners filled with existential angst flash up periodically among the live metrics inside the goggles. Bleak favourites include “Up and down, but going nowhere” and “Really, what is the f..king point?” (Disclaimer: this last bit is entirely made up).

$379, au.formswim.com