Garmin announces two underwater heart rate straps for serious swimmers

Garmin has announced two underwater heart rate monitors for hard-core swimmers and triathletes who want to check they're still breathing.

Although you might look like a bit of a wolly with one of these straps wrapped around your body, it will feed back all the necessary data to help you improve in and out of the pool. Looking cool is overrated, after all.

To be launched in October, the HRM-Tri and HRM-Swim are priced at $129.99 and $99.99 in the US, thus neither of them will exactly burn a hole in your bank balance. There's no word on UK pricing as yet.

• Check out our ultimate list of the best fitness bands to get you in shape

Designed for triathletes and swimmers, the watches can store about 20 hours of heart rate date during swims so that you can carefully monitor your training. The HRM-Tri focuses on not only the pool, but also records your heart rate data whilst running and cycling, which is perfect for those going straight from track to the pool.

The HMR-Swim on the other hand is purpose-built for swimming alone. You get accurate hear treading underwater as well as interval summaries for when your having a breather.

There is however a big catch with these bands as although the bands record the data, you'll need one of Garmin's key fitness devices to use them; the Forerunner 620, Fenix 3, Fenix 2, or Epix watches, which range from £250 up to about £450.