Funny story about that:

There are lots of reports of people swimming with their Apple watches. I shower with mine on all the time. But Apple is simply not quite ready to guarantee that you can swim with your watch.

Does its heart-rate monitoring work while swimming with it? (I'm in the market looking to buy a new HRM)

You'd figure it would have some level of waterproofing, as any sport device is expected to handle a lot of sweaty athletes.

I've been swimming with my apple watch for several months. Heart rate monitoring works (not sure if it's less accurate somehow? but it works), but there's nothing out there for tracking laps. The screen is also basically impossible to use while the buttons are too easy to trigger accidentally, so I start a workout and lock the watch, then unlock after I get out of the pool.

I was considering writing my own app for laps, and I do believe there was a story shortly after the watch came out where someone else worked on an app like that, but obviously it would not be allowed on the store. :(

It's splash and water resistant (not proof) so the sweat isn't an issue. They have a support page detailing the water resistance that might be useful for you: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT205000

There are reports that it can handle water MUCH better than that. Showers, swimming, etc.

But Apple doesn't promise it and it would void your warranty. It's a question of if you're willing to risk $400+ on people's anecdotes or not.

They don't claim it's waterproof, but plenty of anecdotal evidence supports that it does just fine while swimming.

I've been swimming with my AppleWatch from day one.

How is it for swimming? Do you use it to track your laps? I have a Garmin Forerunner 920xt right now and it's a pain because it's too bulky and also doesn't track my kick sets (since I'm rehabbing a leg injury I do about 1200 m per workout just of kick). Thanks!

I was shocked and awe-fucked when I accidentally went swimming with my Volvo key years ago, and it stopped working.