I was under the same impression until somewhat recently. If I'm going to buy a watch, I want it to be a watch first, and "smart" second, and I was convinced that only the Pebble did that. I tried the original Pebble for a while - but lately I've been pleasantly surprised trying Sony's Smartwatch 3.
- Its screen is always on, and always readable to me - I'm not sure about this, but I think it has a variant of the Pebble's e-paper screen. I know Sony makes Pebble's screen.
- It has the highest IP water-resistance rating out of the Android wear watches (IP68, which is supposedly suitable for swimming), although not quite as waterproof as the Pebble.
- The battery can also easily last through a full day and night, in my experience, with about ~30% remaining for the next day. That's even less of an issue given that the battery can be charged up fully fairly quickly (can't quantify that any further at the moment, but it's always been pretty quick for me).
Now, if you swim, like you mentioned you do, then the waterproofing thing might be a dealbreaker. But other than that, this Android Wear watch is almost on par with the Pebble as a "watch", and you get a bunch of added benefits (like GPS, which is great for running, better Android integration, touchscreen, polished voice interaction, etc.). IMHO, if you're just looking for a watch that's got some extra features, then the _original_ Pebble is great just because it's so cheap. But, if one's willing to spend more like $200 (Pebble Time), it's not much of a competition, unless you _really_ value the extra battery and waterproofing.
Edit: clarity.