After trying out and really liking the Poseidon Ultra Mirror goggles from Danish brand Watery, I was looking forward to trying out another of their goggles, the Instinct Ultra Mirror.

The goggles have a high quality feel and share an aesthetic with Speedo’s Fastskin elite range. But let’s get the bad news out of the way – I didn’t get on with them. The goggles are quite wide and because I needed the largest of the three supplied nose pieces, they didn’t fit me well and pinched quite badly at the outside. However that’s entirely down to the shape of my face and not the goggles, and I was still able to swim in them leak free so let’s take an objective look because they will suit many people well.

As with their Poseidon brethren the Instincts boast a good silicon gasket that provides plenty of give and a silicon strap with graduations – how use I’ll that is came into sharp focus in one session when I couldn’t figure out why they were leaking all of a sudden. It turned out I’d not locked the strap into the buckle properly and it had worked loose – using the marks on the strap I had it back exactly to the right tension in no time with no guesswork and the session went on.

The goggles have a low profile but because they didn’t fit me perfectly I was aware of a bit of drag at the outsides on push offs – I think this would be minimal if you had the lenses closer together.

The lenses themselves had great clarity and gave a really wide field of view – the frames are so far out to the sides as to make them virtually invisible. That would make them great in open water or if you just like keeping an eye on the next door lane. It’s probably the best feature.

The anti-fog was not as successful, and certainly not as good as the Poseidon, lasting only around 850m from dry before frequent rinses were needed. Whether that was a one off for this pair or indicative of a general issue can’t be said, but either way there are ways round the problem with anti fog treatments if needed.

Pricing is in line with the market at around £35 but as they’re coming from Denmark you may need to pay in Euros and need to factor in delivery costs to the UK.

Verdict

• Excellent field of vision
• High quality feel with a decent gasket
• Wide goggles may not suit everybody
• A question mark over the anti fog

These goggles give an excellent widescreen view of your swimming. Just be aware of how wide they are.

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The Poseidon Ultra Mirror is available directly from Watery, who provided the sample for testing. See our review policy for details of how we review products.