goggles

How well do those prevent you from being blinded by the sun's reflection? I have a dark tinted pair, that would be great for outdoors, but they're pretty dark indoors. (For skiing, I have yellow tinted, and rose tinted. I can see better with the yellow tintied, and the rose colored ones do nothing for my skiing ability. ;-) ) Swim goggles should be very similar: polarized lenses would be better than none, but as long as you're not being blinded or bombarded by UV light, whichever you prefer should be acceptable.

if you swim in a murky lake or the ocean on a low visibility day, then tinted goggles are a detriment. I use an orange or yellow lens for my open water swims and a tinted lens at the outdoor pool.
TG

a pair of swedish (or is it swiss?) goggles that are dark are the best. i played water polo and swam at an outdoor pool. believe me, you want them dark. at a meet one day a girl couldn't swim because her eyes had been burnt the day before and she could barely see. it was pretty bad. :-(

so go dark. the metallic one are just as good.

I've only used my blue-tinted goggles for all my open water swims, and it hasn't been a problem.

I do need to get some new goggles as mine are old and pretty scratched up and sometimes that makes it hard to site.

I carry two pair.  One pair clear and one pair tinted!  It depends on what the conditions are on race day which ones I will wear.