Rating  - cheaper than a $30 casio
I made the mistake of buying this watch and the identical Core with orange band and black watch. Within 6 months one watch broke and then the battery died. The other one had plastic face pieces fall off and then the battery died, also within six months.
The altimeter, compass, and thermometer were never close to being accurate.
I'm now in the process of having the watches taken in under warranty. Tried to trade both watches in for one REAL Suunto. Suunto said "no."
These are the cheapest, plasticy Suunto's ever. HUGE waste of money, cheap, miserable battery life.
Rating  - Excellent technical watch but poor build quality
This is an excellently designed, fun, and technically proficient watch. The Suunto Core provides a lot of usable information and delivers it in a straight forward way. The full-keyword driven menus are very good, although they are perhaps a bit cumbersome once you are familiar with the functions and use them a lot (some additional shortcuts would be useful here).
I have found each of the four main features (time, alto & baro, compass) to be functional and quite accurate. The compass seems to me to be the most straightforward of the three, but I think the reason for this is that the alto & baro functions are only as accurate as the user input required to get accurate readings (e.g. setting the base altitude, sea level, etc.). In most cases the 'auto' feature which shifts between alto and baro is not satisfactory as it results in a lot of 'data drift' unless you are only moving vertically, or you are outdoors for a long time at a fixed elevation and in stable weather. If you are engaged in activities that require either strictly altitude functions or air pressure functions the watch is fantastic. If you are doing something in between, like hiking in rolling country with shifting weather, then you will need to frequently reference either weather and/or topo information. But with good inputs the watch is fantastic. Also, the more you actually use the watch outdoors the better the information it feeds back (e.g. the 24hr baro data).
I suspect that many Suunto Cores will never leave the office or desk and I think that is why there is not more feedback about the build quality and sturdiness of these watches. I hesitated to buy the Suunto Core because I had read so many reviews citing poor build quality, breakdowns, failures and bugs. However, I thought it was an interesting watch and bought one anyway. Unfortunately, the watch that arrived had no backlight capability straight out of the box (therefore making it useless in all but full light conditions). Suunto immediately arranged a pickup and replacement under warranty; very responsive, but this is a poor substitute for a good product.
With the replacement Suunto Core it all seems to work, but I do not have the confidence in the watch that is required if you are going to use it as a real outdoor aid/tool. I am reluctant to get it near water or give it any rough treatment. It is a highly technical and useful device, but not sturdy.
I still rate the watch at 3 stars (if it all functioned straight out of the box, the first time, then it would be 5 stars). I think it is a great watch and really enjoy using it, but at somewhere between $180 and $250 it should be better constructed. For really tough outdoor activity (if I had to depend on my equipment, and lets face it, this is not often a matter of life or death) then I would lean towards a high quality diver's watch, a clip on compass (Suunto make a good one), and something to check the weather.
Finally, although the inverse face models (i.e. light on dark) look good the positive face model (i.e dark on light) is much more usable outdoors. I have to say that the available bands are exceptionally well designed (note the tab to keep the end of the strap in place), comfortable and tough; however, the downside is that you are stuck with using a Suunto band and cannot switch to other bands. This means you are locked into the (slightly overpriced) Suunto bands, which is also a bit of a money making sideline in my opinion. Perhaps some kind of strap adapter (such as is available for G-Shock watches) would work here.
This is a great watch, but I wanted to write a review that would not leave readers with any illusions.
Rating  - Awesome Watch!!
This watch is so light compared to some of the other watches I've had. The altimeter is pretty accurate when you adjust the air pressure reading. It's got dual time which comes in handy for me since I travel from time to time and need to know what time it is in the States while I'm away. The alarm sounds pretty low. I wish it was a little bit louder because sometimes I think I'm going to oversleep. The snooze is every 5 minutes and it would be great if it was every 10 or 15 minutes. It's kind of annoying snoozing every 5 minutes. I guess it's a good way to get you up since it's annoying. Another thing I wish it had is more than one alarm rather than just one. The barometer is accurate as well. You have to take the watch off your wrist but it works. Body heat will throw anything off. Overall I like this watch and If I had to buy it again I would.
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Customer Reviews for Suunto,SS013315010,400105121981,117537,0400105121981,B000UDI342, |
