Which Suunto Watch?

[Mark W Heninger]

I just broke my Vector watch (sheared the bezel and part of the mounting hardware off the front) and am looking to replace it. I’ve been happy with the performance of the Vector, if not the UI, which I find convoluted and difficult to remember how to do certain things (calibrate compass for example).

Suunto has come out with a host of new watches, and I notice that alot of peopel are putting the X6 on their gear lists.

So comments on all variety of other alti/baro/compass watches?

[John Brown]

I have the observer, which I think is the same as x6 but in metal configuration. Works great. UI is ok once you figure it out. The crappy part is the glass, which scratches easily. I’ll likely try to return it to REI.

[Anonymous]

The only thing worse than glass faces on a watch is one of plastic, which will scratch much, much easier.
A feature of more expensive watches are faces made of synthetic sapphire. I don’t know of a wrist computer that has one, except the very dodgy analog Victornoix Star-Tech watches which lack many features such as a digital compass and really is just a chronograph with an altimeter tacked on.

Anyway, the feature set of the X6 is hard to beat for the intrpid backcountry explorer and the UI soon becomes 2nd nature. You can check out Polaris, Nike, or High Gear. They haven’t matched it yet.

[Mark W Heninger]

I had the nike before the Suunto. Nice UI, but the watch was underbuilt and quickly broken.

The only thing the X6 does not have is the countdown timers, which I use regularly. Mabye I’ll just get another Vector.

[Author]

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