I am a fan of mechanical watches, with that I have been using a totally analog watch for years while riding, hiking, mountaineering, etc . Don’t get me wrong, I am no luddite, quite the opposite in fact. I love technology but sort of eschewed it when in the backcountry mostly because I did not want to buy a GPS for my bike, an altimeter for hiking and… well you get the idea. But the new range of GPS watches enabled watches from Suunto have finally matched size and battery life in a cool looking and incredibly functional little package. I picked up a Suunto Ambit3 Peak Sapphire watch to use when doing everything outside. I love it!
The Ambit3 Peak Sapphire is Suunto’s newest watch with heart rate, GPS, altitude, temperature and more. First lets talk about the looks, it is a great looking watch. I actually got a few compliments on its looks from friends. Next the big problem with older GPS watches was battery life. The Suunto Ambit3 has multiple GPS accuracy modes which can extend the battery life. When using the watch in cycling mode it throws the GPS in to high accuracy. This mode uses the battery up in 30 hours. But it is configurable and automatically selected by activity. So in trekking mode it will get 200 hours on a single charge. This samples the GPS at a lower rate, but since you are going slower it is alright.
It tracks altitude through GPS and barometric pressure. It will use one or both methods if using auto mode.
Charging is done through USB. It charges very fast. This is actually the only area for improvement. A little clip snaps on, but it is a bit fiddly and sometimes hard to tell wether or not it is actually charging. The charger uses the 4 contact points on the bottom to charge.
When using the watch you can have it scroll modes or stick on a single screen where you must change the views. All of this is customizable in the MovesCount.com web page. I sync my moves over bluetooth to my phone. The phone runs the MovesCount app and its as easy as that.
The web page has a great interface as well. You can view your activity, scroll through time, distance, altitude, etc. However be warned, it defaults to public so people could in theory find out more about you than you want if you post routes starting from home. This is easy to switch to private in the MoveCount web page under Settings – MovesCount Settings.
There is a heart rate monitor on the Peak model, it has a very comfortable strap and the sensors work much better than the previous Polar watch I had. I also opted for the sapphire crystal to prevent the large face from being scratched. Heck I kept my last outdoor watch for the better part of five years, I might as well get a nice one if I am going to use it every day.
Also push notifications come up on the watch. So text messages and incoming calls appear. Which is neat, but I usually leave bluetooth off on my phone.
Call me a believer. I love this little watch. I really enjoy looking at the elevation, distance, pace, etc. If you are considering a smart watch for the back country get this watch!
Suunto says; http://www.suunto.com/en-US/Products/Sports-Watches/Suunto-Ambit3-Peak/Suunto-Ambit3-Peak-Sapphire/
- 30h battery with 5 sec-GPS accuracy (1 min-accuracy: 200h)
- Route navigation and track back
- Compass
- Altitude (FusedAltiTM)
- Weather information
- Heart rate in swimming**
- Activity based recovery time
- Speed, pace and distance
- Bike power support (Bluetooth Smart)
- Multiple sports in one log
- Movescount training programs on the watch
- Extended feature set through Suunto Apps