7 Best Suunto Watches 2023 (for Military, Hiking, & Running)

With its history of various timepieces made for the outdoor life, Suunto watches are a combination of attractive designs and heavy duty features.

Suunto watches came from a heritage of compass watches of different specifications that were built for different outdoor activities, both extreme and not-so-extreme.

Aside from robust watches, Suunto [R] also has a wide array of lifestyle watches and products that has a very chill vibe—now these ones are for me.

If you’re eager to lay your hands on your very first Suunto watch, below are some of their top-notch watches used for outdoor and sports. Your next best Suunto watch is waiting for you.

Traverse Alpha: #1 Suunto Watch

If you’re wondering what the best Suunto watch will look like, look for the Traverse Alpha. This Suunto masterpiece will leave you in awe with its top-notch features with the best price.

With its rugged stainless steel bezel and scratch-resistant crystal glass exterior, you’ll be taking this GPS watch anywhere without trouble. You can even receive incoming calls and notifications from your smartphone given that you synced it with its Bluetooth connectivity.

It also has a sunrise alert, weather alert system, and moon phase calendar. I really can’t sense convenience more than what this GPS watch offers.

Comparing to other brands of watches, Suunto is very generous when it comes to giving you the best timepiece, and this Suunto model or product justifies it with its GPS and GLONASS technology. This feature allows you to know the exact positioning and map coordinates of the paths you’ve conquered. This way, if you want to head back to your starting point, or you just want to go back, its re-tracing feature has you covered.

Ambit3 Peak HR Running: Best Suunto Watch Known For Its GPS

Popular for its GPS feature, the Ambit3 collection from Suunto has numerous watches to choose from. However, one of the most excellent watches from this collection of best Suunto products is the Ambit3 Peak HR. Its excellent features will let you know why.

Aside from the previously-mentioned GPS functionality, this sports watch also has an altimeter, barometer, and a compass, which makes it perfect for outdoor activities. It is also water-resistant up to 100 meters. Its battery life depends on your GPS setting.

Just like the other high-end Suunto watches, you can sync it to your smartphone so you can remotely see your notifications and calls on your watch through its Bluetooth and Wi-Fi features.

Its most notable feature is Movescount application. You’re probably wondering what it is. Well, this app lets you take photos with your current speed and distance. Tracking your fitness activities is so easy with this app. And if you have enough photos already, you can create a movie or a short video. Then, you can share it with your online friends or any of your social media account, because why not?

Ambit3 Sport HR Monitor: For The Runners

If you can’t get enough of the best Suunto watches and their GPS feature, here’s another one. Sports HR is one of the Ambit3 collection, and it’s built more for fitness and sports lovers.

Living up to the Ambit3 watches’ fame, the Suunto Sport HR has an excellent GPS navigation that’s perfectly suitable for people who are active in their outdoor adventures. Belonging to this feature is the speed and wrist heart rate, and it can also track distance.

Its battery life hours will depend on battery modes and how you use the GPS. With a minute accuracy, the battery life can expand up to 100 hours. Keeping track of your smartphone is also very easy because you can sync the sports watch with it.

If you plan to use the Suunto Sport HR for swimming, it got a handy feature that lets you track your heart rate with its Suunto Smart sensor. Paired with the Movescount application, your workouts and training have never been this great. This app helps you plan your workouts and have voice guidance during your exercises. It can even determine your sleep quality.

Ambit2 GPS Heart Rate Monitor: Practical Choice

Evidently, before Ambit3 came to life, there was Ambit2. While you may think that these watches have already outshined by its successor, the Ambit2 GPS still stands strong and is a highly-competent GPS watch.

This GPS watch makes a convenient companion when you want to go biking, hiking, or running. This is a perfect choice for athletes, too.

Adding to its features is its speed, wrist heart rate, and distance monitor. Ambit2 GPS also gives access to excellent tracking and features like sunrise and sunset times, storm alerts, tidal information, and barometric pressure.

When you want to transfer data, the Ambit2 has a cool feature that lets you do this using its included USB cable, or you can do it wirelessly with devices that support ANT or ANT+. Moreover, this sports watch comes in different colors like black, silver, and sapphire.

Original Traverse GPS

As its name gives out, Suunto Traverse GPS comes with GPS tracking and GLONASS technology. You can freely explore the outdoor and discover new areas and terrains and upload routes.

The best part is that you can track your pathways and altitude figures and track back your directions with the breadcrumb trail. The major drawback of this Suunto GPS watch is that it can go live for only around eight hours in GPS mode.

But, fret not as this Suunto timepiece's GPS is packed with other functionalities that will make up for this drawback.

This Suunto GPS watch is more than just its GPS tracking function as its Bluetooth connectivity and Suunto App lets you stay updated with your phone when you sync it. It also has features like storm alerts, weather trend, and sunrise and sunset times. All thanks to its built-in barometer!

Ambit3 Vertical HR Running: Great Uphill Partner

Another one from the Suunto Ambit3 collection is the Suunto Ambit3 Vertical HR Running watch. What would the top Suunto watch be without its GPS technology?

This feature just makes outdoor activities such a breeze, especially its breadcrumb trail feature. Its battery life can last as long as 100 hours with one-minute accuracy.

With its Suunto App and Bluetooth connectivity, you can view your calls and notifications.

The Suunto Movescount app just makes everything a lot better than they already are. With this app, you can create outdoor routes with its topographic maps and altitude data. In addition, you can track your climbing progress when hiking with its hill incline feature.

Spartan Ultra HR: Packed With 80 Sports Modes

Last to join the hunt for the best Suunto watch is the Spartan Ultra HR Sports watch. Its advanced technology and software are the reason why this GPS watch with digital touch display might be your next watch.

Its GPS and GLONASS technology won’t let you down with its very accurate navigation and digital compass that will guide you in your adventures every step of the way.

Its battery can last up to 15 long days in daytime mode. Its Bluetooth connectivity also connects to any compatible device.

The best thing about this is that it’s equipped with 80 sports modes. Suunto Spartan is known to assist you in almost every activity you can think of. I don’t know about you, but I want to test them all out!

Factors To Consider When Buying A Suunto Watch

It’s not enough to buy any Suunto timepiece, you need to make sure you get the most decent Suunto watch there is. To accomplish this successfully, it's time to look at these factors first.

GPS Functionality

A GPS feature on any watch makes it one step higher to its competitors. This technology allows you to enjoy features like speed, heart rate, distance, and cadence trackers. These functions will assist you in your outdoor activities like hiking. You’ll know if a GPS watch is top-notch if it’s paired with GLONASS technology. This makes everything more precise and faster with its satellite signaling.

Battery Life

But of course, what would a GPS watch be without a very good battery life? Especially watches with a GPS tracking technology at hand, battery life will be a concern. You want to have an adequate hours of battery life to stand with you through your training and adventures, otherwise, you’ll constantly have to charge it time and again which will only ruin your experience.

Bluetooth Connectivity

To add to the overall convenience of a Suunto timepiece, Bluetooth connectivity allows you to sync your GPS watch to your smartphone. This lets you see your notifications and incoming calls remotely. Who needs a smartwatch when you have Bluetooth connectivity?

Additional Features

Aside from the above mentioned features, there are a lot more features to Suunto watches especially if it's a high-end model. Examples of these are smart features like sunrise and sunset times, weather updater, and even pre-installed mode selections that can be essential to your workout and training activities.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Your commonly raised questions answered.

Which Suunto Watch is the Best?

The best Suunto Watch is the Suunto Traverse Alpha. It’s an all-inclusive outdoor watch that can pass through strict military standards. You'll want to take this with you in your outdoor adventure as it comes with all the features needed for hunting or fishing, hiking, or even just tracking your daily routines and activity levels.

Suunto Watches, in general, is famous for its highly reliable GPS, especially for this Suunto model. On top of that, it features an excellent long battery life (up to 2 weeks), great price, and it’s highly water resistant including the nylon strap.

Which Suunto Watch is Best for Triathlon?

The best Suunto watch for the triathlon is the Suunto Spartan Sport Ultra. Triathlon, which is known to have 3-part sports discipline demands more intensive physical training, and Suunto Spartan Sport proves to be a reliable companion for swimming, cycling and running because of its incredible features. It has 80 sport settings to choose from, comes with a reliable GPS, water resistant up to 330 feet, altimeter, barometer, and digital compass. With the help of Suunto app or Bluetooth connectivity, it can also sync with your Smartphone in case you want to know that stats of your training progress.

Which Suunto Watch has the Longest Battery Life?

The Suunto watch with the longest battery life is the Suunto Ambit3 Peak. It has 200 hours of battery life when you use the battery conservation mode. This means that if you use the 1-minute GPS accuracy setting, you’ll get the most out of Ambit3 Peak’s battery power. You can actually choose different battery modes for different time and situations.

Where are Suunto Watches Made?

Suunto Watches are handcrafted in Finland. Although a globally renowned brand for their high-end products, their headquarters never left the Finland borders.

Verdict

The best Suunto watch among other watches on this list is the Traverse Alpha. This excellent timepiece ticks all the right boxes with its exquisite quality, performance and built-in features. It has everything you’re looking for with its high-quality GPS functionality, weather detection features, great long battery life, and other convenient features. It definitely gives good value to your money.

Overall

Getting your hands on the perfect Suunto wristwatch that is right for you might give you uncalled dilemma, but it will definitely be worth it in the end. Suunto watches are known to give only the best products with outstanding performance, so whichever model of these Suunto watches you decide to purchase, it will surely be a good investment.