Suunto Core Watch - Outdoor Gear Review

I’m a watch lover. I appreciate stylish watches, functional watches, and classic timepieces. That said, no watch has spend more time on my wrist in recent years than my trusty Suunto Altimax. So when the Suunto Core arrived in our office a few weeks back, I was thrilled to get the chance to try out the latest and greatest.

The Core packages all the features expected of a good wrist computer and tool, in a stylish new shell. Features include an altimeter with a logbook, a barometer with a storm alarm and weather trend indicator, a digital compass with a rotating bezel/dial, time and date, timer, and even a depth meter. Our Core model was the Alu Brown, which features a brushed case, a brown strap, and loaded with all the features described above.

Field tests indicated highly accurate altitude readings, and resulting logbook entries. The storm watch feature was one I had no previous experience with. After using the watch for a few days, I found this to be especially valuable on a mountain bike ride where I was so focused I failed to keep an eye on the ski above, and was alerted to a storm blowing in, giving me the time I needed to get just mildly soaked and chilled.

The Core is impressively lightweight. All feature packed watches require a review of the user manual to access the more advanced features. This was true for the Core, but after a few minutes of reading I felt capable of accessing all of the features of the watch, so it passed my usability test with ease.

I did note some difficulty viewing the display from various angles, and under low light conditions. This was reported by some of our other testers as well. My understanding is that this issue primarily effects the Alu Brown model with the light brown display.