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- Wrist-top computer watch with altimeter, barometer, compass, and weather indicator
- Altimeter displays current elevation, shows ascent or descent, and records session
- Intelligent storm alarm senses drops in air pressure and notifies you of approaching storms
- Barometer helps you predict changing conditions; built-in weather trend indicator
- All black finish; accurately measures depth to 30 feet; weighs 2.26 ounces; 2-year warranty
Product Description
The Suunto Core Altimeter Watch keeps an eye on approaching storms with an innovative motion-sensing barometric altimeterand looks good doing it. The Core is Suunto’s latest companion for the outdoor athlete seeking thin alpine air, with a slimmer profile than you’d expect from a wristtop computer. Along with the Storm Alarm, which switches from pressure-sensitive altimeter to barometer depending on your body movement, the Core advises you directionally with a digit… More >>
Suunto Core Wrist-Top Computer Watch with Altimeter, Barometer, Compass, and Depth Measurement
March 9, 2010 at 4:08 am
Have had this watch a little over a week, and decided to write an review for it.
Just a brief comparison between two top-notch ABC watches: – the Core, and the Casio Pathfinder PAW-1500 Titanium, which I purchase a little over three weeks ago as well. I would say, the cosmetic design, the wealth of functions, the ABC accuracy, and the graphical display of the Core, is better than the Pathfinder. However, the built material, the readability, and the push button feel, is not as good as the Pathfinder.
The display is in reverse format, meaning the background is in black, and the alpha-numeric letters are in silver-white. Adjusting the contrast in the Suunto hidden menu does help, but of course, still not as clear as the normal black letter on white background. No fault of Suunto, but just the way the design is. The buttons are responsive and easy to press. To navigate through the menus, the “Mode” button and the “View” button have to be pushed in different combination to get what you want. It might seem confusing at first, but once you understand the logical layout, it’s fairly easy to remember. Give yourself a couple of days to get used to it.
Compliments: Extremely accurate ABC. I compare their readings with the actual ABC instruments. The accuracy is incredible and beats the Casio Pathfinder in the dust! The storm alarms reacts to the air pressure change accurately as well. The electronic compass is awesome. Once you set the course, the bearing indicator would display an arrow and directional words (left and right), to guide you to the correct course, which is a great feature. User installable batteries which is great to save a lot of money down the road.
Complaints: The directional rotation ring is difficult to turn. If you have finger nails, you’ll need to use them, if you bite your finger nails, good luck. The alarm is a bit soft and hard to hear sometimes. The same problem as the Pathfinder. I wish they can make it louder. The wrist strap looks and feels cheap. The illuminator is a bit dim too.
Tips: This watch has earned a lot of bad reps due to poor quality control in its manufacturer plant in China. It’s been tons of complaints and reported problem. After doing some research, it appears that Suunto has finally fixed the hardware and software bugs. When you order the watch, make sure the serial number stars from “918xxxxxx” onward. Mine is “924″ and so far so good. You should email the seller, to make sure they send you the updated version as noted above, then your new watch won’t spend most of its life going back and forth in the delivery trucks.
Follow up review (please read and rate):
It’s been nearly a month I have been wearing this watch, thought I should provide more feedback to help those who are interested in this watch.
I have worn this watch to a two-weeks trip to Eastern Europe. I used all ABC functions intensively, especially the altimeter log and compass functions. To begin with, all readings are extremely accurate as it has always been. The only inaccuracy is its barometer when worn on the wrist, which is understandable due to the body temperature influence. The watch functioned flawlessly during the extreme weather, ranging from 1 degree in Celcius (outdoor), all the way up to warmer than 40 degrees Celcius (I wore it to the hotspring pool for hours). I have also used the daily alarm twice a day, illumination for 3 times a night in average, and the battery is still kicking like a champ. Many reported the battery died out after a month or so even with light use, it appears that Suunto has fixed this major flaw. Yet, it’s been just a month of intensive use so I can’t say for sure. Even if I have to replace the battery every 6 months, I think it’s still worth is as the battery costs less than a couple of dollars to replace. So, my conclusion is: The Core has reclaimed its reputation in my book. I have no doubt that it will continue to perform well. Just make sure that you buy the one with the latest firmware (serial number after:92xxxxxx SW: 1.1.0 HW: 3A. Please rate and comment if you find this helpful
Rating: 4 / 5
March 9, 2010 at 4:26 am
The watch works great for me. I would advise not to read to much into the other reviewers who have said bad things about the watch. Heads up guys when the weather changes and you return to a ref point; say home after coming down from the mountain the watch may show a different alt. if the pressure and temps have changed a lot. , thats the way it works as pressure changes so to will your base alt setting. unless you have the GPS version
I suggest people read the book before talking and sounding silly. The Core is a great add on to my collection. I have the GPS version as well. This watch is a bit slimmer and not so G.I. joe looking. Good for on the trail or down town.
UPDATE: The watch has started acting up only after 8 months of daily light use. The mode buttons work some days and not others. The TL and BL
mode buttons all of a sudden stop working. I’m guessing the alignment with the pins you push and the contact pad inside the watch get miss matched. Really? For 200 + dollar watch and I cant get the simple stop watch to work. If I flick it with my finger it realigns back up and them I’m able to use the buttons. Just yesterday I got on the tread mill to start my Cross Fit work out and started to sprint; I hit the start button again and again and again, &*(^% guess Ill use the free clock on the wall. Suunto has to do better than this before I buy another watch from them. Can’t belive I’m looking at G-Shocks now!! Oh and the cover on my GPS watch has come off as well. Not looking good Suunto!! ONE STAR NOW
Rating: 5 / 5
March 9, 2010 at 4:31 am
I purchased a Suunto Core in March 2008 and it broke after 10 days of use. I receive a replacement which was defective out of the box, so I returned the second watch and received a THIRD replacement, but alas, it was also defective. All three watches suffered from the same defect — the knob that allows all adjustments to the watch would not work, so I could not use most of the functions or even change the time on the watch. Buyers beware!
Rating: 1 / 5
March 9, 2010 at 6:07 am
I was skeptical about getting the Suunto Core (Light Green) since there were some initial bad reviews noting poor battery life, broken buttons, bad lcd, etc. I’m happy to say that the watch I ordered has easily exceeded my expectations. My previous Suunto watch was the Vector, which served me well for 5 years. After water got into the watch I had to move on to the Casio Pathfinder. While the Pathfinder was a decent ABC watch, it simply never felt like a Suunto. The Core is an improvement over the Vector in almost every way. The size of the watch face is nearly identical, but the body is significantly thinner and lightweight. The black numbers on the white lcd background is the way to go. Be careful with Suunto’s with the negative face as these can be notoriously hard to see especially in bright sunlight. The information presented on the face is easy to read with excellent contrast. Set up takes some time and reading the manual is a necessity. But once you get the hang of it, the buttons make a lot of sense. One thing I do miss is having the altimeter and barometer as separate functions. Here they’re lumped together and you need to access the menu to choose. There’s an auto-choose function, but I’ve found it to be hit or miss. I’m loving the sunrise/sunset function that gives you the exact times based on where you live. The storm warning alarm is also a Godsend, something I rely on when I’m out on my kayak far from camp. The compass has an awesome function that allows you to set a bearing. When you veer off this bearing an arrow points to where you need to turn. Very nice when the sun starts to set and you lose visibility of your terrain and have no landmarks to rely on. The backlight could be brighter, but it never posed a major problem for me. The strap is very comfortable and secure, worlds better than the lug-style band that comes with other Cores.
Beware the premium price you would pay for other Core models. Besides cosmetic differences with the bezel, band and color, they are all functionally the same watch. While many people believe since the Light Green is the cheapest it must be the base model. Truth is there is no difference aside from appearance between the Cores. If you like the orange color and want to spend $150+ more, go right ahead. But that extra cash could be used to buy a hiking pack, trail shoes, sunglasses, etc. Spend your money wisely.
One last thing … Something that Suunto doesn’t state in the manual is that you can change the contrast of your Core’s lcd display. Here are the instructions I found on the Suunto online forums:
*NOTE* In order to change the contrast on your Core you will need to put it in sleep mode and this will erase all logs! 1. Press and hold the upper left, lower left, upper right and lower right buttons until ‘SUUNTO’ appears on the display. 2. When the display is blank press the upper left button once – ‘SUUNTO’ will appear on the screen 3. While ‘SUUNTO’ is still displayed press and hold the upper left button 4. Highlight the ‘contrast’ option then press the middle right button. 5. Change the contrast using the upper right and lower right buttons 6. Press the lower left then upper left buttons to exit.
Rating: 5 / 5
March 9, 2010 at 6:13 am
As a collector of watches, several of which have been Suunto models, I was drawn to the style of the Core model watches, and the yellow in particular. I like big, bulky watches–but even so, I don’t like them to be heavy, and I am grateful to note that while this is a bigger-than-average watch (not as big as the Suunto X-Lander, however) it is comfortable and not TOO large and its actually quite comfortable on my wrist.
One draw for the Core series for me was the fact that it actually had a depth meter–albeit a rather weak version of one. Previous Suunto watches I’ve owned while CLAIMING they were water resistant to 30meters, were actually in danger while just walking into a steam room with excessive humidity. Otherwise, they all worked flawlessly. I used to be a sport diver, but the last couple of decades have proven to take that particular hobby and put it on the back burner. I have other watches that can take much more depth than I can handle, so this isn’t much of a major deal for me…but it IS a nice addition.
After the initial set-up, my Core has worked great (as I expected it to) and I have been profoundly impressed with it ever since. I DID have a bit of a problem calibrating the compass. On my previous models (Observer, X-Lander, X6HR, Vector) setting the compass was rather simple and easy. The directions made it clear which buttons to press to get to the calibration mode and what button to press once you were ready to start the whole action. With the Core, the directions got you to the calibration mode, but failed to let you know which button to press once you got there to actually begin the calibration. I managed to pull it off, but to be totally honest, I am not certain exactly how I did it. I pushed so many combination of buttons that one of them actually (finally) worked–but I am at a loss for which one did the trick. If I find out, I’ll add it to end of my review later with an update.
I REALLY like the sunrise/sunset mode which is new to me (none of my previous models have that option). I also like the storm warning alarm option, which is again, really cool. If I could add one thing to this particular model–and that shouldn’t be too difficult with the large screen it comes with, I would add an actual visual of clouds, rain, partly sunny or clear. My Highgear Axis has that, and is correct at least 75% of the time (WAY more accurate than my local TV Weatherman). Aside from that, its a minor gripe at best.
One of the primary reasons I have any Suunto is for the accurate altimeter. I have owned 4 different watches that have this feature, and NONE of them are the equal to ANY of my Suunto watches when it came to accuracy. When hiking any place that allows me any degree of altitude difference, I can ALWAYS count on ANY of my Suunto’s to bring me correct data at the end of my trek. Invaluable for the true outdoor hiking enthusiast. If accuracy is not that important to you, try a cheaper Nike altimeter-watch that, despite their so-called Zero Drift technology, has almost always been wrong in my experience. When accuracy counts, I stick with Suunto, pure and simple.
Some people complain that the built-in temperature gauge is messed up or only accurate AFTER 20minutes OFF your wrist…well, show me a watch that ISN’T affected by body temperature and I’ll buy it because as far as I am aware, they ALL have to be removed from your wrist to take correct temp readings. Get used to it.
Again, this watch isn’t for everybody. If you aren’t an outdoors-type of person, there really isn’t a need to drop the extra $$, which is honestly rather comparable if you wish to purchase something that works as good. Some complain that the cost is way too high, but again, if you factor in all that the Core can do–which is admittedly a LOT, the cost is understandable.
For those who have had bad models that have broke on you rather quickly, please do NOT give up on Suunto. The vast majority of Suunto consumers have great experiences (as the reviews here on amazon attest), so keep at it and Suunto will win you over eventually I am confident.
Good luck hiking and thanks for reading!
Rating: 5 / 5