speculations and rumours about upcoming Suunto watches

[TonyG]

@altcmd said in speculations and rumours about upcoming Suunto watches:

@André-Faria My experience with Garmins have been that their watches are very susceptible to scratches. I had the 945 and 955 and they scratched pretty easily. For a watch that costs over €500, this is quite unacceptable, I feel. I like to focus on the doing part, but more importantly, I want things to last. In today’s world, we cannot take a use-and-throw mentality to things, nor can be afford to keep replacing our tools annually (looking at you, Apple!). F7 had a weird display that would make it look cloudy. So yes, if Suunto offers better durability, materials and above all, made in Finland (factory 10k from where I live), then I would choose this any day. I know feature-wise Suunto is ages behind Garmin, but Garmin is effectively ticking boxes for features that to me are half-baked. Your mileage may vary and you may very well have had a very good experience with Garmin devices, but not for me and hence, Suunto is an easy choice. Glad to see the app has now evolved, so we are getting there.

There is no doubt in my mind that Suunto makes beautiful looking watches with the ruggedness I need for work and play, and this new one is no different in that respect, but to tempt me back into the Suunto eco system (previously used Suuntos for at least 30 years when you include their dive products) Swimming would need massive improvements in terms of watch and app functionality for e.g. Accurate Stroke recognition (still swim competitively so I know its not my stroke techniques), workout creation equal to how Garmin has implemented and the ability to record drills.
I had great GPS tracks on S9P so that has never been an issue anyway or indeed the breadcrumb trails for route following.

[mikekoski490]

Im not sure about the solar powered version. I have gone down this road before with Garmin Fenix, and perhaps just because of where I live in the Pacific Northwest, there isn’t a ton of sunshine 12 months of the year, and even in summer it’s still hit and miss and lots of clouds. With Garmin the solar made no difference other than the odd time to sit in my backyard with the watch on a lawn chair and being amazed at the solar graph. Add to that my main sport of trail running in dense trees of the north shore mountains here and solar is a bit of a wash. For multi-day backpacking even, the swing of your wrist while walking negates solar too. Just my 2 cents but unless they come up with a more Casio G Shock like solar charge (keeps the watch topped up even in clouds or ambient indoor lighting), I wont spend the extra for solar on a GPS watch but will be interested in the reviews. Hope the titanium model isnt limited to just solar, but also not sure I would buy the Vertical and double the weight of my current S9PP ti (46 grams), as pretty happy with it. Sure would like some updated watch faces and weather prediction.

[TonyG]

@mikekoski490 said in speculations and rumours about upcoming Suunto watches:

Im not sure about the solar powered version

according to the Leak posted earlier it suggested 12 months in watch mode which I assume is down to the Solar Addition, akin to the Garmin Instinct series so fingers crossed on that front. Be interesting in what the testers say about it.

[ChrisA]

@mikekoski490 as far as I understand the leaks, there is no ‚nonsolar‘ version.

[Ketoohs]

@ChrisA As I undestand, the stainless steel in nonsolar. If it is solar, that would be great.

[mikekoski490]

@TonyG Yes. Interested in the 12 month claim too. Likely some caveats like ‘12 months in watch mode - provided the watch receives 700,000 lux hours each day’. I know the Garmin 7 solar caveats were like that. A poster on reddit explained the following on the *Garmin 7:

*If you use Garmin’s numbers, 150k lux hrs should yield 0.87% battery offset, meaning you’d need 173 lux hrs to increase the battery by 1% if the watch isn’t using any power. On paper, you’d need 254k lux hrs over 5 hours (at ~50k lux) to gain 1% in battery saver mode, and 352k lux hrs over 7 hours (at ~50k lux) in smartwatch mode. Actually seeing that gain is probably not going to happen even if you do get that much sun.

In smartwatch mode you’d use 3.57% per day. If you wanted to run the watch indefinitely (not gaining or losing battery from day to day), you’d need 617k lux hrs per day.

If you set the watch to have sleep mode/battery saver for 8 hours per day (with heart rate monitoring on), you’d only use 3.14% per day, so you’d need 542k lux hrs per day for unlimited battery.*

Indoor lighting is around 1000 lux. Sunny clear days are 50,000 to 100,000 lux.

I dont think it could match the Garmin Instinct, as that uses a monochrome screen which is low power?

[Freezer]

@mikekoski490 following Suunto’s “function not gimmick” mantra I’d say the solar “function” will serve a real function. Not expecting it to power the watch indefinitely but with sufficient effect to make a difference.

PS - big bezel is definitely a bonus in this respect

[mikekoski490]

@Freezer I hope so! DC Rainmaker’s and DesFit’s reviews on Garmin solar models have been pretty good, so they should have lots of comparisons to match the Suunto Vertical up against.

[surfboomerang]

@Freezer according to the leaks it does make a huge difference in watch mode: 60days vs 1 year.
In GPS performance mode much less difference: 60hrs vs 85hrs

Btw, giving the fact that the watch with solar lives up to one year indicates that the solar isn’t enough to charge the watch.

I hope I’m wrong in this

[A Former User]

@surfboomerang the fact that solar does increase battery life is the proof that the watch does get charged… maybe not as much as hoped, but still.

Good reason to stay longer outdoors

[freeheeler]

@twekkel
… offtopic… I’d like to live “outdoors” at some point. somewhere in the caravan, at the sea, in the mountains, working part time remote and soaking up nature in every free minute that’s the biggest point on my bucket list

[Ivan Vasilev]

As much as I like Suunto, I’m still skeptical of the solar function. The technology is not new - it’s been used in the Casios and Citizens of the world for decades. My humble impressions are that the effect is negligible unless you expose the watch purposefully under the sun for long periods of time. I get the marketing value - theoretically, your watch can work indefinitely without charging, but I think it won’t be helpful in practice.

[ChrisA]

@Ketoohs ah… thanks, I hadn’t realized that yet. But I actually haven’t looked too deep into all those leaked features. We will all see in less then 48 hours

[Highlands]

@Ivan-Vasilev I second that. I own a Fenix with solar and all I can say about it is that for me solar has been a sheer gimmick. But I wanted the multiband version of the watch with sapphire (not sorry I bought it) which goes bundled with the solar. So because of the multiband I had to cave in for the solar. And while the solar is a gimmick, the display with worse visibility which came with the solar is for real. I really hope Suunto has done solar better than Garmin did it.

[A Former User]

@Ivan-Vasilev during road cycling in summer month, solar would make a difference for me, but agreed we are long way from never having to charge anymore. (I do have a running analog watch that I haven’t charged for the last 10 years, DCF77 synchronized, hardly smart)

[SuperFlo75]

@Ivan-Vasilev I use a Citizen Chronograph for nearly 15 years, and it shows ‚full charged‘ all the time. I like this watch, and it is not in the sun for many month in german winter. I cannot compare the energy needed, but I think the energy used by the Citizen cannot be compared with a sports watch…

[MiniForklift]

@surfboomerang said in speculations and rumours about upcoming Suunto watches:

@Freezer according to the leaks it does make a huge difference in watch mode: 60days vs 1 year.
In GPS performance mode much less difference: 60hrs vs 85hrs

Just by how things were written I interpreted this difference to be down to whether you are using single or dual band GPS?..

• Up to 60 hours in the most accurate dual-band GNSS tracking mode
• 85 hours of workout tracking with accurate GPS setting

I can’t see how solar would be able to provide an additional 15 hours, I think that’s way too optimistic

[Ivan Vasilev]

@SuperFlo75 IMHO solar works for your Citizen watch, because of its minimal energy consumption. The latest solar watches from Casio are advertised to work for many months (at least 8, but maybe an year) without solar charging. At the same time, their battery is much smaller, compared to Suunto. I admit I don’t have exact figures, but I’m convinced that Suunto with bluetooth and especially GPS is incomparable to regular chronograph watch in terms of energy consumption. Also, keep in mind that the regular chronograph watch face provides you with much more space for solar cells. With Suunto you’re limited by the display - that is, you can only use the bezel for that purpose.

[Frederick Rochette]

From what I could see, on the Titanium solar, the circular band around the screen (not the bezel) is a bit grey whereas it is black on the Black. It looks strange and seems to penalize the aesthetics of the watch. Let’s see what it looks like in reality. An intermediate titanium version without the solar would be interesting.
Let’s wait to see the quality of this screen, especially in terms of readability.

[isazi]

We will all know in 24 hours. I understand the many reasons to being skeptic of solar, I was also very skeptic until not too long ago.