Suunto Ambit3 Peak

A terrific durable all purpose watch for whatever activity you happen to be into.

I used a AMBIT 3 PEAK SAPPHIRE HR for this review.

So I used a Ambit 3 Peak Saphhire HR for this review. The non-saphhire Peak model is a little tiny bit less durable, and fashionable but otherwise the same. The sport model is the same operating system but is less accurate for altitude. The run is just a timepiece with the run function pre-programed into the watch with no adjustments. 

Overall I love this watch. Flipping through settings is easy. The silicone strap is comfortable, and weight is on the heavier side, but very reasonable. Less then most deluxe watches on the market. I never notice it. 

In day-to-day use it looks good, does what a watch should: accurately tells time. You can add multiple display screens in of your choice (A timer, stopwatch, Compass, alti-baro,  Actvity) and has many or few as you like. I us the alti-baro and the activity function day-to-day. You get all your usual Suunto features like sunrise sunset, dual times, and more.

Accuracy is good and you don't have to calibrate it regularly the way you do with the Core and most altimeter watches as the FusedAlti (a system that averages between GPS and barometric pressure for the most accurate result) appears to work very well. I also lik eth eActivity function which tracks (vaguely unless you are using the HR belt for exercise) how many calories you've burned, and how long you need to recover. I find the weekly calorie average helps me compete with myself as well.

The battery life is excellent. If I don't use the exercise feature, it has lasted as long as a month. When it does die it still functions as timepiece (and a painful reminder that you should have charged it if you had wanted to log your ascent).

The sport features are awesome, intuitive, and fun to use. No matter what you do they have got apps, and settings for your sport. I have extensively used mine for running, mountaineering and hiking. I've also used it for kayaking, outdoor swimming, and cycling. Very solid all round. I love going back and seeing the data on my ascents. I find it really interesting. And you can choose all manner of features. 

Navigation is a little weird at first, but super useful. If you're following a track you can just go into settings and follow your same track back the way you came. Or you can see your lat/long and coordinate that with a map. 

The only complaints I have are more with the website that goes with the watch. I don't like that you can't customise some simple features. For example you only get three options for how often the watch logs GPS data. I also don't like that there aren't default sport mode settings. You have to create them all from scratch, which is fine, but also nice to benefit from Suuntos expansive breadth of experience as to what is most useful. 

Also the auto-move feature doesn't work too well. I tried it, but it always seemed to pause and not start again, or pause while I was moving. 

Overall I would highly recommend this for any activity that you want to record, and analyze. It's also just cool to have stats like height, and location for navigation and fun.