Suunto Core Multifunction Watch - Black/Yellow

Comments about Suunto Core Multifunction Watch - Black/Yellow:

I loved this watch for about a month. ( I actually had the light green model). I loved that the watch had underwater buttons, plus all the great functions.... That was until 1 day I went for a bike ride and it fell off my wrist because the wrist strap broke. In my opinion an outdoor watch should be durable to such activities. This is why I give it a 3 and not 5. (I also wish that it had split times and laps )

Comments about Suunto Core Multifunction Watch - Black/Yellow:

I really had high hopes for this watch. Especially because I've relied on a Suunto dive computer for years. I wanted a new watch for flight training. The real feature that I was interested was the dual-time capability since tracking Zulu time is pretty much a requirement when flying.All the other features were gravy.I bought a Garmin Fortrex 101 about three years ago and I quickly realized that the Garmin ran circles around the Suunto. And at almost half the price!Now to be fair, the Fortrex is a bit bulkier than your standard wristwatch, but it can be worn on the wrist quite comfortably.Navigation: No contest, the Fortrex wins hands down. No declination asjustments. No setting reference points. The Fortrex is a full-blown WAAS GPS. Accurate to 25'. Just power it on, give it 30-60 seconds to lock into the satellite matrix and you're off. While you're sitting there with your Core trying to find out which way is North the, Fortrex already has the next waypoint pointed out with current ETA and distance. This isn't a fair comparison, since the Fortrex is a GPS and the Core just offers an electronic compass.Weather: You would think that the Core would excel here since the one thing that the Fortrex can't do is weather. I tried by best to set up the Core to track barometric pressure changes, but found that it didn't do this very well. Every morning I would check the pressure reading against the METAR report at my local airport and found that the Core's readings were rarely in line with the report. Plus the stupid "Storm Alarm" feature is useless. The alarm would go off even when the forecast showed nothing but sunshine for the next five days.Elevation: Again, here the Fortrex wins hands-down. Forget about switching profiles and entering elevation references, etc. (which the Core requires), the Fortrex calculates your exact elevation at any given moment. Again it's a real GPS.Time: Why spend[$] for the dual-time feature? I can get that in a $80 watch. Speaking of time, my Fortrex is also a watch and what could be more accurate that satellite time? It even provides Sunset/Sunrise times, based on my current location. With the Core you need to enter your location every time you move to a different time zone.The constuction of the Core is good, and I didn't have any major issues with quality, but for [$] I realized that I already had a tool that does a much better job.

Comments about Suunto Core Multifunction Watch - Black/Yellow:

I bought this watch for the functions (altimeter, Barometer, and thermometer). I have taken the watch back to REI 4 xs due to 1.The display was very light 2. The yellow bezel snapped off, REI did not have any core yellow in stock, so they shipped me one from the warehouse in SEA.3. The SEA warehouse shipped SUUNTO core that I received had display issues – “Dot Matrix”
And finally #4 reason for taking this back REI was the light function stopped working, I couldn’t use the menu features to set some of the functions – the lower right button was in-operable. So yes, I took the time piece back to REI! No, I did not exchange it for another one. I have learned my lesson on the 4th one.

Comments about Suunto Core Multifunction Watch - Black/Yellow:

I'm sorry to say this to such a beautiful watch but I am disappointed with the Suunto Core. I only had the watch for one week and returned it after the following:1- The compass continued to get stuck in one direction. This was not due to being around a magnetic force or other things that normally set off digital compasses. The fix on this is to take out the battery to reset the watch. This is unacceptable for a watch that cost[$]The barometer's storm alarm is too sensitive. It continued to go off in clear sky conditions. You can turn this function off, but when it would be nice to have in a backpacking situation it would not be reliable. 3- The temperature is either 10 or 20 degrees off. It would be fine if it was always 20 degrees off (although annoying) for consistency, but this is not the case. Suunto has a solution that requires you to take the watch off for 15 minutes before it provides an accurate reading but who wants to do that while trekking!The good things about the watch is it looks really cool and it tells time!

Comments about Suunto Core Multifunction Watch - Black/Yellow:

This is a great watch. I had the X-Lander and that was what I thought to be the perfect watch. This one has improved on it. The body is slim. The dot matrix screen is easy to read. I found the compass and barometer, altimeter to be really accurate.

It has a comfortable fit. The only thing that I wish it had like my old x-lander was the rate of rise/decent.

OTherwise, this is a great watch. Not sure how they can justify the price difference witht he black/orange though...

Comments about Suunto Core Multifunction Watch - Black/Yellow:

Pros: Comfortable, thin,
Cons: Battery died within four-months, bezel is a shinny gold / yellow, picture does not do it justice. Check out more pictures, so that you can truly understand the color bezel you're getting. I removed mine and painted it.

Comments about Suunto Core Multifunction Watch - Black/Yellow:

This is probably one of the most elegant multi-function watch design implementations I’ve ever seen – I don’t need to carry the manuel! For starters, it has (almost) all the features I use in a multi-function watch – compass, barometer, altimeter, world time (but only ONE time zone…), stopwatch, and countdown timer. It also has elevation and ascent/descent logs that others may use often, but, although I do ski & hike, I would use very infrequently. It has a couple of questionable features, like a sunset/sunrise feature that many people rave about, but I figure, look at the sky – if it’s getting lighter, it’s sunrise. If it’s getting darker, it’s sunset. There’s also a “storm warning” feature that, again, many people rave about, but if you look at the sky and see big black clouds…
Okay, I bought the black/yellow model because I think it looks really cool – a bit hard to read at times, but the most time I spend with the watch is in social settings & not in the backwoods, so it’s okay with me.
As background, I’ve owned most of Casio’s compass watches and a number of Suunto’s earlier “wristtop computers”.
The good news:
+ Tracks the atomic clock within approx. 10 seconds/month!
+ Compass accuracy within 1 degree (compared with Casio’s 10 degrees!) AND, the compass calibration is really cool – just rotate the watch 360 degrees once or twice while in the compass mode (no special calibration mode needed) and it’s calibrated!
+ The most intuitive setting setup system I’ve come across. Press the mode button and hold it and you’ve got a menu of modes to change. In each, the segments light up prompting you for + or – button pushes. It’s consistent from mode to mode; not like others where you enter a mode and then “which button do I push and for how long?”, to set the time, timer, declination, etc. This is really a BIG step forward.
+ Automatic or manual Baro/Alti setting!! This is fabulous and works really well. You can set the Alti-Baro mode to "Alti" if you're climbing and only the altitude changes or you can set it to "Baro" if you're in one place and only the barometric pressure changes. OR, you can set it to "Auto" and it then interprets rapid/large changes in pressure to be altitude changes and slow/small changes to be weather changes. It then switches modes to lock one or the other accordingly - really neat feature.
+ Strap keeper retainer – the wrist strap keeper has an internal protrusion that fits the cutouts in the band and keeps the band end from coming loose and “getting in the way” – perhaps a nit, but fantastic in reality!
+ Depth meter – It’s only good for snorkeling, but that’s okay; if I need a real dive watch, I’ll buy one.
Now for the things I wish it had:
-Atomic timekeeping
-Solar battery charging
-Multi-zone world time (and an easy way to change as you travel to different time zones)
All in all, I HIGHLY recommend the CORE series watches!

Comments about Suunto Core Multifunction Watch - Black/Yellow:

I wanted a watch that looked hot but still had functionality. I own a Suunto Observer, Suunto Advisor (both of which will now be sold) and Casio's latest solar powered & atomic clock driven model with compass, altimeter, barometer, world time and Titanium band/case.

This watch is far and away superior. The addition of the fifth "mode" button plus the on-screen designation of which button is available in any given situation, are really VERY welcome additions - makes all the menu & functions intuitive - I don't need to carry the little pocket guides anymore!

And compared to the "competition" (Casio): 1 degree compass accuracy vs. 10 degrees for Casio! And it shows in actuall use tests.

I actually use the stopwatch and countdown timer, so those are big pluses. I don't use the logbook except as a skiing novelty. I wish the dual time was more functional like the Casio with world time, but it will do.

The reverse LCD with black background and white letters is a little harder to read than the more conventional white background with white letters, but it looks 10 times better in my opinion, so i'm willing to turn my wrist a bit to get the best light...

I've only had it a week, so can't comment yet on battery life.

Comments about Suunto Core Multifunction Watch - Black/Yellow:

Out of the box, the first thing that struck me about this watch was how much different it looked than the picture. The bezel is metal, and has an almost gold color to it. Usually, this is not my style, but it's grown on me. People really do notice this watch when you wear it. I like the negative face, but that's just personal preference. I've read other reviews where people find it hard to read, and I have to wonder why they didn't buy the one with the normal face if the don't like that aspect of the watch. On a side note ALL of the models labeled CORE do exactly the same things, exactly as well. The only differences are case material, band material, and display theme. So if you absolutely must have a heavy metal watch, please feel free to shell out as extra $350.I owned a Suunto Vector, and this watch is far and away 10 times better than the Vector. All the functions are very intuitive and obvious, making the watch easy to use. All the menus use full text, thanks to a Dot-Matrix display. No confusing abbreviations, or quick reference guides needed to operate this watch. The face is mineral glass, as opposed to the plastic one that became scratched on my Vector. There are a lot of options on this watch that were obviously driven by comments from people who actually used it. The alarm is far and away my favorite feature. It ACTUALLY wakes me up, and has a “snooze” button too! The ability to program the backlight to light when you touch any button, as opposed to just the light button is handy, as is the ability to lock the buttons to avoid accidental activation of features is nice too. This "button lock" still allows for the use of the backlight, and the ability to change views. The barometer works well; I have not had it at any considerable altitude, so I cannot attest to the accuracy of the altimeter function. I haven’t activated the storm alarm, and don’t think I would rely on it to know the weather was coming in. A little knowledge about cloud formation goes a long way... The thermometer works, but only off of your wrist, (Common sense here). It’s kind of a silly thing to have on a watch anyway. I found the temp range to be a little disappointing. -5F-140F. The lower limit is my gripe, but that’s because I’m a snow, and altitude junky. The compass seems accurate enough for a general bearing, and has the ability to set declination. I like the double time zones, because I travel so much. It also has a timer, and a stopwatch, but with no lap or split function. The sunrise/sunset is nice, and seems fairly accurate. I reference this in the afternoon when I’m on a long drive, hiking, or climbing. It allows for smart planning about where I’m going to stop for the night. All in all, it’s my favorite ABC, and I’m glad I chose it over one of the new Casio’s.

Comments about Suunto Core Multifunction Watch - Black/Yellow:

I was disappointed the first time I bought this watch and gave appropriate comments in an earlier review. I just couldn't get away from this watch though because I wanted the functionality and great looks. So I decided to give it another shot and I've been very pleased. This watch doesn't seem to act up like the previous one. Here are the things I love about it:

1- Temperature (consistently reads 10 degrees higher)
2- Tracks Barometer accurately
3- Sunrise/Sunset is pretty close to accurate and enough to give you a good timeframe for setting up camp.
4- The stop watch runs for hours instead of just stopping at 60 minutes
5- The alarm has a unique sound that actually wakes me up
6- The watch is very light
7- It has a huge face and the color combination sticks out in a great way that people seem to make comments all the time
8- The compass has come in handy for general reference

Definitely get this one over the more expensive Core because there is no difference in functionality.