Suunto celebrates its 10th anniversary with new Core watches

Posted by Al Warmington on Fri 8 Aug 2008

They may even tell the time!

Suunto, manufacturer of sporting, diving and generally outdoorsy timepieces, has launched a new model to celebrate its tenth anniversary. The Suunto Core watch keeps tabs on the weather with an in-built barometer, which includes a storm alarm and weather trend indicator.

Once your watch has identified the approaching icy blizzard, it will even help you flee in terror with its inbuilt compass and the altimeter will inform you should you blindly stagger into a hidden precipice.

The altimeter uses air pressure to determine altitude, while the barometer uses the same data to measure barometric pressure. Unfortunately that means you can't actually measure both at the same time - otherwise you may be led into thinking you're rapidly ascending to the heavens , where as it is in fact about to piss it down and you should be getting the tent up quick sharp.

To prevent this kind of embarrassing mistake, the Suunto Core features an automatic Alti/Baro mode that senses movement or lack thereof, and automatically switches between altimeter and barometer accordingly.

The digital compass has two modes. One is a simple rotating bezel, the other lets you point the watch at the distant peak you're aiming for and will guide you right to it.

Other features include a depth meter, sunrise and sunset times, and a menu that can be set to English, French, German or Spanish.

The new Suunto Core range will be debuting in September. The website has a wide range of colours on show, but it looks like only the Alu Brown and Black Yellow versions are going to make it over here. Prices have not been announced, but expect around the £150 - £200 region.

Suunto (via Peepculture)