Garmin should pay attention to Suunto's new titanium sports watch that delivers 40% longer GPS battery life and a clever coaching upgrade

Suunto has unveiled its latest performance running watch, the Race 3S, bringing some substantial hardware improvements and an entirely new coaching experience to its popular Race series.

Despite its relatively compact 46mm case, the new watch promises up to 45 hours of battery life with dual-band GPS enabled, representing a whopping 40% improvement over the previous Race S.

Not bad for a watch that weighs just 56g with its silicone strap (or 38g without).

The lightweight construction includes a titanium bezel and sapphire crystal lens, giving the watch some welcome durability credentials without adding unnecessary bulk.

More power, better tracking

The Race 3S features a new 1.32-inch LTPS Hybrid AMOLED display with a resolution of 466 x 466 pixels and a maximum brightness of 2,000 nits, which is more than three times as bright as the display on the Race S.

The watch is powered by the new Apollo 510 processor and has an upgraded optical heart rate sensor with six LEDs and four photodetectors, positioned behind curved sensor glass.

Suunto claims the updated hardware improves tracking accuracy during activities, including in challenging conditions involving sweat, cold temperatures and arm movement.

The Race 3S offers free worldwide offline maps, now featuring contour lines and place names, alongside improved satellite positioning in challenging environments such as forests and canyons.

Runners also get Climb Guidance, which provides real-time information about upcoming ascents and descents, helping them manage their effort over demanding routes.

A forthcoming Race Planner feature will take things further by generating personalised pacing strategies based on the route, weather conditions and individual race goals.

However, this functionality won't be available immediately and is expected to arrive through a future software update.

Suunto gets an AI coach

Launching alongside the Race 3S is Suunto AI Coach, a conversational coaching assistant integrated into the Suunto smartphone app.

The new assistant is said to let users ask questions about their performance and receive personalised recommendations based on their data.

It can explain training trends, generate charts and visualisations, and even create structured workouts, training plans and running routes.

These can subsequently be saved in the Suunto app, with compatible workouts and routes synced directly to the watch.

It's an interesting development for Suunto, particularly as sports watch manufacturers increasingly focus on helping users understand their training data rather than simply collecting more of it.

Race 3S buyers who activate their watches before 31 December 2026 will receive three months of Suunto AI Coach access free of charge.

Elsewhere, the watch offers more than 100 sports modes, 64GB of onboard storage and up to 12 days of battery life in daily use.

Offline music playback is also planned, though it will arrive later in a post-launch software update.

The Suunto Race 3S launches in Europe today, 15 October 2026, priced at £435 / €499, with North American availability following on 29 October for $599. Find out more at Suunto.