Of Suunto, Garmin and Apple

Reading Time: 3 minutes

For years I wore no watch, and then I took up scuba diving, and then I wanted to wear a watch when climbing, and then it escalated from there. Now I have Garmin, Suunto Apple, Casio, Xiaomi and other watches. It’s easy to justify wearing the Apple watch because it’s a smart watch so it has a niche. It’s harder to justify the Garmin, Suunto, Xiaomi and Casio watches because they overlap each other.

I have written about this topic but I will write about it again, because people are amused, and confused, by why someone would wear two or three watches. I am frustrated that I feel the need to wear two or three watches. I’d like to be happy wearing just one.

Garmin

Recently with Garmin Connect+ I noticed that between the time when I finish a long hike and the moment the hike is available on Garmin Connect can be quite long. It takes several hours now. I think that by adding AI Garmin have increased server load, thus slowing down the ingestion process.

Despite the slowness the Garmin Instinct 2, as a device is great. It has great battery life. It’s accurate, tracks HRV and gives me info about whether I am pushing too hard and more, for about 150 CHF. Contrast this to the Epix for 600 CHF or more.

Suunto

By now I have been wearing Suunto watches for decades, from the Suunto D9 for scuba diving to the Suunto Vector for climbing, to the Suunto Ambit 2, 3, Spartan Wrist HR baro and finally Suunto Peak 5. I also liked Sportstracker since the Nokia N95 8GB to when it was bought by Suunto and integrated into Movescount before being rebranded as the Suunto App.

Compared to other Suunto I have owned the Peak 5 is mediocre. Battery life is a few days, rather than a few weeks. Accuracy can vary and it’s a little slow to detect satellites. Having said this I like the metrics that it gives, and I like that it creates a weekly or monthly map of the activities I have done.

Within a few seconds activities are synced and visible in the mobile app, with information about progress and more.

Apple Watch SE

The Apple Watch SE is the cheapest Apple watch. As a result battery life is short. If I do a six or seven hour hike it will almost always die near the end of a hike. This means that I will get most, but not all of the hike.

The SE is great for short walks, and bike rides. It also provides quite a bit of data despite the low, by Apple standards, price point.

Prices

The Garmin Instinct 2 was 147 CHF and the Suunto 5 Peak was 151 CHF. Meanwhile the Apple Watch SE was 299 CHF.

The Absurdity

It’s absurd that Garmin has its own little world, with fitness tracking, health checkups, awards and more. It’s absurd that Apple has the same gamification. Both want us to be stuck in their little worlds. I find it tremendously frustrating that we have to choose between either or, and that they do not play nicely together.

Suunto and Sportstracker

That’s where Suunto and Apple, via Sportstracker, play nicely. The Suunto App, and the Sportstracker app are the same app, except that Suunto takes data from Suunto devices, and the Sportracker app, on iOS takes data from Apple Watch devices.

And Finally

Recently, as I go on four to seven hour hikes I find that the Apple watch battery keeps dying while I’m walking. It is for this reason that I have played with the idea of replacing the Apple watch with the Suunto watch. Having said this, despite better battery life, the Apple Watch gives far more data than the peak five. It measures form, recovery, estimates watts when running and cycling and more. It also has an entire app ecosystem.

If you’re hesitating between the Peak 5 and the Garmin Instinct 2 go for the Garmin Instinct 2. If you’re tempted by the Apple Watch SE then keep in mind that this is a smart watch first, and an adventure watch second. If you walk for an hour to catch a train, and go for a five hour hike then the battery will probably die. It does last better, if you just wear it as a step counter that happens to measure heart rate.

In summary, if the Apple watch battery lasted better I wouldn’t wear two, or even three watches, every so often.