Gear Review: Suunto Ambit3 Sport Watch

So sad.

For my Birthmas present, Chris gifted me with a shiny new GPS watch, the Suunto Ambit3 Sport in white.  Suuny, as I’ve taken to calling her, replaced my older GPS watch, the Garmin Forerunner 305, which I’d been using for 3-4 years or so.  My Garmin’s been a trusted, well-loved companion, but it was getting to the end of its life; it stopped audibly beeping about six months ago (without me turning this feature off), and in a few recent startups, the screen would switch from English to something that looked like hieroglyphics.  Since I don’t read ancient Egyptian, this was a problem.

“Your Garmin is broken.  Here, bury it in this jar.”

I’m confident the untimely demise of my Garmin was hastened by my uncanny ability to destroy almost any piece of running gear.  In the 10 years since I’ve been a runner, I’ve now had three GPS watches,* dozens of pairs of shoes, and at least 3-4 sets of running sunglasses; I had to replace my most recent pair of glasses when I realized my sweat was eating off the grippy ear pads.  Apparently, I have the characteristics of a Marvel Comics super villain when I run.  Outstanding.**

Except smellier.

Anyway, I’ve had the Suunto for a few months now and completed a random scattering of runs with it, including the recent PF Chang’s Marathon (for my race report on that, click here).  Overall, I’m happy with the watch, but it took some getting used to, as it’s really different from my older Garmin unit. 

Suuny.  Well, another Suunto that looks just like her.

One of the biggest annoyances I continue to see with the unit is the weirdo distance and option intervals that occur when you convert metric distances into imperial American units.  Since Suunto is a Finnish company,*** the unit comes with factory settings in metric units.  While they convert pretty closely to imperial, it’s not exact, so you get weird little gaps.  For example, when I went to enter my weight in the watch (I normally set it for 135, as I’m generally around there somewhere), I had an opportunity to choose between 134.8 and 135.2 pounds – no 135 exactly.  What the?

The weight issue isn’t that big a problem, since I just picked a value (I rounded down – I mean, obviously), but the auto-lap setting is bordering on an OCD level 10 annoyance at this point.  For folks who don’t use a watch or unit like this, when you run, you can set your GPS watch to automatically lap at a certain distance, letting you know how long you took to cover that length of road/trail.  The most common setting for an auto-lap is one mile, as runners are generally keeping an eye on how long they took to complete the last mile and comparing it to a given goal pace.

So, instead of having a nice, even one mile option for the auto-lap, the Suunto gives you, among other choices, .99 of a mile or 1.02 miles.  No flat, even, one mile option.  I assume this is because 1600 kilometers maybe isn’t exactly 1 mile and the unit is converting from metric to imperial, given its origins in the frozen white north of the EU.

“Puny Americans with your outdated imperial number system!

I scoff in your general direction!”

At first, I thought it really wouldn’t make that much of a difference, since each lap is just .01 miles away from the actual mile marker.  However, once I started doing longer runs, I realized that those .01’s add up pretty rapidly.  For example, in a 10 miler, I can’t stop pushing my pace once I hear the 10^th auto-lap beep.  Oh no!  Instead, I have to run another .1 of a mile before I can start my recovery.  In a full marathon, this becomes even worse - .26 of a mile off – again, it may seem small, but ask anyone who’s at the end of a marathon how long the final quarter of a mile seems.

This long.

Again, I realize this is a pretty small issue, and I think I understand the conversion behind it.  However, in the time honored tradition of being ‘Merican, I would like the unit to work for me in the manner I wish.  Right now, please.

Bernard says the metric system is bullsh*t.  ‘MERICA!

Also, because of the auto-lap “gap,” it took me a few runs to figure out why my paces were always faster on the recorded laps than the timing I was seeing as my “lap pace” on the watch itself.  For example, I’d be cruising along**** on my long run, with my watch showing a lap pace of 9:25/mile, and when the auto-lap hit, it would say 9:20.  Now, having a faster time than expected may seem like a good thing, but this can be worrying, as it may mean you’re pushing yourself too hard; pushing too hard at the beginning of a race can leave nothing “in the tank” near the end, and this can mean a one-way ticket to Bonk City.  No bueno, that. 

What I eventually figured out is that the lap pace is calculated based on a full, one-mile lap, but since the auto-lap hits at .99, the difference of 5 seconds or so (in the example above) is how long it would take me to finish the .01 to round out the full mile.  Riddle me this, then***** – why does the watch have a standard setup that calculates my lap pace based on A DISTANCE OPTION I’M NOT ALLOWED TO CHOOSE AS AN AUTO-LAP SETTING?!?!?!  Sorry, got a bit yelly there.  Chris says I should write a letter to Suunto.  I might do just that, as I’m sure I’m not the first spazzy, type A runner that they’ve heard from about this.

Anywhoodle, overall, I like the Suunto, and I’d recommend it as a good alternative to a Garmin watch intended for the same purposes.  Overall, it works fine for my needs, and I love the way the Suunto can be worn as an actual watch,****** since it doesn’t look like a giant square of wood on your wrist.  Garmin seems to have more entry-level pricing options, but both brands seem to be comparable, price-wise, once the Garmin models get fancier and their features align more on an apples-to-apples level with the Suunto’s.  The Suunto I have has neat features to integrate with the Suunto MovesCount app on my phone, including the use of Bluetooth to sync everything, so it’s easy to add my workouts (“moves,” in Suunto lexicon) to my page and share them with friends.  The Suunto also finds GPS signals super, duper fast compared to my old Garmin, even inside the house.

If you want a truly comprehensive review of the watch, check out DC Rainmaker’s notes here.  Dude, talk about thorough.  That guy is the man when it comes to product reviews.

Later!

Amy

* The first Garmin I had just went blank one day and refused to ever turn on again. 

** At this juncture, I feel compelled to point out that I bought 5 pairs of sky blue running shorts from the Reebok outlet in Casa Grande 10 years ago for $6 each, and I’m still using them today.  Chris makes fun of me, but he’ll have to pry them out of my cold, dead, lifeless hands if he wants to get rid of them.  They are magnificent.

*** Yes, dear, I know - if you want to win, hire a Fin.  Okay, can we move on now?

**** By which I mean huffing and puffing, sweating like a fat man in a bear suit, trying not to trip over my feet, cursing the second beer I drank last night, all while trying to maintain the pace Coach set for me.

***** Since we’re on super villians, apparently.  Yes, I know the Riddler is DC Comics instead of Marvel.  Chill out, nerd.

****** A chunkier look for watches is actually kind of in style right now, I think.  I don’t know – ask a hipster to be sure.