The Vertical Solar Titanium watch is my third Suunto watch and it just might be my last. About 8 years ago I was on a shoot for Kona Bikes in the British Columbia Interior. The shoot was for Kona’s first e-bike and we were shooting a mountain-bike-meets-fly-fishing video. The filmer was my good buddy Joonas, who just happens to be Finnish, he also just happens to be friends with Suunto’s global marketing manager and Ex Kona DH super star Antti Laiho. Antti had given us all Suunto Traverse Baro watches for the shoot. The Traverse Baro was/is a great watch (my one is still going strong), and I used it on many rides and tramps. It was basic though, just a monochrome screen, but it was packed with features, like an altimeter, step counter, activity tracker, compass, and GPS Navigation, more importantly for the shoot it had a fishing tracker.
Antti and I have kept in touch over the years and when Suunto released the 9 Baro he sent me one out to put through its paces on Wellington’s trails and in the Tararua hills. That watch was/is amazing, it had all the features of the Traverse and more, plus it had a beautiful bright touch screen, I could control the music on my iPhone, and get messages from any number of apps. It had a heart rate tracker, could receive weather updates, its GPS strength was stronger and more accurate than the Traverse and the battery life was awesome. It would easily last two weeks working as a plain watch, tracking GPS routes in the hills though demanded a lot of the battery, and with full accuracy engaged, it would eat the battery in 24 hours. I had to start packing the portable charger cord on trips bigger than an overnighter.
So you can imagine how excited I was when Suunto recently announced the Vertical Solar Titanium watch. A watch with even better battery life than the 9 Baro, a watch that also tops itself up with the sun*. I’ve had its watch for five months now and have charged it only four times. I’ve been tracking up a storm too, overnight tramps, long 6-8 hour day walks, shorter runs, and mountain bike rides, I’ve even started using it for orienteering events (which I suck at). *Now I should point out that you can’t charge the watch with the sun, the watch itself draws more power to operate than can be harvested. What the solar power is doing is delaying the discharge of the watch, and on a sunny day, that could balance out your activity, I’ve seen it happen on a sunny six and a half hour-day walk across the Tararua tops the watch only used a single percent of its battery!
The GPS accuracy is also nuts, it is the most accurate GPS watch Suunto has ever made, thanks to the Dual-band GPS/GNSS, it communicates with all five major satellite systems, and coverage in dense Taraua valleys is absolutely spot on. The new map function is pretty damn cool, but it relies on you uploading a route before departure. It will drop bread crumbs like older watches, if you need to retrace your steps, but now you get to view those trails on a nice full-colour shaded map with contour lines.
The compass lets you program in your precise declination for magnetic north and allows you the ability to set bearings to follow, never a replacement for a map and a compass, but it’s pretty cool for double-checking bearings. The sheer number of specialty activities the watch supports is just crazy, I think there are over 90! As always the Suunto App syncs with Strava so you can brag (or be mocked) by your buddies.
As far as optional extras go, I have the handlebar mount for the bike which is handy for pre-planned routes, and for just having your stats and distances in plain view, I also have the bluetooth heart rate monitor. I’ve never trusted wrist heart rate monitors for activities and the chest strap gives 100% accuracy.
Like my two past Suunto watches the bulletproof nature of the build of the watch is top-notch, I’m not gentle on the watch and I don’t baby it, it has a couple of abrasion marks on the bezel but the safire glass is still 100% clear, and looks like the day I pulled it out of the box. If the next few years go like the first six months then I highly doubt I’ll be upgrading this watch any time soon. Its that good.
There are three models to choose from, Vertical (stainless) Steel NZ$1049 , which doesn’t feature the Solar charging, and then the Vertical Steel Solar NZ$1199 and the one I’ve been using the Vertical Titanium Solar NZ$1349.