Due out sometime this month is the new Suunto Traverse. It’s a GPS and barometric altimeter watch for the outdoor person, sort of a Suunto Core with GPS.
At first glance you could just say it’s an Ambit 3 Peak and you wouldn’t be that far from the mark, it does however have a couple of key differences. First of all the RRP is £285 compared to £330 for Ambit 3 Peak. Both have GPS and barometric altimeter but the Ambit 3 Peak has all the multisport software and modes which the Traverse does not. If you are a mountaineer that’s just the sort of software bloat you don’t need, so get rid of it and drop the price a bit. Hopefully the Traverse will have a built in storm alarm like the Core but we will have to wait until we get our hands on a fully functional demo unit to be sure.
Secondly and more importantly the Traverse has a different antenna arrangement to the Ambit. The Ambit has a bar antenna which sticks out of the round body at the bottom and curves round the wrist a bit, where as the Traverse has a loop antenna contained in the same space as the bezel and does not protrude. Suunto say the performance of the loop antenna has improved to the point of not needing the longer bar. The great effect here is on the comfort of the watch especially on those of us with slim wrists. Not having the bar allows the watch body to move much more freely on the strap hinges and position itself more comfortably on the wrist. I immediately felt that it was a better watch to wear.
Although Mountaineers are not often interested in heart rate or mobile phone notifications, the Traverse does have full blue tooth connectivity like the Ambit 3 and will pair with the phone app and heart rate belts in the same way. Although Suunto have not included this functionality in their marketing, it is there.
There will be 3 colours of the Traverse; Black, White and Grey with orange strap. We are still not sure exactly when they will be delivered and until they launch officially there are no Suunto specs and images for us to download but as soon as the pages are made and the stock in we will let you know. If you want to reserve one right now please call us on 01943 870550 and we will sort that out.
EDIT 02.10.15 Pages are now live with specs but as yet no official images from Suunto. If you want to order one online now you can, if you end up not liking the look of it either cancel or send it back.