Suunto is known for its high-end watches and top-tier technology, most of which is geared toward hardened mountain athletes and data nerds. Last week, the Finnish brand announced the newest addition to its line: the Suunto .
Launching April 25 and retailing for $200 (the white and black colorways retail for $230), the 3 Fitness is a more affordable, approachable watch鈥攁 first for the company. It won鈥檛 have a barometric altimeter, GLONASS satellite navigation, or built-in GPS (though you鈥檒l be able to connect it to your phone for GPS). Instead, it鈥檚 designed for a general fitness audience, with all the niceties like sleep tracking, wrist-based heart rate monitoring, step counting, and built-in training guidance.
Sound familiar? Suunto is far from the only sport-watch brand to come out with a less-technical, lifestyle-oriented product that provides general health and fitness tracking without things like built-in GPS鈥攖hink Fitbit Versa, Polar , and Garmin .
Initially, I was skeptical: Suunto, the company that pioneered the multifunctional sports watch, was going basic. But then two weeks ago I got my hands on a sample of the 3 Fitness and was pleasantly surprised. This doesn鈥檛 feel like a high-end sports watch with its guts ripped out. It鈥檚 technical in its own right and rich with features that both hardcore and recreational athletes can appreciate.
One of this watch鈥檚 best qualities is its simplicity. It has a clean, classic look and isn鈥檛 riddled with unnecessary apps. In fact, there are no apps at all. This is a sports watch with some smart features, rather than a smartwatch with some sports features. Like most of its competitors, the 3 Fitness will connect to your phone to give you quick notifications (if you want). However, it doesn鈥檛 have a touchscreen and won鈥檛 make wallet-free payments, play music, or offer you stress-reducing breathing exercises. It just tracks your sleep, your heart rate, and your exercise.
The 3 Fitness pulls the customizable activity tracking feature that鈥檚 been a staple of Suunto鈥檚 for years, with the option to set pace, heart rate, distance, and duration targets. Say you want to run one hour at a nine-minute pace聽or two hours at a heart rate between 120 and 130 beats per minute鈥攋ust click a few buttons, and your watch will buzz to keep you on pace or in your goal HR zone. A progress meter shows you how much of the planned workout you鈥檝e completed. You can also set an interval counter to manage reps, interval duration, and recovery time. These details seem small, but as a recreational runner who鈥檚 never quite been able to internalize what an 8:50 pace feels like, the added guidance is a huge boon.
The watch鈥檚 main hallmark is its adaptive training plan, which resets every day based on how hard you went the day before and how well recovered you are. After my first run with connected GPS, the watch estimated my V02max and spat out a seven-day training plan to improve my score. The plan looked something like this:
- Monday: 50 minutes moderate
- Tuesday: 25 minutes moderate
- Thursday: 45 minutes easy
- Saturday: 35 minutes very hard
The built-in training plan is certainly a nice feature, particularly since it鈥檚 not a fixed, cookie-cutter schedule. And because Suunto calculates V02max based on a combination of your max heart rate, how long you can sustain it, how quickly you recover, and the variation between your heartbeats, I鈥檓 confident I can trust the number it鈥檚 giving me (more so, at least, than watches that a more basic measure of heart rate and pace or some combination of age, height, and weight).
Many teched-out sports watches are guilty of information overload鈥攖hey tell you how you slept, what your V02max is, how fast you ran, how much time you need to recover鈥攂ut unless you鈥檙e a coach or one of those data nerds, it鈥檚 hard to know what to do with all that information. The 3 Fitness weaves the data together into something you don鈥檛 need an Excel spreadsheet to use.
Of course, I鈥檇 love it if this watch had built-in GPS, though that would add to the cost. However, among its fitness-oriented, integrated-GPS-less peers, this one hits pretty close to perfect. It looks like an actual watch, it鈥檚 comfortable and stylish enough to wear all day, it鈥檚 not trying to take the place of your phone, and it still gives you the benefit of all that trademark Suunto accuracy. In other words: It鈥檚 ideal for those who want a basic, less expensive fitness watch that focuses more on quality fitness tracking and less on add-on lifestyle features.