Awesome watch. Great features and looks great. Survived a motorcycle accident I had and only received a scratch on the bezel, preventing more road rash on myself. Price point is the best out there if you buy on amazon which is a plus. If your on the about forking out the money, just take the plunge like I did and you'll be happy you did. I'm a lifetime suunto fan now.

The altimeter is very accurate within +/- 10 ft if you set the calibration properly. Digital compass is also very accurate when compared to my magnetic compass. Feature set is what I need, and nothing more. This is a no frills, no nonsense watch that feels very durable. I took it on the trail with me from 6000 ft to 11000 ft, temps ranging from 20F to 60F with no glitches of problems. I wore this thing outside my jacket in the rain and snow and it just kept ticking along. All in all, a great watch for the trail.

I was stoked to get this watch. It fit well and looked great. Unfortunately, after about 6 months, the buttons started sticking. No amount of cleaning or manipulation would get them free enough to use on the watch. Now the final straw. The main compartment is full of water. I don't dive, I was in the lake yesterday with the greatest depth being about 3 feet. Not sure what happened, but the watch is ruined.

I was really happy with this watch (all black military) when I got it. It looked great and functioned wonderfully. However, every time I take it out of a pampered environment, it fails. I'm totally disappointed, but in retrospect, I should have expected there was a good chance of this happening based on the reviews I read prior to buying the watch. If for whatever reason you want a good looking ABC watch to wear when your not sweating and in temperature controlled environments out of the sun, this is the watch for you. If you're actually going to use it like an ABC watch is intended to be used (i.e. outdoors), know you're making a product quality gamble. Some work, and some like mine fail miserably.

With my watch, if I'm out in the summer sun or sweating, the thing just shuts down until you take it indoors. I don't know if it has a bad seal somewhere, if it's super sensitive to temperature or both. The first time it happened, I was hiking in Colorado. I thought I just got really unlucky with the battery dying. However, it revived after I went inside. I changed the battery before the next time I went out just in case and made sure there wasn't anything wrong with the seal. Same behavior. I should have sent if back, but I kept experimenting and hoping to figure it out until it was too late because I really want the watch to work. After a year, Suunto no longer stands behind their product. They will of course look at it for a fee. (By the way, sucks to be the guy who spent this much on a watch when everyone else's cheaper watches are working well and yours just decides it wants to go back to the spa or something.)

Another gripe I had was with the band. The loop is cheap and fails way too fast, and then you're stuck with part of your band awkwardly sticking out or you have the privilege of buying a new band or cobbling some home fix together that may or may not look as stupid as the end sticking out strangely.

Note for those contemplating battery or solar powered models: in my experience, the battery seems to die at the most inconvenient times. I suppose I could have established a schedule of preemptively changing the battery.

Overall, I really like the look of this watch and want to love it, but it fails where it's supposed to be a native. I still wear it sometimes in nice controlled environments.

I have had my Suunto Core for over 6 YEARS now. Over 6 years of daily use, seriously, this thing has not leave my wrist. I am an enlisted military service member with 11+ years in the infantry, I am also a firefighter/paramedic for one of the busiest departments in the country. Needless to say I have put this watch through its paces and have abused the life out of it. It has been through hell and back to include military deployments to Iraq and Africa (year long deployments). It has been inside burning houses, heavy interior fire fighting inside structures, car fires, in the ocean on shallow dives, in rivers, on hikes and countless of other events.... This watch has seen it all for the last 6 years and still running strong.

I have read negatives about straps and other things but I have to say mine has been nothing but great to me. Yes, I have ripped of the small strap band. I contacted Suunto about maybe sending me a new one, figured its such a small piece they can provide for free. Well, they wanted me to buy all new straps that run about $60. I did not want to buy a new pair of straps just for that so I made my own out of 550 cord. That 550 has been on it for about 4 years with no issues.

The top current review on this watch claims the band is fragile , dry rots and cracks. Guess what, I have yet to change out my bands...6 years later!!! They are flimsy and extremely broken in now, might be time for a swap but won't do it until these fail me. The battery life is good on it as long as you don't leave unnecessary features on all the time. For instance, I do not need to know if the watch senses a storm coming in or a change in pressure. I turn on when I am in the field if needed but until than that is off, no need for the chirping. Do things like this extends my battery life. I swap batteries about 1-2 times a year, thats it.

Overall, I love this watch and will continue to wear it everyday. I have had friends buy them and feel the same way. I get slightly jealous when I see a new one, they look nice when new and pitch black features, but wouldn't trade my broken in, scarred up, battle worn one for anything. Just take a look at some of my pictures. You can clearly see I have shown no mercy to this thing.

I am currently overseas again....and STILL wearing this.