Just when you think you've got a pretty good handle on all the tech out there, something comes along and surprises you. Again.

I've worn, tested and reviewed more than my share of smartwatches over the years - right back to pretty much when they were first being marketed in any real volume. I've seen them evolve dramatically... ironically some have evolved to look and feel more like traditional analogue watches, leaving any kind of over-the-top, "space-aged" bits and bulk behind in favour of elegance and style.

Make no mistake; there are plenty of over-the-top bits and bulk still to be found. Round faces. Square faces. Straps of all materials and designs. Some with eSims and interactive displays so advanced, you no longer really need a companion handset to work them; many are now effectively mini-smartphones on your wrist.

Then there are the devices that went the other way; specialist sports and fitness trackers - usually much more stripped down - perhaps with a much more basic display or in some cases, no display at all. This didn't necessarily make them bad or inferior, not if they were doing the job they were designed to do. Often they did their one job far better than those "flasher" watches that were trying to do everything all the time - being a smartphone in disguise uses a lot of battery for example. If you want more than a day's use from a full charge, a slightly "dumber watch" might be the way to go.

But lately I've discovered appearances can be deceiving.

I'm just going to say it; the Suunto 9 Peak is not the epitome of style. In fact, when first taken out of its box, basic is the word that springs to mind. I've been sent the all black version (as opposed to the "All Black" version - as far as I know there's no association with our national team) but it also comes in moss grey, granite blue titanium, birch white titanium and full titanium black. Additionally, the Suunto website has a customiser that lets you mix and match models, straps and even add an engraving. And yet - especially in all black - it's an unremarkable-looking round watch with three physical buttons on the side.

Admittedly the strap (also black) is slightly unusual; peppered with tiny holes so it can breathe and an extra metal pin on the end to keep it securely in place, no matter how vigorous the activity on which you're about to embark.

At first glance, the 1.69-inch display itself is also rather boring; a limited selection of simple faces in extremely muted colours. Again though, not all is as it seems. The glass is sapphire crystal, surrounded by a precision engineered stainless steel bezel. The case is also stainless steel in combination with glass fibre reinforced polyamide. This is a watch designed to take a beating.

It has a 100-metre water resistance rating to back that up. 100-metres? I've never heard of anything like that on a smartwatch. I was starting to get interested.

While the 9 Peak's display is a touch screen, as we've discovered with other watches, once they get wet (or you do) that touch screen becomes pretty impotent. This is why I quickly learned to navigate around the watch using the physical buttons instead. It's not hard; scroll up, scroll down or select with the middle. Rain or shine. Or pool or shower.

So what's to see on this "basic" watch anyway?

As it turns out, just about everything. The 9 Peak monitors a lot of stuff; heart-rate, blood oxygen, stress, sleep and yes, obviously workouts. In fact, you'll find over 80 sport modes to choose from; running, cycling, hiking... right through to swimming, mountaineering and yoga - it's all on there, with all the stats you need displayed in an easy to read, well backlit format. Pace, speed, lap-times, heart-rate and distance are all right there, every time you look at the watch, so readable even in bright sunshine with sunglasses on.

And that's before you get to the 9 Peak's rather extraordinary navigation skills. Although its GPS takes a few seconds to lock on, I've found the results to be very accurate - as are the altitude readings. Not only is there a built-in compass but you can set points-of-interest along your route and utilise the Track Back function to retrace your steps. As someone who's found himself thoroughly lost while trail-running before, I wholeheartedly regret not having this watch with me then. That day my 10k run became a 23k stumble of desperation as I struggled to find my way back to where I started in cold, rainy conditions. The 9 Peak would have made that a walk in the park. Literally.

And all of this functionality is accessible on the watch itself. Just imagine what's possible when you add the options via the Suunto app on your phone. There's a comprehensive list of partner training apps and also the opportunity to subscribe to SuuntoPlus; a full suite of training plans and coaching tips. Apart from anything else the 9 Peak also has a media controller, so I can play and pause my podcasts on the run. All phone notifications come through to the watch in a timely fashion and while the somewhat limited matrix display isn't capable of showing rich notifications like thumbnail previews from security cameras and doorbells, you can set up quick replies for messages, texts and emails.

Is this a premium smartwatch? Don't you think it sounds like one? At NZ$759.99 it's certainly priced like one but the more I use it (in more and more surprising ways) I'm starting to think it might actually be worth it. Apart from sheer durability, where Suunto has also left much of the competition in the dust is battery life. Depending on how much I work out and how often I'm using the GPS, I can get up to a week's use out of a full charge - several days at the very least - which means functions like sleep-tracking are much more practical. I never take this watch off.

It's a good size too; big enough for my uber-masculine man-hands yet slim enough not to catch on clothing, straps or jacket cuffs.

I was so wrong. There's nothing basic about the Suunto 9 Peak. In fact, even the way it looks is growing on me. Because it's manufactured in Finland, we can call this Nordic design. Probably sounds more exotic than it really is but with this watch, it's what's inside that counts.

 

 

 

    

Click here for more information and pricing on the Suunto 9 Peak.