By Suganthi Suparmaniam
Petaling Jaya, August 7: When I was about 11, I read about a character in a teen novel that refused to wear a watch to know the time.
I remembered reading that the character had boasted that nothing major will happen without her presence and as such, she does not need a watch to be wherever she is needed.
Sounds childish right?
But that’s the kind of novel I read then and for some reason, I wanted to be like that character.
Fast forward to a few years later, I got my first handphone and I never needed a watch, to tell me the time.
And when I go out for a jog, I use the app on the phone to track.
So, when the DailyStraits.com editor told me to try on the new SUUNTO watch for several weeks and write a review about it, I was a little hesitant.
The editor was not amused when she heard about why I never wear a watch.
Nevertheless, I also wanted to try the much-talked-about watch.
I must admit that it was my husband who was more excited than I was when the watch arrived.
He spent close to 45 minutes exploring the watch and declared that it was the most beautiful smartwatch that he has tried.
Okay, so the basics are these, the SUUNTO watches has been around in Malaysia for 85 years but it’s more well-known among divers, which is a life-saving tool when one is underwater and for the mountain trekkers who trek through rough terrains or go against steep mountains.
It’s said to be an experience of its kind especially for running and training but due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the movement control order (MCO), I was not able to step out of the house to test them.
But, here are some fun facts about this watch:
· SUUNTO can track more than 80 modes of activities.
· SUUNTO 9 PEAK is modelled after the award-winning SUUNTO 9 BARO, the top of the line model in the SUUNTO sport-watch series.
· Designed for outdoor and adventure sports, for active and passionate athletes it’s a tough watch with the highest grade of materials for all adventures
· High-end surface finishes
SUUNTO is a smartwatch that pushes one to train and perform better. Mountain climbers will find this most useful as it helps to measure and keep track of your oxygen level to help one understand how he or she is acclimatising.
Another thing that one might appreciate is the automatic firmware updates, which happens at 2 am as long as all the watch activities are synced to the SUUNTO app and there is no alarm triggered for the next hour.
It is an extremely fast-charging watch that gets to 100 per cent in an hour.
Compare this to the SUUNTO 9 Baro which needs four hours to be fully charged.
And I love its magnetic charging cable which snaps to the back of the watch from any direction.
What did I like the most about the SUUNTO 9 PEAK?
It is the look and experience of wearing one. The watch is the tiniest, toughest and sleekest watch with 170 hours of juice on GPS recording mode and 25 hours when ALL modes are ON.
Its automatic screen brightness helps as it makes the screen readable at any time.
The watch also does not feel heavy on my wrist and half the time I forget that I am even wearing one.
The SUNNTO 9 Peak watch is 37 per cent thinner and 36 per cent lighter than its predecessor the SUUNTO 9 Baro.
A lot of the features were designed to be tested outdoors.
But like I said before as I was given the watch during the movement control order in Selangor which did not allow outdoor activities at the time.
When that rule was relaxed to allow non-contact sports, the COVID-19 cases were so high that most people did not dare to step out of their house.
The best part of this review that I thoroughly enjoyed is the subtle way the watch tells people that I’ve met that I am athletic (although I may not look like it) as well as an outdoor and adventurous person.
It not only expresses one’s identity as an adventurer, but it also has a premium look and feel to it.
If I could summarise the watch in two words, it would be class and style.
About the Product: The SUUNTO 9 Peak is available in two different styles with four nature inspired colours: Granite Blue Titanium and Birch White Titanium, made with sapphire glass and grade 5 titanium and is retailed at RM3199 while the All Black and Moss Gray, made with sapphire glass and stainless steel is priced at RM2799. It can be purchased through online stores such as Lazada, Shopee, and SolarTime.com.
Editor’s Note: Writer Suganthi Suparmaniam reviewed the latest SUUNTO watch for close to two weeks and she loved it! Is there a gadget you’d like us to test, a restaurant you’d like us to review or a hotel you’d like to promote through write-ups on this site? The good news is that we do reviews! We will place these write-ups in a section called “Reviewed.” At the moment, we are only accepting invites in KL, Malaysia and Sydney, Australia. But we hope to expand this once the pandemic subsides and hopefully to be able to include travel reviews as well. Please do get in touch with us at editor@dailystraits.com to organise this.
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