Solar-powered Suunto Vertical smart watch lands in Aus

The Suunto Vertical, a solar-assisted GPS adventure smart watch with impeccable sustainability credentials, is now available in Australia.

The solar charging ability of the watch is particularly exciting for true adventurers. Although Suunto watches have excellent batteries, the Vertical’s solar charging capability boosts its life by up to 30 per cent – which could literally be a life-saver in some circumstances.

“The product packs a battery life that enables 85 hours of continuous exercise tracking on the most accurate location tracking with the titanium solar variant, and 60 hours with the stainless steel variant,” Suunto says. “Tour mode, which still provides accurate tracking, offers 500 hours of continuous exercise tracking.

“In daily mode, Suunto Vertical accompanies you for up to 60 days – and potentially even up to one year without charging for its titanium solar variant.”

The smartwatch is packed with features for adventuring and sports, including offline maps that let you create and discover routes using layers such as heatmaps, 3D maps and road surfaces. Adding to the appeal is the fact that they come free of charge.

The maps “help you to know what’s around you”, says Phillipp Reiter, a German ski mountaineer, mountain runner, sports photographer and Suunto ambassador. “It’s especially important during winter when you don’t have a trail to follow but everything is white. You need to make sure there is no cliff nearby!”

Sports modes aplenty

Like the Suunto 9 Peak Pro smartwatch which we reviewed a few months back, the Vertical has 97 sports modes, from trail running and swimming to cycling and skiing. To help with this, it has a built-in altimeter, barometer and compass, while you can stay aware of changing conditions via weather forecasts and storm warnings. It’s also waterproof down to 100m and, for daily life, tracks activities such as steps, heart rate, sleep, calories, stress and more.

You can keep connected to your community of fellow enthusiasts via integration with partner services like Strava, Training Peaks and Komoot.

In terms of build quality and robustness, the Suunto Vertical range is manufactured from sapphire glass, stainless steel or grade 5 titanium and are tested to the highest military standard of toughness (MIL-STD-810H).

Suunto sustainability

Besides its solar capability, the sports watch has eco-credentials that include being made in Finland with 100 per cent renewable energy and is fully carbon compensated through a Tree-Nation reforestation project with Verified Carbon Units.

“The Suunto Vertical is engineered to take sports watch performance to a new level as it delivers best-in-class battery life and a wide range of features to empower and motivate,” says Suunto ANZ head Damian Commane. “While extending our deep heritage in sports watches and precision instruments, the Suunto Vertical also offers comprehensive offline maps which, when combined with battery life that is boosted by solar charging, means we can deliver our most premium product to date.”

Suunto Vertical Stainless Steel price

RRP $999

Suunto Vertical Titaniium price

RRP $1299

Availability

Now at suunto.com and, from May 26, at Find Your Feet and Wild Earth retailers.