Road Trail Run: Outdoor Retailer W16: Introduction Sunnto Ambit 3 Vertical GPS Watch and Inital Review

Saturday, January 09, 2016

Outdoor Retailer W16: Introduction Sunnto Ambit 3 Vertical GPS Watch and Inital Review

Article by Sam Winebaum Editor Road Trail Run

Suunto Ambit 3 Vertical

Suunto, sister company to Salomon, introduced the Ambit 3 Vertical a multi-sport wrist "instrument" for the vertically minded runner, skier cyclist and triathlete. As the name says the unique focus is on vertical ascent, descent, vertical speed, and even incline grade and its accurate real time vertical data as Vertical includes a barometric altimeter. Horizontal focused swimmers are not forgotten with not only open water distance and pace but in water heart rate via the Smart Sensor. Every imaginable (I think) multi-sport training, recovery, and data capture feature is available and easily configurable to the display via multiple customizable Sport Modes. In a first, integrated display of run "power" is also optionally possible.

Suunto Ambit 3 Vertical

I have been lucky enough to test the Vertical for the last month, pre introduction, as part of my assignment evaluating and writing about wearable tech for Competitor Magazine. The Vertical is a spectacular watch made even better when combined with the Movescount app and site. In addition to running and nordic skiing, I have used it to clock my vertical during and alpine ski day, about 19,000 feet. Vertical is simple to operate via large buttons with no finicky touch screen and has an easy to learn on screen interface. Most everything can be configured via Movescount.

At the link here a comparison of the Ambit 3 Vertical, Peak, and Run models. In a nutshell the Vertical includes all the features of the Peak except the Peak's weather prediction features but it does measure temperature. I have found this not very useful in winter unless the watch is over a very thick jacket as wrist temperatures are way higher than ambient in winter. My only other wish to date is that the screen be a bit easier to see in bright and dim light, but something has to give to get up to 100 hours of battery life (60 sec fix rate).

Suunto Ambit 3 Vertical

The Ambit 3 Vertical adds to the Ambit 3 Peak:

the vertical features described above
vibration alerts
advance route planning via Suunto Movescount topo maps with uploaded route profile displayed on the watch as you go (see photo above)
running power and cadence displayed on the watch via the optional, new Stryd Powermeter. I have tested the Stryd with the Vertical and it is a very compelling new way to look at and consider real time effort.
both GPS and GLONAS navigation
multiple ascent summaries: last 7 days, 30 days, full year, all time displayed on the watch.

Suunto Ambit 3 Vertical

A feature common to the all Ambit 3's is Recovery Time and Status, description here. I have found this feature extremely useful. Hammer every day and guess what, your time to Recovery cumulates...

Ambit3 Vertical: vertical view of one of my recent runs

A big part of the Suunto experience is the Movescount app and site. Workouts and experiences are called Moves. Photos taken along the way are welcome and there is all kinds of beautifully displayed data. Here is a link to the Move illustrated below. All Moves easily shareable in various ways including Facebook, Strava, Twitter, Blogger, Word Press, and many others.

Using the app, you can also create a YouTube Movie from your Move. Your Move will be automatically traced on a 3D topographic map wth pictures taken along with key data, all appearing in context. The Movie is professionally rendered and shareable, at the push of a button. The Suunto Movie below is of a trail run on beautiful very soft, freshly groomed snow early one morning in Park City Utah's Round Valley. Missed the picture of a mountain lion I surprised, fortunately he was off in the distance...

Top Features (from Suunto)

Updated sleeker design
Vibration alerts
Real-time altitude profile directly on watch with current ascent gain and remaining ascent
Built-in barometric pressure tracks ascent with accuracy through FusedAlti
View a summary of vertical gain by day, week and even year
Plan ascents through Movescount App with topographic maps and altitude information
Relive and share activities/workouts through Suunto Movies and automatic data overlay images of key metrics
Push notification of incoming calls and messages
Activity based recovery time (more holistic view of recovery due to daily activities and not only logged exercises)
up to 100 hours of battery life (60 second GPS fix rate)
Completely customizable

Runners

Real-time hill incline percentage*
Running power through integration of Stryd Powermeter
Advanced recovery features with quick and sleep recovery test by Firstbeat
Speed, pace, cadence, distance
Movescount training programs
POI - points of interest - log with one push of a button
Find back, track back
Altimeter, barometer, compass
Temperature
V02 max values*
Autopause
Workout planner, interval timers
Ghost runner,* marathon end-time estimator*, average stride length*

Skiers

Real-time hill incline percentage*, average speed*, ski run counter*, max speed*, beers/wine burned off calculator*
Speed, pace, cadence, distance
POI - points of interest - log with one push of a button
Find back, track back
Altimeter, barometer, compass
Temperature

Triathletes

Multiple sports in one log
Customize/preconfigure multisport modes
Heart rate while swimming with Suunto Smart Sensor

Cyclists

Multiple bike POD support (Bluetooth Smart) - Power, cadence, lap, power distribution, peak power curve/output, normalized power, aerodynamic drag in real-time
Use phone as secondary display of watch
Speed and average speed in real-time

Swimming