Suunto Watch: Syncs With Phone, App Makes ‘Movie’ Of Your Training Route

Suunto sport watches use GPS and function without a phone. But the latest line of products, announced last week, will increase connectivity between these smart-watches and smartphones. (They will also aid in creating geo-tagged “movies” of your training routes; see info and video below.)

The Suunto Connected Family product line, available in September, is the company’s first Bluetooth-compatible offering. It consists of a new Suunto Movescount app and the two GPS watch models.

Like the existing Ambit and Ambit2 watches, the new Suunto watches — the Ambit3 Peak ($500) and Ambit3 Sport GPS ($400) — allow users to track their activities with the watch alone and in conjunction with the Movescount App.

But the new models let you upload workout data, change watch settings, get notifications, and more, wirelessly via a phone.

A user can pair any Ambit3 watch with a phone. The Movescount App then turns the GPS watch into a “multifunctional smartwatch,” as Suunto calls it. You can receive call and text notifications on the watch face. When cycling, the phone can be mounted on handlebars, where it turns into a second display for the watch data.

You can take photos with a phone and the app will geo-target the images to show speed, distance or other details along with the image. Or build a “Suunto Movie,” which is an animation of “the journey visualized with a 3D map, with highlights and photos of the adventure embedded along the track.”

See an example Suunto Movie of Kilian Jornet’s recent record ascent of Denali below.

The app will first be available for the iPhone and iPad, and it can be downloaded from the App Store at the beginning of September. (Availability details for the Android version will be announced at a later date.)

Suunto Ambit3 Sport: This watch has the same functions as the Ambit 2s for running, swimming, cycling and multisport training, including pace, route navigation and tracking, and heart-rate monitor for zone training.

It adds sport-specific features, including a function to record heart rate while swimming. There’s another new feature for recovery time and activity monitoring; the watch tracks daily activity and offers an estimation of needed recovery time for an athlete.

The Ambit3 Peak: As the successor of the Suunto Ambit2, this new watch has outdoor functions such as route navigation, barometric pressure, an altimeter, and compass. The Ambit3 Peak also includes the same new functionality described above for the Ambit3 Sport.

The Ambit3 Peak has double the battery life (up to 50 hours in GPS mode) compared to the Ambit3 Sport, and it has a reinforced casing with a stainless steel bezel. A special Sapphire edition ($600) comes with a sapphire crystal glass.