Core Classic Outdoor Watch for Men

The screen is a little dark but you can change the contrast. I prefer not to have GPS and my phone connected to my watch. It’s nice to not constantly stare at it for counting steps, or who sent a text or whatever other “modern convenience”.

I've only had it a week (early March 2021), and looking at a lot of reviews it wasn't without a little trepidation that I bought it, but I wanted something tough and feature packed in my work as a lineman rigger and the price was unbeatable for what I had been told was an amazing watch for people in my field. A few slight negatives to bear in mind before you put down your money, outdoors in daylight, the display is excellent, but inside in somewhat subdued lighting its not so easy to read, it does have a nice green backlight that works similarly to a G-Shock illuminator though. The crystal is domed on the outside, giving it a degree of magnification, but it's extremely reflective and you'll find yourself angling your wrist from time to time to keep it from glaring and stopping you from reading the time in daylight. If you can live with those things and you need it's functions, or just enjoy crazy watches that are feature rich, you should get this one. The features are amazing, and very accurate, I know how far I've climbed at a glance and I can see if the air pressure drops far enough for me to not get caught in a high wind situation. Two pieces of info that we do have access to, but is extremely useful to have on your wrist giving you real time information. It can be life and death in this game. The battery will probably die well within a year, but I don't have any issue with that due to the features and the ease at which you can change the battery. There are many videos online telling you how to do this correctly, I think some of the problems that people have with waterproofing are due to a botched battery replacement. I will probably never wear this watch in the water, though I do like the idea of its depth gauge. However 30m resistance is not what I personally consider something I'd trust. Just the act of swimming can exert pressures similar to that depth and I see people killing their watches that tout the same depth by swimming in a pool, showering and taking a bath with them. Soap, chlorine and other detergents are not any watches friend. Like I said, if I run into any issues, I'll update this review, but I can't really foresee much to go wrong at this point. Look after your equipment and it'll look after you. Go easy, folks.

I has the possitive display version several years ago. I wore that watch everyday for 4 or 5 years before moving on to a smart watch. I am not a smart watch kind of guy. I have a Garmin Fenix 5x I use for working out to keep track of heart rate and such. When I am at work I needed a practical watch that did not have to be charged all the time. I went back to Suunto based on my possitive experience before. My brother still wears my old watch. The only change from my first is the band. It is softer and has no break in period. I prefer this softer band. I also chose the all black version since it looks cleaner than a big white face. I was worried it would be hard to read. I did have to adjust the contrast from the standard setting of 7, up to 10. The contrast setting goes from 1 to 13. A quick Google search will show you how to adjust the contrast, it is not in the standard menu setting. It was easy to follow the instructions on the suunto web page. The build quality is just as good as my original and I fully expect it to provide me service for years to come. Batteries last me 12-14 months. I have the back light to turn on with any key push and I keep the button tones turned on. The only setting I keep off is the storm alert. I turn that on when I am camping or hiking only. Some people may care to know, this watch does not have a split lap stop watch. I know it is important for some to have this feature but I have never needed that sort of function. The other down side is it only has 1 alarm. Again I have never had a need for more than one alarm, I know some people need that function. I was really hesitant to buy the negative display, but I am sure glad I did. It streamlines the look of this watch. I can see why this is the most popular Suunto watch they sell since it was introduced. If you are on the fence, just buy it. You will be happy you did. On a final note. When I change my batteries, I always change it with a new rubber O-ring. I put a VERY VERY small amount of silicone grease on the O-ring prior to installing the new battery. It may be overkill but I never had any leaking or water resistance issues. The O-rings are cheap to buy. I like how Suunto trusts its consumers enough to swap out their own batteries! Fantastic watch. And the price it is now on Amazon, snag one up before the broke hikes back up.

***UPDATED*** First Review: I recently had a malfunction: the stopwatch function “froze” and I can’t reset or get out of the “time” mode. I just checked and am beyond the Amazon return window (purchased in May, return window expired in June…it’s now late July). I’ve read a ton of reviews that say the company doesn’t stand behind their product. The jury is still out in my case so let’s see how they respond. I’m not going to mention my occupationS or experience, that is reserved for review #2 after I see how they respond. For the record, I also own an MC-2 Compass (made by the same company) and it’s world renowned, so I have high hopes they do the right thing. We shall see, more to come. July 23, 2022 Review #2 (September 18, 2022): It’s a good watch! I’m in Law Enforcement (Highway Patrol & Marine Unit), so I NEEDED a good watch. This one is hard to read at night (small numbers/characters and low backlight brightness), the included “Quick Guide” (all FOUR of them) only tell a small part of the story of this watch. To fully understand its capabilities and how to use it effectively, you’ll need that quick guide and all 33-pages of the user manual that you’ll have to download from their website. When I said “and”, I literally mean you need them BOTH (photo attached) to understand how to use all of the functions because neither does an effective job explaining how the thing works! I’m my first review I mentioned a malfunction. Well, it ended up being operator error on my part because I literally didn’t understand that it had gone into locked mode AND I couldn’t see the teeny, tiny little padlock icon that said it was in locked mode! Did I mention it’s hard to see/read? That became even more challenging because I had accidentally changed the language to something other than English and what little chance I had to recover was totally gone once it changed to some other language. If you wear glasses, be sure to use them whenever you’re setting or using anything other than the most basic functions (cycling through date, sunrise/sunset, stopwatch, timer, compass, altimeter, barometer). The user interface isn’t user-friendly or even intuitive so prepare to start memorizing which buttons perform which function when you’re doing anything other than cycling through available menus. Again, it’s a good watch…very good even! I returned it for repair and they promptly returned it with the explanation that I didn’t know how to use it (those are my words, they were much more polite and professional…thanks to them for that!) I was so frustrated when it was stuck in locked mode that I bought an Ironman (100m waterproof model) on-sale for $39.95. I can actually read and manipulate its functions at night, without reading glasses and the buttons are ultra-intuitive!!!! Sure it doesn’t have a compass, altimeter or barometer but for a basic rugged watch you can see (even at night without glasses or a magnifying glass), it’s kinda hard to beat since I swim often and waterproofing really matters. This Suunto cost $125 on Amazon and it’s a better watch than the Ironman I just mentioned simply because of its highly advanced capabilities. Just be prepared to do a ton of learning to use it effectively and efficiently in the field! I give the Suunto Core All Black a solid 4-Stars for quality, aesthetics, capabilities, and durability. The manual(s), display readability, and intuitive user interface all SUCK but I’m only going to dock them 1-Star for all of those because they should be easily correctable. …it’s a very good watch!

I've had my Suunto for a few weeks now. I read countless reviews before I bought this watch, and I thought I'd contribute to the community a little. I don't have anything groundbreaking to report, but I'll give you my opinion. If the price tag is scaring you away, I had (and still have) a Timex Expedition watch with a compass that I bought on eBay for $30. It lasted nearly six years in the military, desert, salt water, snowboarding... never faulted. Before my last deployment, I bought a Casio Pathfinder watch, and it broke before I even got out of our train up. Aesthetically it was very nice, but the compass always seemed a little off and it lasted about a month before I broke it. Now, the Suunto Core: it's comfortable, reasonably thin and has a great display. The compass seems to be accurate and overall looks really nice. The weather alarm was cool for about two days. Underneath the time display, there are several functions that you can have displayed at the same time, i.e. Day/Date, Seconds, a different time zone (home), sunrise/sunset, stopwatch, and a countdown timer (preset to a time within the menu). My only gripe is that sometimes I'll unintentionally hit the bottom button, and instead of glancing at my watch for the date, I have to cycle through all of these options to confirm it is, in fact, the 21st of October. Big deal? Not really. The menu is well organized, and easy to navigate. I'm really looking forward to logging my elevation when I'm back home and mountain biking/snowboarding. I'm not sure what the depth gauge really offers, but I guess it's kind of cool. I wish it was water proof, because I'm a big SCUBA diver (which turned me onto Suunto in the first place). I read that you can change your own battery (which is a HUGE plus compared to their other models), so I guess I won't complain too much about it not being suitably sealed for diving. Bottom line- It's a cool watch. Do you need an altimeter to log your altitude change? Maybe once in a while. Do you need a barometer? Probably not. Do you need a depth gauge for snorkeling. Nope. You could probably spend your money more wisely by investing in new socks and a Timex, but that wouldn't be nearly as cool. -Ryan

I got my first Suunto Core as a gift in 2018. After somewhere around a year, it died & replacing the battery did nothing. I contacted Suunto, they honored the warranty, I sent the dud watch back to them & they sent me a new one. I'm still using it today (2022). I LOVE the menu setup. It's by far the easiest non-smart watch to set & navigate that I've ever seen. All of it's clock/timer functions work great, but none of it's other functions are very reliable. On both my original & the replacement, the altimeter is consistently off by anywhere from 20 meters to a KILOMETER, but averaging somewhere in the low 100 meter range. I've tried recalibrating many times. Doesn't seem to make a difference. The compass was one of the biggest reasons I wanted this watch. An onboard, non-GPS compass was exactly what I was looking for because I enjoy camping & hiking trips & I was working toward a career in law enforcement. Unfortunately, the compass is consistently off by about 15 to 20 degrees. Again, I've tried recalibrating it many times. No change. Also, as other reviewers have said, it goes through batteries entirely too fast. Since receiving my replacement watch in mid 2020, I have (in late 2022) already had to replace the battery 4 times. Overall, I'm torn. If this was just a basic digital watch, I'd easily be giving it 5 stars, but because of it's failure to deliver it's other functions, I just can't justify that high of a rating. Pros: excellent, user-friendly menu & general opporation good clock & timer functions durable design Cons: inaccurate compass VERY inaccurate altimeter/barometer short battery life

Here are my thoughts on my new Suunto Core, hope this helps others decide if this is the right watch for them or not. Overall I love the fit and finish of this watch, I have the Military All Black edition. The bezel is low profile which allows it to easily fit inside the cuff of a shirt and also less prone to striking on door jams and the like as you walk. The watch is lighter than I had anticipated, but does not feel light in a cheap kind of way. I was initially a little bummed about the lighter weight because I normally where very large and heavy Invicta watches. However the lighter weight of this watch makes it far more useful for being active which is what this watch is all about. The lighter weight also means you can wear the watch higher up on your arm where it belongs and it will stay there. That way its not impinging on your hand while extending the wrist (say while riding a bike.) The band is a smooth matte hard rubber and has a matte black aluminum clasp. There are also two rubber cuffs to tuck the excess band inside, this is very nice as it keeps the excess band out of the way of what you are wearing and what you are doing. The watch itself is very comfortable as a function of both the band construction and the overall weight of the watch. My favorite part of the overall look of this watch however is the dark face. It's clean and sharp; you can choose which information you would like displayed by default (time, altitude, bearing, sunrise/set, date, countdown, etc). In very bright light and with the watch tilted at an extreme angle it can be difficult to see the information on the display, however with the watch pointing directly at you, I have no issues reading the display even in full sunlight. At night the display is completely dark, except for the glowing North indicators on the rotating bezel. The backlight feature (activated as needed with a button press) lights up the entire display so you can see all functions and feature of the watch including indicators such as the alarm being set. Another nice little feature is a button lock, achieved by pressing and holding the backlight button for a few seconds, handy so that you are not accidentally accessing menus or changing settings inadvertently while you are asleep or wearing gloves. In terms of the altimeter/barometer, I have always wanted this watch for skiing purposes as it gives you a way to track your vertical feet for the day without having to pull out your phone and check an app like EpicMix. As I have yet to ski with this watch I cannot comment on its ability to track vert just yet, however many other people I know with this watch have been pleased with its ability to do so. It does give me accurate readings of atmospheric pressure which has been interesting to follow. These past few days we have had some decent storms roll through and I have actually watched the barometer drop as that was happening. It displays the pressure in a graph so you can see trends over time. The reality is that I would not routinely use this to try to predict or gauge the weather - in this day and age I can get vastly more detailed information from my phone. That being the case the barometer is accurate and functional. The thermometer does a great job of telling me the temperature of my wrist but not the ambient temperature (at least if I am wearing it). I knew this was going to be the case before I even purchased the watch as this is a common theme with all "ABC watches". The reality is there is no way for the thermometer to account for the conductive heat transferred to/from your body (or radiation from the sun for that matter). Again, if I need to know the ambient temperature I look at the weather app on my phone but if I was in an area with no cell signal that would not be an option. In that event you can always hang the watch from your pack or inside your tent to get an accurate reading on the ambient temperature. The thermometer is accurate, you just need to take your wrist out of the equation when you need that information. The compass feature works great though I personally don't see myself using it routinely. I have compared it to the lensatic compass in my pack and its relatively close but if I ever actually had to navigate I would definitely use a dedicated compass. In my humble opinion the compass function on the watch is more convenient for getting a general idea of your bearing or heading - something I usually am aware of already but I can appreciate how this might be useful if you are traveling or exploring in a new area. Another great feature of this watch is the sunrise/sunset information. While programming the watch you select your nearest major city and that is how the sunrise/set times are calculated. This gives you a relatively accurate prediction of the time at sunrise and sunset but depends obviously on if you are in that exact location or not. As I am in Milford, CT I have mine set to NYC. The watch tells me that sunset today will be at 19:48 where as according to a simple google search it will be at 19:42 for my current location (unsure of the source that is being indexed though). In any event, it is close enough and reliable for the purpose of gauging your activities by the need for daylight or night. As expected there are also the typical watch functions of chronograph with lap metering and an alarm. The alarm actually also has a snooze feature which is pretty nice. As the alarm goes off a notification on the display says "snooze?" and places "yes" and "no" next to two buttons on the bezel. Selecting yes gives you an extra 5 minutes of sleep. I am unsure if you can change the duration of the snooze in settings or not. There is also a countdown timer which comes in handy sometimes. You can set the duration of the countdown to anything you like in the settings. Another nice feature is the product support offered by Suunto. The day I received the watch I got on the website and made a user account then registered my serial number. From there I can submit work or repair orders should anything ever go wrong. There is also a nice user community for sharing information and activities, something I won't probably be an active member of but I am sure there are others who really enjoy this aspect of the brand. I really have no gripes or problems with the watch to report so far. I have only had it for 2 weeks and I am very pleased with my purchase. I have read other reviews noting problems with the band breaking. The band seems solid to me but certainly does not feel indestructible. I am sure with enough repetition of folding the band back to remove the watch it would ultimately crease and then crack as others have reported. At this price point I expect this to be a watch that I get many years of solid use out of. If for some reason the band starts to get too terribly worn or breaks I would be okay replacing it. I do not believe the Suunto warranty covers band damage from normal use. It appears replacement bands for the Core are available for around $30-40 which is reasonable in my opinion. It appears the band can be replaced by the user, and judging by the look of the screws attaching the band to the watch body you would only need a small flathead driver. Also of not, the watch battery can be easily replaced by the user. So in summary, all in all I am very pleased. The watch looks fantastic. The watch is comfortable to wear both at rest and while working out or being active. The altimeter/barometer are accurate and give you ample ways to display and use the data. The thermometer works great, you just need to take the watch off to get an accurate reading (true for all watch thermometers as far as I know). The compass is accurate for getting a general idea of your heading but if you are planning on doing serious navigation then use a dedicated compass. The other standard watch features (alarm, chrono, countdown) are all present as well as few nice bonuses like a countdown timer, snooze function for the alarm and sunrise/set times.

Solid watch, looks great, and sturdy. Takes some tinkering to figure out all the stuff but good quality.