• By Julia Phillips
• Published 12/20/2010
• Article Writing

When it comes to watches, it is natural to think about Swiss, a country famous for mechanical watches. Or you may think about Japan who has swallowed half of the watch industry of Swiss. However, the two watch kingdom may be defeated by Suunto, a watch maker in Finland, in terms of mountain climbing watches.   It was ten years ago that Suunto started to manufacture mountain watches, but the history of Suunto is as long as 100 years. Early in the World War II, Sunnto started to manufacture compass and it is so far still the biggest and most professional manufacturer of compass in the world. Suunto means “direction” in Finnish. So what makes mountain watches different with common watches? What are the basic elements a professional mountain watch should have? Firstly, it should work normally under severe conditions, such as high sea level, low temperature; Secondly, it should be solid enough. It should be water resistant to 100 meters and anti-shock. Even though Tissot T-touch sport watch features high tech and touch screen, its water-proof and anti-shock functions cannot meet the requirement of mountain climbing. Thirdly, it should have rich functions such as thermometer, barometer, weather alert and compass. Sunnto is not the first producer integrating the functions in a watch. Casio Protreck Series watches have these features earlier and their price is only one third of Sunnto watches. Solid Casio watches receive the recognition of Navy Seals, so Suunto is not better than Casio in terms of solidness. Then what make Sunnto more excellent than Casio Protrek? The first is compass barometer. Suunto’s barometer is more precise and sensitive, which runs synchronically with the user.   The second reason is the rich feature of Suunto watch. It is not only a tool for mountain climbing , but also a smart data storage. It can be connected with your computer, deliver the data to analysis software, so that you can evaluate the effect and course of each climbing, which is quite important for climbers. Besides that, user can buy update suites to extent it functions, such as heart beat measure and foot movement sensor. These suites can calculate the energy you consumed during climbing and tell the body status of the user, to ensure the health and security. Basically, if you are just a beginner, a solid mountain watch is enough for you. If you want to challenge yourself, a professional watch with rich features is quite necessary to ensure the security when you enjoy the fun and great view during mountain watching.

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