Practical Look At The Mythical Suunto Elementum Ventus Outdoor Watch.

In comparison with Swiss design, the Finnish have made an incredibly competitive watch. The case of the Suunto Elementum Ventus is great using a “carved not stamped” experience to it. I appreciate the sapphire crystal, but I am disappointed that it’s neither glare-proofed nor domed. Thus in a touch, you should use it as a mirror to fix your hair.

The pushers run properly, even though the much lauded “revolving A pusher” seems just a little less than “swiss rugged” in my opinion.

The display…. okay, after years of Swiss watches which thoroughly performed legible negative displays, I don’t “get it” with this particular watch. Why can’t Suunto make a negative display with plenty quality and contrast to contend with the likes of a Breitling, TAG or RADO? From my personal limited knowledge of LCD technology, the gap between a positive and a negative display would be the polarizing filter. There’s not much else with it. So I’m perplexed why this is so difficult to read.

I’m pleased with the function of the watch. Suunto seems to have sought to make this particular watch as easy as possible! There are essentially 4 modes.The main time display which could show either barometric pressure numerically or, within the same place, show the dat. The barometric log, that is utilized by rotating the A pusher counter clockwise and scrolls the baro chart by hour increment. The compass, available via the C pusher in all modes with the exception of when the “race timer” is going; as well as the race timer itself.

The count down chronograph is rather… cumbersome. It resets to zero by keeping the C pusher after it has been stopped by pressing the A pusher. As soon as zeroed, it assumes 5 minutes as the start time, even though you are able to swivel the A pusher to modify this by minute steps. If set to zero, it really works like a modest chronograph. Why modest? It counts 10ths of seconds until 1 minute, after that changes to minutes and seconds, and to minutes only. When it comes to last mode, no one is able to detect it’s still running without catching a digit change. In contrast to the “regular” convention of blinking the “:” to show a running chronograph, the “:” is static. Additionally unlucky is that, whenever halted, the timepiece is not going to show the more precise readings. Compare this to an Aerospace Watch, where once the chronograph is stopped, the watch alternates in between showing the minutes and the seconds, so that you can at least access the degree of precision kept in the watch.

Mario Bosemon is a long time timepiece enthusiast and knows few things about them, especially the outdoor/activity types. So his opnion on Suunto Elementum and especially his favorite Suunto Elementum Aqua might be considered before purchasing one. For more info: http://suuntoelementum.com/