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