It is all these things and more!
So - I broke my watch strap on my very expensive Polar watch which I had had for a while - and the stupid thing is - you cannot get a replacement! How can that be! Are Polar total mad or is this a ploy plain and simple to get you to buy more Polar watches? Well whatever - it backfired. After I found that my RS800D strap is unlike all other straps and Polar don't make a replacement for the moment - I decided to ditch polar in favour of some other brand.
A while ago, my wife bought me a Suunto watch that had a compass on it, an altimeter etc. Its been around for ages, still works, nothing has dropped off it, its generally bombproof - I have been in 3 bike crashes wearing it including one where it was dragged accross the tarmac - and there seems to be nothing that you can do to it that stops it - short of taking the battery out.
So - I thought this brand might fare better than the disintegrating Polar.
Wow - good call!
So - I'm not going to go into a full review of the watch - there are references below for you to look at - but I'll give my brief overall impression after using it for a few months.
1. The interface works as well as the Polar. It has 3 lines that you can interchange with what they display and cycle through one of them on the fly as well.
2. The training aids such as EPOC and Training Effect are very useful for a visual guide of how hard you are working.
3. The PC software is great - it does pretty much everything you want to do for analysis - it is missing the planning side but there are other tools for that I guess.
4. There are loads of components that fit with this watch: FootPod (works a treat and I use this in the main), GPS (actually pretty good - much quicker positioning than the Polar equivalent), A comfy chest strap for the HR functions and also a harder one with its own internal memory for use when swimming (this is great if you are Tri training as you get your proper HR in the pool and can merge it with any lap data and time data from the watch afterwards in the software), Bike Pod - speed etc and I even think there is a cadence one...
I'm quite impressed with this watch and it was especially useful in my last 5km running race where I wanted to monitor my pace to ensure I finished under a certain time. Great flexibility and it doesnt look too bad either.
Recommended.
References:
You Tube Video of this watch - well worth a look:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtXixXgcVpM
Suunto Home Page for this watch:
http://www.suunto.com/suunto/Worlds/main/world_article_normal_no_ATL.jsp?CONTENT%3C%3Ecnt_id=10134198674002869
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