Suunto X6 watch. Outdoors-Magazine.com http://outdoors-magazine.com

Suunto X6 watch.

- Very old articles -
Publication: Friday 8 November 2002 Update: 17 October 2002

Description :

A test of the Suunto x6 wrist computer.
Copyright (c) Outdoors-Magazine.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike License
Copyright Outdoors-Magazine.com

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This information is SERIOUSLY outdated.
Suunto is a Finnish brand specialized in sports instruments, from diving computers, to compass and altimeters.
The X6 is a: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Compass Barometer Altimeter Thermometer Clinometer Chronometer Two time-zones watch.
I paid mine 280 Euros [1], classic street price is around 340 Euros.

The Suunto X6

I have owned the Vector from the same maker and can attest of it's resistance, it is the only watch I have kept for four years, a resistance that the two Casio triple sensor I have owned never reached [2]. The vector had some defaults, it was big and thick, it had a plastic glass, and was water-resistant to only 30 meters.

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Compared to old Casio models and to the vector from left to right, top to bottom The first Casio with a barometer / altimeter / depth meter ever made. a Double sensor model (alit, thermo) another double sensor model a triples sensor model (alit, baron, compass, thermo) a Suunto Vector a Suunto X6
Thickness compared to the Suunto Vector (left)

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First contact
The X6 has a mineral glass, is water-proof to 100 meters, and is of a reasonable size.
Out of the box, you need to set it up, this is a pleasure, I could do it without the documentation through the menus of the watch. This interface is highly intuitive, like on Nokia mobile phones, a real pleasure on a complex watch.

Menus of the X6

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More details

The watch includes a chronometer, 3 time alarms, and one repeat count-down timer. There is a way to have silent or noisy button pressing, a way to lock all buttons, an electro-luminescent background, which I sometimes use to see in total darkness, and which can be setup to light each time a button is pressed for night use, or on a special button.
There is the choice of units (Hpa, mb, m, ft, 24 or 12 hours, american or european date format [3].

The compass

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One thing I found painful with digital compass is generally the calibration process. A digital compass need to be calibrated often, and if the calibration procedure is too difficult, this is a problem. The calibration procedure is the easiest and most accessible I have ever done. The precision of the compass is 1 degree, and the clinometer is used to tell if you are measuring while the watch is kept flat [4].
But There is no indicator to tell how flat you hold the watch, as the system used is to highlight the bearing (making it bold when the clinometer tells the watch it is in an acceptably flat position. So, while the precision of the compass is one degree when the watch is held flat, the real precision may be much less than that, as the clinometer accepts some 10 degrees variation. The precision is quite good when looking for the north or south, as in that case the watch does not need to be flat, but when measuring to west or east, the difference of measures on the compass is around 15 degrees in bearing. The bubble level of the Vector allowed for a much better precision. I do not understand, the calibration software emulated a bubble level, using the clinometer, so why did't Suunto included it to the measurement mode, is a mystery. I did a few tests in real, and with a precision compass trying to acquire targets and measure their bearings, I would say that the precision is finally good, generally in a 0 to 3 degrees range from the compass. I have some more tests to perform on this, and will update this article.

The altimeter

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The altimeter has a one meter precision. all concurrents so far only deal in 5 meters increments. Altitude and climbing rate alarms are available. A "Log" can be taken of the altimetric data, giving marked points, highest, and lowest points, total ascent, total descent, etc.

The barometer

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The barometer can provide a graphic of the last hours variations, and a "tempest alarm" that rings when pressure drops more than 4 Hpa in the last 3 hours. A log of the last 48 hours is constantly taken.
The thermometer as always gives the temperature of the watch, which is not the air temperature or your temperature, but in-between, and needs a quarter of an hour to stabilize to air temperature, when removed from your wrest.
The priority is given to the barometer or to the altimeter, though setup. So, in altimeter mode, any difference of pressure is interpreted as altitude, and while in barometer mode, as weather data. All other maker models, and the Vector model, did both at the same time, and ultimately, if never recalibrated the data get crazy, so I do not understand the point. It must be the alarm of the weather mode that forced to have to choose one or the other mode. Anyway, this is stupid, as you have to remember to set the right mode.
The chronometer while in action also records a log of all data every 10 or 60 seconds.
The clinometer gives the declivity of slopes up to 60 degrees. May be a nice feature for free-ride snow surfers like me [5]. But then while the clinometer can record inclination in all directions (as proves the compass calibration mode), it is only sensible to one direction while in display mode. The direction is not the parallel to the forearm (which seems to me the best way to approximate a slope) but the inclination of the wrist rotation axe, rendering the tool nearly useless, unless you use the sight on the watch's crown.

The PC interface

The PC software

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All the data logs can be transferred to the PC and most parameters of the watch can be controlled from the pc software. Honestly, this feature could be absent for me, I consider it as a curiosity, rather than something useful. Now if someone tells me that it enables to flash updated versions of the watch's software as they become available, then it would be another story, but it is so far only a possibility.

The back of the watch

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The battery can be changed by the user [6].

Conclusion

This is a great outdoors watch. Much more compact than it's precursors. It corrects their previous defaults, but gets some others in exchange. It seems well built, and has a very easy access to all functions. Definitively designed for the outdoors people.

Update - July 2003

It is now 9 month I have had this watch, and I have a few more comments: My X6 had the unfamous "reset" problem, the time would come back to factory setting, once or twice every week. The problem appeared after 4 months. On the last occurence, the watch actually reset the whole memory (memory defrag message) and never displayed anything since. The watch is back to service, under the 3 years

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warranty. Please check in the comments for this article for more information on this. The altimeter, though very precise, may be too sensible. On long periods (weeks) in altimeter mode, it never really came to a similar altitude in places I am used to go. It should happen from time to time, when the sea presures are the same, at least it is the experience I had from previous watches. So I suspect there is a drift in altimeter measurement, originating from another source than normal barometric pressure. The resin band discolorated somehow, and will ultimately break soon. Anyway, the best would be to be able to adapt a vecro band, as the plastic against skin feeling is not great in summer. The compass real accuracy is not 1 degree, but rather 10 degrees. 1 degree would be when the watch is flat, but as the indicator of flatness tolerates some 10 degree angle, this reflect on the precision of the compass. Having to swich to barometric measure mode or altimetric measure mode is a pain, because though you have direct access to each screen, You have to do setup manipulations to get the data.

Update conclusion

As much as I loved the Vector, which worked consistently without problems for a few years, I must admit that the X6, though technologically impressive, is not resistant or even reliable enough for my use. What I ask first from a watch is to give the time on a consistant manner, and if it fails, well, I am right to consider it is Not a good watch. The question is still open, expensive fragile gadget, or good watch? At the moment, I tend to think the first. I would also tend to think now that the observer is probably a better model to own, as it is closer to a Vector. While waiting for the X6 to be repared, I got a Casio PRG50 Titane Pro Trek Watch,.

Post-scriptum :I will modify this article over time with my findings.
[1] 1 Euro =1US dollar [2] I am not easy with my watches, as my parents were selling watches, I never cared to care for my watches. [3] which is the first time I really get a DD MM. it was time, I really hate the MM DD format [4] a condition sine qua non [5] it does not however replace knowledge of the snow and normal precautions. [6] Following the maker instructions, and with great care

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Casio PRG50 Titane Pro Trek Watch, Outdoors-Magazine.com http://outdoors-magazine.com
Casio PRG50 Titane Pro Trek Watch,
- Gear reviews and tests -
Publication: Monday 21 July 2003

Description :

An excellent outdoors watch review.
Copyright (c) Outdoors-Magazine.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike License
Copyright Outdoors-Magazine.com

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My Suunto X6 being in the mail for a few months [1], I decided for a replacement.
I choosed the Casio PRG50 Titanium.

Here it it on my wrist

This Casio model was pretty attractive, 240 Euros on the net, to have it delivered the next day, transport included.
The watch band is titanium, the glass is a lens-effect mineral glass, the top casing of the watch is metal, as well as the bottom plate. The light button and sensor protection are painted plastic (metal paint over grey plastic).
The "double lock" metal band lock

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This watch runs on a rechargeable battery, it is recharged by solar panels placed in circle just arround the LCD display. Amazingly, it is a very small surface. I tried a charge, and it effectively takes 1 hour to go from half charge to full charge in summer, the watch has since not shown to be low on battery.
The watch got 6 buttons: set-up, mode, light, alti, baro, compass.
A better view, the dark band between the display and the metal case, is the solar panel

Features

This is a rather classic casio triple sensor module for the rest, and the functions/features are as follows: Time and Date. A good thing is that the date is displayed in YY MM-DD format, wichh avoid me to be trapped by the MM-DD YY english convention [2] used in older similar Casio modules. I love being able to read the date without incertitude! One daily alarm. Compass. Compass data is shown on the two level LCD display. One level shows the bearing in numeric, the highest semi-transparent level is used to display a compass rose. Barometer, does not show sea-level pressure but actual pressure. A graph is filled with the last 24 hours data. Altimeter, also filling a graph as it takes measures.

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Solar powered, with a recheargeable battery. Power saving: when the watch is not in use, and in darkness, the watch turns to sleep-mode, blanking the display. Using the light, or increasing the amount of light received by the solar panels wakes it up. Can be turned down. Auto light: when the light received by the solar panels is low, turning the wrist from flat to 45 degrees towards you turns the electro-luminescent panel on for 2 seconds. Very clever, and very useful. Can be turned down. Waterproof 100 meters, or 10 bars. There is some chronometric function, but the precision is to the second.

Precisions

Compass mode and the double layered LCD
Compass: accuracy 10 degrees. The actual precision seems to be better than that, and I got some 2-3 degrees accuracy most of the time. There are two calibrating procedures: one on fixed bearing, where you need a compass to do it, and one in free bearing mode, where you basically need to take one measure in any direction, then turn the watch, and calibrate the opposite direction. Easy enough to be done everywhere. The precision is still not that of a Suunto Vector. It seems to be reasonably sensible to inclinations. More work seems needed into checking this function.

Altimeter mode

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Altimeter: 5 meters precision, magnitude -10000 to 10000. The X6 had a one meter "clumsy" precision, I prefer the 5 meter increments. The experiments I have done so far were effectively 5 meters close to the real altitude, even when climbing 500 meters, or a kilometer, so I rate this as an excellent precision. There is a data recording altimeter mode, for 41 records spaced of 15 or 5 minutes. The altimetric graph is a good visual aid. Recorded values are max, min, relative altitude, total ascent, etc. There is an altitude alarm, and it can be calibrated.
Barometer and thermometer mode
Barometer: Displays the actual barometric pressure in 1 hpa (or mb) increments, and not the corrected sea pressure. There is actually no way to get the sea level pressure without external computation. This is not a problem to me as what I am interested in is the graph, which shows the evolution, and can be interpreted easily in terms of weather. It can be calibrated. Thermometer, displays the watch temperature, but can be calibrated.

The measurement units, originally metric, can be changed: hours in the anglo-saxon 12 hours am/pm system, temperatures in degrees F, or heights in ft, pressures in inHg.

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The titanium band is a pleasure to wear, even in hot weather. It seems a much better asset than a plastic band.
The watch is big, rather like a Suunto Vector. A bit more heavy.
The functions are easilly accessed, though some advanced processing is difficult to remember.
The automatic light is a pleasure to have in dark conditions, as it lights on a simple move of the wrist. The dedicated light button is quite useful too.
The altimeter seems pretty accurate, and the compass totally funtional.
The watch goes on sleep mode and out of it, totally unnoticed, as it wakes up at the least sollicitation, or in day/reading light.

Time display

The solar charging of the battery is something I look forward to talk after some more time with the watch, as I know from experience that these watches get pretty less water resistant when opened to change the battery. This is not needed here, so I expect a good life expectancy (some 10 years from the manufacturer's words). Nothing worst than having an expensive watch showing battery low signs when you know you will not be able to change it for sometime, because you are in the field [3].
This is very different from a Suunto Vector, or even X6, some functions, I will regret, like multiple alarms,

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count-downs, or even precise chronograph, but on the other side I can easily do without [4].

Conclusion

The Casio PRG50T seems to be a good watch. I like the zero maintainance idea, we shall see how long it really lasts.
There are some very good ideas, which turns out to be very convenient, to the expense of some more classical functions.
Overall, It is much better than previous similar Casios I have owned 5 or 6 years ago [5], and coming very close to the Suuntos.

Update 18-Aug-2003

I have now been wearing this watch for a month, and the more I use it, the more I like it. It is sturdy enough, and the features of the auto-light is brilliant. Water resistance seems up to the task, and the sensors have kept precision, even after diving to low depths almost every day since I got it. The altimetric (& barometric) accuracy is actually excellent, much better than what I was getting with the (normally more precise) Suunto X6.

One little reproach about the compass is the lack of inclinometer to make sure the watch is flat when taking the measure. A good way to get a precise measure is to align the north of the watch with the north shown (then the compass is less sensible to wrist rotation), find flatness with the angle of the arm, and then find the bearing. If water is at hand, dropping water on the glass and trying to make the best repartition can help finding flatness. Also a sight could have been a good move. Another little reproach is that the glass catches reflects a lot, and often can only be read when perpendicular to the eyes. Yo can see this on my pictures already.
The solar charging seems to work well, and the battery indicator has never left the fully charged state.

Update 6-Sept-2005

Watch still running fine, battery fine. I have been wearing it every day since last update, one of the first watch that suvives such a long time to my treatment. All is good.
Post-scriptum :I will update this review as time passes.
[1] See Suunto X6 watch. [2] Very confusing compared to the DD MM YY that I generally use. [3] Yes it happened to me. [4] I did not really use them in fact when I had them. [5] Suunto X6 watch. to see these.

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