SUUNTO Elementum Terra

I think the other reviews here are good, balanced and very comprehensive. However, one additional point to bear in mind is the cost of ongoing maintenance for this watch. The battery lasts about a year (which I think is poor), but because of all of the clever functionality the watch provides (e.g. altitude, compass and barometric) you have little option other than to send the watch back to Suunto in Finland (which they have a decent process for) to have the battery and seals replaced and all of the necessary functionality reset. This service costs around 60 euros and take a week to 10 days. I've challenged Suunto Customer Services about this only to be told 'well, you have a premium watch'. A bit arrogant.

I make no bones about it, I'm a big fan of Suunto watches, I will however, try to give a balanced opinion of this watch, which is a little different from many of Suunto's other models at present. I say that because as anyone familiar with their lineup will know, they specialise in watches aimed at outdoor activity and sporting enthusiasts. Like many Scandinavian products (it's Finnish) they have a reputation for being well built, stylish, but also more expensive than many comparable alternatives. The Elementum Terra range are no exception in this respect, but they can be considered as Suunto's equivalent of an "daily wear" as opposed to a specialist piece of outdoor equipment. The emphasis here could be said to be on form and not function.This is truly a stunning looking watch, and as you would expect from Suunto it's a "well put together" item, The pushers are solid and robust, the flawless sapphire crystal has a non reflective coating, the stainless steel case has a beautiful matte sheen, and all the straps available (whether steel bracelet, leather or rubber) are all substantial and well finished. Functionality is not a strong point by comparison to other current Suunto watches (you get a stopwatch, digital compass and alti/baro function on top of your basic timepiece - most of which are visible on the basic "time view") - but in fairness this watch has been out for a few years now and has been overtaken by many others in respect. I suspect that Suunto find there is still demand for it and keep it "on the books" because looks so darn good!I must address one common criticism, which is that the negative display is difficult to read. It IS hard to read in low lighting conditions, and realistically one needs to use the blue back light (which is very bright) in anything less than optimal lighting indoors, but then this IS supposed to be a watch for the great outdoors. If this is an issue for you then the model is also available in a traditional black on white display and I understand that this is much more readable (and some prefer that style), but you can't swap between the two as you can on some modern Suuntos - what you buy is what you get!So there it is! If you want "bang for your buck" you will certainly get more for your money elsewhere, this is NOT a cheap timepiece! If you want a stunning looking watch that's very well put together, will undoubtedly be noticed and will still double up as a tool for those with a love of the great outdoors, give it some consideration.

Work of art

This watch is just beautiful and oozes quality. I went for the version with the brown leather strap which is really thick high quality leather with perfect stitching. The holes punched in it go right to the end of the strap giving a big range of sizes. This is particularly good for me, as I have big wrists and most watches don't fit me without some adjustment. This was a concern, as the leather strap on its own retails at £60, and I didn't want to replace it.The watch is gun metal coloured with a satin sheen. It is quite chunky, but not excessively so, and it still fits under a buttoned shirt cuff. It has a very high tech appearance, but is plenty smart enough to wear on any occasion. In time mode the display provides a lot of information, including time, date, altitude, barometric pressure (via a small indicator dot which moves around the outside of the face) and a barometric trend indicator. This latter function (top of the face) consists of a two part arrow with a dot in the middle. The two halves of the arrow can each angle up or down to give a quick view of whether the pressure is rising or falling. The right hand part of the arrow covers the last 3 hours, and the left hand part covers the 3 hours before that. If both parts are angled down it indicates a steady drop in pressure which may give advanced warning of bad weather.The watch has an electronic compass, which has the nice feature of not needing to be held horizontally (like other manufacturers), and instead can be held at up to 45 degrees from level and still function.The watch can hold a number of logs to record altitude changes against time - I believe that this is particularly aimed at people who go climbing or hill walking. When the memory becomes full, the oldest log is replaced by the newest one.It also has all the standard functions you would expect for a digital watch such as a chronograph, alarms and back light (a particularly vivid and attractive green light.OK, now for the negatives which for me are not enough to lose a star off the rating. The biggest criticism (I have read this also from other review sites) relates to the clarity of the display. I went for the negative display (a positive version is available and may be clearer) with white numerals against a black face. I think that this looks particularly smart, though in poor light this is not especially clear. For me this is no problem - I just use the back light. In bright light, the display is crystal clear. More problematic for me are the instructions. The watch was delivered in a beautiful box, which you open to find another box (containing the watch) and a big chunk instruction book that is about 1cm thick. In reality this is nothing more than a quick set up guide, though it fails in that function too. It just about manages to explain how to set the time and date, but the instructions for calibrating the compass are laughable. Top tip - to calibrate the watch you cannot do this hand held. Place the watch flat on a table, otherwise hand held movement are picked up and the watch will not stabilise. When the watch gives the instruction to turn, this means you must rotate the watch through 360 degrees, keeping it flat on the table. When the watch tells you to tilt, you need to pick it up and tilt it 90 degrees to the upright position. The watch will tell you when you have completed the process successfully. Anyway, I went on line and found a Suunto instructions for use, which has a couple more pages than the quick set up guide. This helps a bit, but still provides no where near everything you need to know. For example, while testing out the watch, I started a log for an ascent. Well as it was just a test, and I'm not planning any mountaineering at the moment, I would like to stop that log and delete it. Sadly the instructions only tell you how to start a log, not stop one, and definitely not how to delete one. I will therefore have to spend some more time on the net and find some decent instructions.