Suunto X6 - a watch with altimeter, barometer, compass and clinometer
Posted on December 16, 2005 in Climbing, Kilimanjaro, Equipment, Sport, Watch
The Outdoors store in Maidstone was recently having a closing down sale since they are re-opening as Blacks. I managed to pick up a new Suunto X6 watch for GBP160.00 when the RRP (recommended retail price) is GBP300.00, a deal I couldn’t pass up. I’d been toying with the idea of buying a watch with a temperature monitor and altimeter to make use of on Kilimanjaro so this was my opportunity.
According to the Suunto web site:
Suunto X6 is a perfect tool for any cross sport such as mountaineering, hiking or cross-country skiing. Measuring and analyzing the surrounding environment minimizes the risks involved in traveling in unknown terrain. Information on your performance, on the other hand, provides you with knowledge necessary to improve your training.
In addition to having information available to you at all times, your Suunto X6 records and stores data for later analysis. You can view, compare, and analyze your performance with a specially designed PC software.
The technical features of the wristop computer, combined with the PC software developed for more graphical representation of your performance, and the SuuntoSports Internet Community, where you can share information with other like-minded cross sports enthusiasts from around the world, make Suunto X6 the device of choice for every true adventurer and outdoor sport enthusiast.
Product Features
- Altimeter: Altitude, vertical speed, altitude alarm, asc/dsc alarm, logbook with waypoint recording, altitude difference, online cumulative ascent, alti/baro lock
- Barometer: Sea level pressure, absolute pressure, weather trend graph, temperature, 48-hour memory, weather alarm, alti/baro lock
- Compass: Bearing, graphic compass rose, bearing tracking, declination setting
- Clinometer: Slope angle in degrees or %
- Watch: Calendar, 3 alarms with date option, dual time
- Chronometer: Simultaneous display of total time and current lap time, altitude profile memory, memory capacity 32kB (33h with 10s and 200h with 60s interval, shared with split/lap times memory)
- Menu-based user interface familiar from mobile phones
- User-replaceable battery
- Water resistant to 100 m (330 ft)
- PC interface software + cable
- Full access to SuuntoSports.com
The Suunto Activity Manager Software that you install on your PC provides a variety of interesting graphs and statistics. The screen shot shown below shows altitude variations for a Kilimanjaro training walk we did at Toy’s Hill as recorded by the watches clinometer.
If you want to go one step further in terms of analysis the Suunto X6 HR, which comes with a heart rate monitor, will measure your heart rate and can produce a comparison against the variations in altitude/height, a good way to see how the hills get your heart rate going! The Suunto X9 which one of my climbing buddies bought is also really cool, it comes with a GPS but no heart rate monitor. I already have another watch to monitor my heart rate so I guess I could end up wearing two watches on Kilimanjaro!!

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