Outdoor athletes looking to track their performance with more accuracy now have a new tool to help them do just that. The latest edition of Suunto’s Spartan GPS watch has been updated to include both a built-in heart rate monitor and a barometric sensor, allowing it to capture more workout data for runners, cyclists, and other fitness fanatics, and with more precision than ever before.
The Spartan has been Suunto’s flagship fitness watch for use during outdoor training sessions and hiking excursions since it was first introduced last fall. The timepiece packs quite a few features, including onboard GPS for tracking and navigation, preset workout profiles for more than 80 different activities, and a 30-day log of the user’s training regimen. It even pairs with a smartphone to provide notifications and updates, and has other unique features like the ability to alert the wearer when bad weather is moving in.
This past spring the company added the Spartan Sport Wrist HR to its lineup, bringing built-in heart rate monitoring to a Suunto product for the first time. This edition the Spartan serves as a fitness tracker that watches the wearer’s movement 24/7, while doing away with the need for bulky and uncomfortable chest strap heart rate monitors.
Now comes the Spartan Sport Wrist HR Baro (whew! That’s a mouthful) model, which adds a barometric sensor to better track changes in altitude throughout a workout. For trail runners, cyclists, mountaineers, and other outdoor athletes, this is an essential part of training, as vertical gain and loss plays a big roll in getting fit for those activities.
Suunto says that the latest version of the Spartan still manages to get 20 hours of battery life with GPS activated for tracking workouts, and more than 40 hours of use while in low-power mode. The watch shares the same feature set as its siblings, offering all of the functionality of previous models with the added benefit of more accurate altitude tracking. It also comes with updated tracking features that predict the wearer’s estimated time of arrival at a destination, as well an enhanced mode for skiers that displays speed, number of runs, and the length of those runs on the Spartan’s screen.
The new Spartan Sport Wrist HR Baro will go on sale on October 17 for $549. Visit the company’s website for more details.
