Australian Triathlete – July-August 2017

50 | AustrAliAn triAthlete

Exploring the latest

in Multisport Watch

Technology

text by MaRgaRet MIelczaReK

photogrAphy by Suunto and gaRMIn

designed to pop on and off easily and

quickly, meaning you can match your

watch to your outfit without having to buy

a whole new watch. The bands easily clip

on and off – there is a lever, with a

single-press button, below the band,

against your wrist. The only thing here is,

after wear and tear, will this potentially

mean issues with the watch coming off in

the water? The lever and button are below

the band, and against your wrist, so this

hopefully shouldn’t happen – it’s

something to look out for.

As mentioned above, both watches

came with a charging cable – really, you’d

expect this to be the case! The cables for

both the Suunto and Garmin come with a

USB port – so, just plug it into your

computer and let the charging begin. Both

cables clip securely into the back of the

watch - this does mean that you can’t

have the watch on your wrist when

charging. No real issue but may be a pain if

you’re competing in a multi-day event and

you want to quickly charge your watch

using a battery pack, while you’re on the

go – you’ll have to take the watch off to

charge it.

Next up, the watch face.

The two main differences between the

watch face of the Suunto and the Garmin

are the size and functionality. Both have

colour screens, and you can customise

both screens as desired. But the Suunto is

bigger than the Garmin. This isn’t a

massive issue – the Suunto still felt fine to

wear during training, and I really didn’t

notice the size too much. However,

aesthetically, particularly for a small

female wrist, the Garmin looks better and

more in proportion. The Suunto, when

compared to the Garmin, almost looks like

I’

m a bit of a tech geek at heart

and love playing with new toys

and gadgets, so I felt like a kid in

a candy store at work recently

when I was asked to review the latest

offerings in multisport watch technology

• the Suunto Spartan Sport Wrist HR
  and the Garmin Fenix 5S. When the
  courier delivered the packages, it was like
  Christmas morning, and after opening the
  boxes, I was itching to have a play.
  Both watches had a similar style, boxed
  packaging, with each box containing the
  watch, the charging cable and the user
  manual. The Garmin came with a black
  silicone band and a silver bezel, while the
  Suunto came with a bright blue band and
  a black bezel. Even though the Garmin,
  with the black band, looks very elegant, it
  was love at first sight when I saw the

Suunto – I think I may have even let out an

excited, “wow” at the colour of the watch

and band. I love anything bright, so the

bright blue definitely caught my eye. Both

watches do come in a range of colours

though, so I may have had the same

reaction if the Garmin I got came with a

coloured band.

The Suunto comes in thicker bright

blue, black and light pink bands, which

look like they would be quite durable.

Durability is exactly what you want in a

multisport watch – there’s nothing worse

than losing your watch in an open water

swim, for example, because the band has

broken and the watch has come off. The

Garmin band comes in a range of colours

and styles as well – from black, blue and

yellow to white and red. But the cool extra

feature in the Garmin is that the bands are

Product Tested:

Suunto Spartan

Sport Wrist hr and

Garmin fenix 5S

tech talk

R Oad test